We recently ran a workshop in Hastings called “Stink or Swim?”, with the goal to respond creatively and collectively to the unacceptable sewage spills in our sea.
UK water companies treat the sea and the public with contempt. They rightly deserve protest from all corners of the country, and we want to do our bit.
And we love an opportunity to make mischief with creative people and technology..
Our partner and workshop co-creator OBX Hastings runs an excellent youth outreach programme that gets (often disadvantaged) people working with tech in fun and creative ways. Our town has a thriving and often activist-minded art scene, and the local Clean Water Action Group is regularly testing the sea water – so everything was nicely aligned.
We invited local artists and young people to build working models that indicated whether the sea was clean enough to swim in, using live data from LoRaWAN-connected microcontrollers.
The models were built from cardboard and powered by simple servos. If the data shows recent sewage discharge, the model indicates “Don’t swim.” If the water’s clear, then it gives the go ahead.
We wanted to create space for people to engage with environmental data in a way that’s hands-on, expressive, and fun. We wanted the makers to have maximum freedom with the design of their models, and also get it working on the day.
We didn’t want the tech to be a barrier so Stan and I spent time making sure it would “just work”, but that it was easily hackable for people with more confidence. We used the server from our Cleansee app to send sewage spill data via The Things Industries LoRaWAN server to Heltec V3 LoRa microcontrollers. We also made some example models to give people something to riff off of.
Captions are auto generatedPlayOne of the models in action
We ran the event to coincide with a brilliant automata festival taking place in the same building. This gave us a venue and a willing audience with which to share the (mostly) finished models!
Clean seas to swim and play in should be a basic right — not a lucky break. Water companies can’t keep polluting our seas while communities are left to deal with the consequences.
This was one small, creative way of saying: we see it, we care, and we’re not staying quiet.
Feedback from the event was super-positive, and I am delighted that we will be running it again in September as part of Coastal Currents 2025. A couple of the artists have asked to develop their models further – one asked us to include the water company share price in the data feed, so the mischief will continue…
Wouldn’t it be good to see these built at full scale and sited along our gorgeous sea front?
#WaterQuality #StinkOrSwim #Hastings #CleanWater #LoRaWAN #TechForGood #CitizenScience #ArtAndActivism #CommunityPower #SewageScandal