The Reflection Fountain

Description: The Reflection Fountain is an installation that was mounted over a water fountain in the Duderstadt basement. It leverages water fountains as a privileged space to communicate message to students and amongst students.
The Reflection Fountain tells a two-sided story. On the left side, the story starts at the very top, where bottled water is poured into the Reflection Pool (the fountain in front of the Lurie Building, our first campus inspiration), which we chose to represent with its beaming water jets and rectangular shape. However, the water that starts off so white and pure, gradually become brown, and black, as it travels through the Pool. It escapes the Pool through a leak, that resembles an oil spill and lead to the drain of the fountain. We chose to fill the Pool with water bottles as these are typically praised as being recyclable, but remain a huge source of waste.
In contrast, on the right side, we praise the use of hard-plastic water bottles that can be refilled at the fountains around campus and are part of the re-use movements, going a step further than recycling.
Further, the depicted Reflection Pool on the right is a symbol of grandeur at the university, it is a majestic and historical piece of architecture. However, although it recycles water, it wastes it at the same time, and for what? a display of grandeur?
On the right side, we represented our second source of inspiration: the new Diag, and more specifically, the new path from the Diag to the GGBrown building, which is a garden of pebbles which becomes a fountain when it rains. The rainwater streams down the filtration system, while creating a surprise for the students passing by. This fountain was created in communion with nature, with its first intention being environmental responsibility rather than display, making this space useful and beautiful. We praise this new installation by representing the steps, coming out and going back into the wall on our canvas, as well as with the colored garden that emerges from the hard-plastic water bottles.
The right hand story therefore starts at the top, with rain drops - beads and buttons - flowing down, being filtered by the new Diag installation, and arriving to the tap of the fountain! And the movement is double. From the tap, flowers emerge, and populate the garden with squirrels and butterflies, turning a downward motion into a gist of life, flowing up towards the sun.

This reflection started long before the Re-creativity event, when a foreign student arrived at UofM and noticed the beauty of the past, but also the new beauty of the present, and the mindfulness that goes into everything being created at UofM today. Furthermore, the water fountain was created to communicate this feeling to students, as they approach to take a sip of water, so they know their campus is grand and evolving. We chose the name reflection fountain, because the installation made the fountain into a reflection space. It is also a wink to the Reflection Pool.
Rights: Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY)
Relation: Class of '47 Reflecting Pool