FLOW FORMS

The nature of water

Water has been called the life-blood of the earth. As an essential part of nature, it sustains life and provides countless millions of organisms with nourishment all the time. This clearly implies that water has to undergo continuously regenerative processes in order to maintain its function. These processes have to do with movement as this occurs in the whole cyclic pattern of nature.

Fresh water falls as rain and finds its way into the earth and out to the salt sea, evaporating from the surface wherever it goes. It takes possession of any cavity or hollow it is offered but it’s surface always tends towards the spherical, be it in each single droplet or every lake or ocean of the world as a whole. Through this tendency towards the sphere and in constant struggle with gravity, circling, whirling movements form vortices in ever changing direction. Such flow forms generate the meandering paths we can always recognize in the river.

The rhythmical meander of the river or the vortical swirls of currents are expressions of water’s formative nature. Such movements are imprinted on the streambed, whilst the spiraling forms of many aquatic organisms such as seashells reflect their watery origin.

The river’s formative movements are an inseparable part of its ability to maintain a healthy interrelationship with the surrounding life and landscape. In our own organism the pulsing of our blood serves a similar function.

Water is not only used to support life. During the last century this totally yielding element has met the needs of the industry, transport, energy production and effluent treatment beyond anything previously known. This has very heavily burdened its capacity for regenerating itself. Much is being undertaken with the aid of water to reduce and counter pollution but more needs doing to facilitate water’s re-entry into it’s own natural cycle. Although there is growing recognition that we manipulate nature at our own peril the full awareness of water as an active element in nature, its character, behaviour and needs has yet to be awakened.

We become most aware of water when our expectations are not fulfilled; when for instance, too much rain causes flooding or our domestic system falters when a tap does not function and the toilet fails to flush. Through the development of industry and commerce, people in their millions are evermore denied access to an adequate and appreciative perception of the world of nature around them and this has become an insidious factor in damaging our cultural life as a whole.

 The Flow form method and its origin

In living nature we have to do with relationships in space and time which in turn reveal to us secrets about the generation of forms. It comes increasingly apparent that the forms we see, issue an archetypal world hidden to our senses. Each part of an organism has an inner metamorphic relationship to its total form and is very specifically structured. In their material manifestation these inner forming processes are everywhere subject to the activity of water yet when outside in nature water shows little evidence of ordered movement.

In the early seventies the English sculptor John Wilkes asked himself the question of what might be the effect then of providing water with a series of vessels through which it can flow, so arranged as to make manifest its capacity for metamorphosis. Such vessels or organs would give physical expression to the delicate potential for ordered movement, which appears to be innate in the nature of water.

In creating the Flowform Wilkes incorporated empirically established proportions, relating flow and gradient to the resulting systalic form. The induced oscillation was converted to a figure-of-eight (Lemniscate) flow pattern by virtue of the vessel’s shape.

Flowform vessels can be used singly, parallel or in series, producing a stream in the form of a rhythmically pulsating vortical meander.

The intimate relationship provided between fluid movements and sculpted surfaces can be expressed either more in terms of an aesthetic experience or as a practical function. Thus artistic and scientific considerations can interrelate permitting manifold application.

Applications

Flowforms have been used around the world in a wide variety of applications.

Flowforms can help to improve the microclimate by regulating temperature, giving off moisture, dampening sound and playfully reflecting light. As did village fountains of old they act as a social meeting place and provide a source of refreshment and recreation. They play an educational role by revealing water’s formative movements and challenge us to look afresh at nature. In the landscape they complement nature’s own striving.

Flowforms play an important part in sewage treatment. They are incorporated in many constructed wetlands around the world and provide not only efficient oxygenation but also stimulate biological activity.

In aquaculture systems Flowforms have the same beneficial effect, where quite obviously fish will prefer oxygenation through Flowforms rather than through other mechanical aerators.

In many plant nurseries Flowform-conditioned water has been proven positive in enhancing plant growth, vigor and health.

Biodynamic Preparations are stirred through Flowforms, mainly on the big farms of Australia and New Zealand.

 In the development of new forms and applications, a synthesis between artistic beauty and ecological function is sought.

Selected Bibliography:

1. Mark Moodie: Flowforms, Oaklands Park, Newnham, Gloucestershire, GL14 1EF

2. Wirksamkeit der Flowforms: Dr. Chr. Liess & Chr. Schoenberger,

3. Atelier Dreiseitl, Nussdorferstr. 9 D-88662 Ueberlingen

4. Theodor Schwenk: Sensitive Chaos, Rudolf Steiner Press, 1976

5. Theodor Schwenk & Wolfram Schwenk: Water – Element of Life, ISBN 0-88010-277-2

6. Victor Schauberger: The Water Wizard, ISBN 1-85860-049-9

7. Callum Coats: Living Energies, ISBN 0-46551-97-9

8. Olof Alexandersson: Living Water – Victor Schauberger & the secrets of natural energy, Gateway Books, Bath, 1982

Selected Flow form and water web sites:

www. iriswater.co.uk

www.flow-forms.com 

www.flowformspacific.com

www.flowformsamerica.com

Here you will find the available Flow form models here in South Africa

Send mail to info@lindros.co.za with questions or comments about this web site.
Copyright © 2002 - 2008 LINDROS Whole Earth Consultants
Last modified: February 15, 2008