“Waal van Woorden” – a river made of words
A stream of words to flow from top to bottom on a computer screen.
A question
A few years ago, I came home from a walk in Kinderdijk with beautiful photos of the iconic windmills and waterways, along with a completely new question: How many words does the Dutch language have for ‘water’? My first list had eighteen words, but when I hit the internet, I quickly found more. A few hours later, the number had gone up to one hundred and sixty-eight – all words for still or moving water on or below the Earth’s surface.
My question wouldn’t let go of me. I thought it might be helpful to split it into ‘man-made’ and ‘nature-made’ categories to see which has more words. This could reveal something about the effort the Dutch have put into keeping our feet dry over the centuries. After dividing and counting, I came to the following tally: eighty-three words for ‘man-made,’ seventy-nine for ‘nature-made,’ and six in the residual category ‘can be both.’ At that point, ‘man-made’ won by a narrow margin. I also noticed that the space between the two columns had started to form a kind of river.
A river that just kept growing. It now consists of more than a thousand words. I never imagined it would reach such a scale when I started this exploration…
The river set in motion
Then I found that it was time to set the river in motion. I programmed a stream of words to flow from top to bottom on a computer screen – using Ventuz, a versatile graphics software package from Germany. Words on the left for “natural” water, on the right for “man-made”. Visually tight, with poetry in the form of sounds I found along the river: birds, murmuring water, a train crossing a bridge, church bells ringing in the distance.
The work became an ode to water management – a tribute to the Dutch’s long effort to coexist with, live on, and sometimes even defy the water. I named it after the river where I live, the Waal, and thus it became ‘A Waal of Words.’
A premiere at the Rivierenland Water Board
‘Waal of Words’ had its premiere at Water Board ‘Rivierenland’ in July 2021. Employees of Rivierenland are allowed to go back to the office for the first time since the Covid outbreak. The work is a gift to them, to celebrate this moment.
Learn more about the project
For a deeper dive into “Waal van Woorden” including video and detailed insights, visit the project page.
Interested in Ventuz?
For more information and to get in touch with us or our partner, please contact us at sales@ventuz.com or use our contact form.
Image by Museum Flehite
Image by Everdien Breken
