Drawing Water is an art piece which uses water usage and accumulation data to create a piece illustrating the disparities between where water is collected and where it is actually used. What I admire about the project is that it is almost a passive-aggressive political swipe to reveal hidden truths of the environmental sector, because it shows that the creator is willing to speak out against the government through his art and is not afraid of what repercussions that may cause. I believe the algorithm used charted out where water was collected versus where it was used, and plotted it on a specialized graph with different shades of blue meaning either different collection methods or different types of water. The piece shows that the author does not use very complicated algorithms to accomplish his work, but uses them in a creative way to make it easy to read and understand. The work's effective complexity is in its data collection, and the artist has balanced order and disorder by presenting that data in an aesthetic yet revealing way to expose the hidden truth. At first glance, the numerous water paths on the artwork seem over the top and convoluted, but after some time it becomes easier to see which areas of the country use more water compared to which areas produce the most water.
David Wicks, Drawing Water, 2011.
http://sansumbrella.com/works/2011/drawing-water/
