PASSAGE OF WATER
PASSAGE OF WATER. YIYUN KANG, 2023
in collaboration with NASA and Google
Offline exhibition at COP28 Dubai, UAE
ARTIST NOTE
Passage of Water is Yiyun Kang's interactive artwork highlighting freshwater's diminishing availability and its relation with climate change. Kang spent a year from November 2022 to December 2023 as an artist in residence in the Google Arts & Culture Lab’s Heartbeat of the Earth programme, which tasks artists with addressing the climate crisis. Passage of Water is the outcome of Kang's residency programme.
Made in partnership with Google Arts & Culture and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Passage of Water uses a vast amount of datasets from two of NASA’s satellites; GRACE and SWOT. Notably, the SWOT satellite was launched in Dec 2022, and its first dataset was exclusively used for the first time in Passage of Water before being publicly released.
With cohesive storytelling alongside various techniques in data visualization, software engineering, interaction design and audio-visual production, Passage of Water presented an immersive and accessible platform for audiences to deeply engage with the global freshwater crisis, showcased across online and offline venues including the COP28 conference.
Passage of Water demonstrates a true convergence of Art and Science, illustrating how artwork incorporating scientific findings and engineering applications can come together to orchestrate an artistic experience that facilitates a public conversation on critical issues facing humanity. Thus, experiencing Passage of Water will provide the seamless integration of science and technology with art, offering a unique example of interdisciplinary collaboration.
Passage of Water web artwork was launched on the Google Arts & Culture platform on 30 November 2023. Kang then adapted the online experiment into an in-person exhibition at the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP28) Dubai, UAE from 30 November to 12 December 2023.
Senator Bill Nelson, NASA Administrator with Yiyun Kang
at COP28 Dubai Exhibition
Luxembourg Pavilion, Dubai Expo, Dubai, UAE
December 2023
PASSAGE OF WATER Press+
COP28: Dive Into Artist’s Beautiful, Sobering Visualization Of NASA Water Data, Leslie Katz, Forbes
Passage of Water by Dr Yiyun Kang: The artist explains her approach and why she created the experiment, Google Arts & Culture
Google’s ‘A Passage of Water’ Brings NASA’s Water Data to Life, Katherine Rohloff, NASA Science
과학인가 예술인가, COP28서 물 부족 일깨운 ‘7분 매직’ : 구글·NASA 협업 강이연 카이스트 교수, 문소영 기자, 중앙선데이
나사·구글이 선택한 한국 아티스트… 미디어 아트로 기후 위기 알린다, 허윤희 기자, 조선일보
변방에서 복판으로…'K-아트' 보는 세계의 눈 달라졌다, 정수아 기자, JTBC
기후변화로 인한 담수 위기 '패시지 오브 워터' 공개, 양훼영 기자, YTN
강이연 작가, 구글&나사와 협업한 'PASSAGE OF WATER' 전시회 개최, 김나영 기자, 포춘코리아