Clean Water
Ocean Purification & Illustration
From the Artist:“I wanted to illustrate how this project could be implemented to help remove surface oil buildup from our oceans, because as consumers of what comes from the ocean, humans suffer with the wildlife as our water becomes polluted. I started with sketches of animals and potential cleaning devices using the nozzle, and ended with a piece showing the relief we would all experience as a result of clean water, from the animals’ point of view.”
—Alexa Dunham
The Science
Japanese scientists Kazushige Ueda, Hiraku Doi and Koichi Shiga were interested in hunting of archerfish, by shooting the water, and tried to reproduce the situation by a simple experimental setup. When they filled a tank with water and projected a water-jet under the water-surface using a nozzle, they found a new phenomenon—that the water in the tank gradually decreased. In order to clarify the reason of the water-level decrease, they studied the relation between the velocity of the water-jet and the amount of the decreased water.
Their experiment revealed that the water-jet involved the surrounding water near the water-surface and transported it into the air. They created a forumla that could be used to help collect crude oil in the case of an oil spill by re-creating the phenomena they observed.
The Artist
Alexa Dunham is an artist based in Los Angeles, California. She has been painting for 6 years professionally and attended Otis College of Art and Design. She started doing design work for the band AFI and their side project when she was 16. Before graduating college, she did illustrations for independent artist Amanda Palmer and rapper Kreayshawn, and web design for Columbia Records artists including Susan Boyle, Adele, and John Legend.
