A spherical video projection explains water on a global scale.
Water: H20=Life
American Museum of Natural History
Nov. 3, 2007 - May 26, 2008
Hey, kids, it's the latest one-word blockbuster show at the Natural History museum! Remember Pearls (2001), Chocolate (2003) and Gold (2006)? This one's all about water. No, water's not boring, sweetie, it's a precious resource and the source of all life on this planet. Some places like Africa don't have access to clean water like we do. Poor women there have to carry heavy jugs on their heads for many miles just so their families don't die of horrible diseases. Yes, you should feel lucky you were born on the Upper West Side.
Arranged along a winding, river-like path, "Water" overflows with facts and figures, interactive and multimedia displays, and on the Sunday we visited, human beings -- including plenty of children.
The first quarter the exhibit is about water's natural role -- without getting into any biology or chemistry -- how it supports life and shapes the environment. Hey, look, it's a mudskipper!
The rest of the show engages the Big Issue -- how humans are screwing things up.
Culprits identified include massive dam projects (in China), industrial agriculture and fishing, climate change (those poor polar bears), bottled water and antibacterial soap. Not much on the toxicities of manufacturing or the military.
I was surely influenced by the crush of the crowd, but I came away even more convinced that we have a serious overpopulation problem. An oil-fueled kudzu, our species is slurping up the planet.
The exhibit's solutions -- no mentions of condoms -- include buried drip irrigation, creating artificial wet lands for water purification and "harvesting" the power of the ocean's currents. They also borrowed a couple inventions from the excellent Cooper-Hewitt show of last year "Design for the Other 90%" -- such as a rolling water container and a purification straw. Oh, and call your local legislative official!
The show concludes by profiling various local water heroes -- such as the Bronx River Alliance (hurray) the designer of The Solaire eco-lux apartments (boo) and a New Paltz high schooler who gave up bottled water (woah, major sacrifice).
I'll hand it to the museum. At least the show isn't underwritten by Aquafina or Dasani. But is the major sponsor, J.P. Morgan, much better? And all that bank money and I still had to shell out $26 for one 2:30 p.m. timed ticket.
While well intentioned, "Water" feels too much like Disney ride, tacky and watered-down for the kids. Worth it? No.
Notes:
The New York Times: "...a free-flowing flood of data [that] has an overly insistent and predictable message."
