What Water Wants; Audio Tour

Join us for What Water Wants, a 30-minute audio experience by artist Rosten Woo, and a birdwatching tour on the banks of the Los Angeles River hosted by LA Birding Club.

Saturday, October 26, 2024
5:00 – 6:30 PM
Lewis MacAdams Riverfront Park 

Two groups will alternate between the birdwatching tour and the What Water Wants experience. The event will be first come, first served with limited availability so please arrive promptly at 5:00 PM to claim your spot. Alongside the audio tour, LA Birding Club will lead participants in a half-hour educational walk along the Glendale Narrows section of the river to get to know the migratory and year-round birds that rely on this essential waterway. Binoculars will be provided, but feel free to bring your own!

Attendees will be provided with binaural, over-the-ear headsets to experience What Water Wants. The tour is available in both English and Spanish. Guests will be encouraged to enter the inclined river channel with assistance from Clockshop staff, but it is not required to enjoy the audio tour. Participants can listen to the tour from the level pedestrian path.

RSVP is required as we have a limited number of binoculars and headsets. A waitlist will become available once all free tickets and donation-based tickets have been claimed.

During twin crises of storm floods and droughts, how can Angelenos reimagine our relationship with water? Clockshop and Los Angeles-based artist Rosten Woo consider this inWhat Water Wants, a temporary art commission on the Los Angeles River. Woo activates a section of the Glendale Narrows channel in Elysian Valley to situate visitors within the hydrological networks of the greater Los Angeles Basin, one of the city’s most misunderstood and complex infrastructural systems. In a 30-minute experience, the audio tour moves between a guided meditation and speculative disaster horror, sonically transporting listeners across geographic time and space to experience water’s flows, speeds, and movements across the basin.

Sound design and score by Celia Hollander.

ARRIVAL & PARKING
The entrance is at 2944 Gleneden Street. The park is also accessible via L.A. River Bikeway and is located near the 603 and 92 bus routes.

The park has a small parking lot that is first-come, first-served. Please consider reserving these spots for families with young children and those with limited mobility. If you are able-bodied and are not accompanying young children, consider an alternative method of transportation. The park is located in a dense residential area, and street parking needs to be reserved for residents.  We highly recommend using public transportation, rideshare, biking, or carpooling.

SUPPORT
Lead support is provided by the Getty Foundation with additional support from ARLA, The Nature Conservancy, National Endowment for the Arts (Our Town), Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), and Clockshop’s generous community of supporters. Clockshop also thanks MRCA (Mountain Recreation & Conservation Authority) for the generous use of Lewis MacAdams Park for the installation.

What Water Wants is among more than 70 exhibitions and programs presented as part of PST ART. Returning in September 2024 with its latest edition, PST ART: Art & Science Collide, this landmark regional event explores the intersections of art and science, both past and present. PST ART is presented by Getty. For more information about PST ART: Art & Science Collide, please visit pst.art.