water conducts electrical energy in sander hagelaar’s installation

sander hagelaar’s fluid current channels motions of water

Sander Hagelaar’s Fluid Current is a kinetic installation where water takes center stage. The interactive interplay between water droplets and electricity forms the essence of this dynamic work, challenging perceptions by showcasing water’s unexpected role as a conduit for energy. The artist and designer explores his practice of challenging conventional notions and reimagining materials, harnessing here elements and movements encompassed within the natural world. With Fluid Current, water, typically considered incompatible with electricity, becomes an integral part of the electric circuit as droplets fall along polished aluminum strips before activating a luminous blue bulb upon impact.

all images courtesy of Sander Hagelaar

igniting electrical energy with water droplets

Fluid Current explores new perceptions of electrical energy and water, expanding our understanding of this versatile material. With a conceptual and experimental practice ideology, artist Sander Hagelaar has long experimented with organically occurring motions and materials, placing them in the right environments or settings to facilitate joyful, innate occurrences. The unexpected results are embraced by Hagelaar, who in pursuit creates a framework in which the material or movement is free and unpredictable. ‘This endeavor also takes on a social dimension as it is supposed to elicit the same reaction in a child as it would in an adult,’ he shares.

Hagelaar’s particularly conceptual practice often channels different aspects of physics in ‘living’ objects and installations, as his interactive populations can either be kinetic or based on controlled chemical reactions. The shared experiences these projects facilitate also center on the notions of chance and unexpected reactions. The designer also often incorporates intangible forces like light, gravity, and air.

Sander Hagelaar presents Fluid Current