Radon Machine
object, 2013
dimensions: 120 × 70 × 35 cm
mixed media
in cooperation with Tomasz Relewicz
Radon Machine is also a story of a wonderful brewery and beer which used to be famous for its noble taste. The drink was said to owe its taste to the crystal clear water used in it's production. So I decided to enquire about the properties of the above mentioned water among the inhabitants of Miedzianka as well as in nearby Janowice and … I came across a contemporary legend. Some locals praise the quality of the water as 'it does not leave any limescale in the kettle', but most of them are convinced that using this water makes 'your body glow green at night'. How come there's such discrepancy among the stories ? Water which comes from mountain streams is soft, skin friendly, enriched with natural elements, healthy. Water which comes from lower grounds situated on uranium ores might contain radon, a noble gas which is a radioactive element naturally occuring in the process of the decay of radium. Radon waters used in health resorts when carefully taken in the right dosages do have healing properties. Radon does not get released onto the surface of the Earth as it is trapped by the unbroken rocks. Once it finds a way out, however, a crack in the earth, it permeates the soil thus becoming part of building materials, it becomes present in the air and escapes into the water table.
Boroughs situated on uranium ores provide information on their websites pertaining to the results of laboratory tests aimed at establishing the actual levels of radon inside the buildings, in the water, etc. According to the authorities of the Janowice Wielkie borough there is a special device installed – a Radon mitigation machine used to reduce radon concetration in water. This brings no peace of mind to the inhabitants of Miedzianka and Janowice. In their imagination they are designing their own apparatus – a radon separator. As they rightly notice, it is possible to 'shake' this element out of the water. What you need to do in order to achieve this goal is to splash the water round, keep it moving, shake it while in an open recepticle and thus aerate it, or - you can install water separators at every point of use in the water supply system where high gas concentrations have been detected. The latter solution seems to be the best as it does not require any time and it makes certain that running a tap will not lead to any significant increase of becquerels in the air. Becquerel is the international unit of radioactive activity. (...)
a fragment of my text from the catalogue for the exhibition "Miasto, którego nie było"
translated by Iza B-Kelly, Simon Kelly
Radon Machine
object, 2013
dimensions: 120 × 70 × 35 cm
mixed media
in cooperation with Tomasz Relewicz
Radon Machine is also a story of a wonderful brewery and beer which used to be famous for its noble taste. The drink was said to owe its taste to the crystal clear water used in it's production. So I decided to enquire about the properties of the above mentioned water among the inhabitants of Miedzianka as well as in nearby Janowice and … I came across a contemporary legend. Some locals praise the quality of the water as 'it does not leave any limescale in the kettle', but most of them are convinced that using this water makes 'your body glow green at night'. How come there's such discrepancy among the stories ? Water which comes from mountain streams is soft, skin friendly, enriched with natural elements, healthy. Water which comes from lower grounds situated on uranium ores might contain radon, a noble gas which is a radioactive element naturally occuring in the process of the decay of radium. Radon waters used in health resorts when carefully taken in the right dosages do have healing properties. Radon does not get released onto the surface of the Earth as it is trapped by the unbroken rocks. Once it finds a way out, however, a crack in the earth, it permeates the soil thus becoming part of building materials, it becomes present in the air and escapes into the water table.
Boroughs situated on uranium ores provide information on their websites pertaining to the results of laboratory tests aimed at establishing the actual levels of radon inside the buildings, in the water, etc. According to the authorities of the Janowice Wielkie borough there is a special device installed – a Radon mitigation machine used to reduce radon concetration in water. This brings no peace of mind to the inhabitants of Miedzianka and Janowice. In their imagination they are designing their own apparatus – a radon separator. As they rightly notice, it is possible to 'shake' this element out of the water. What you need to do in order to achieve this goal is to splash the water round, keep it moving, shake it while in an open recepticle and thus aerate it, or - you can install water separators at every point of use in the water supply system where high gas concentrations have been detected. The latter solution seems to be the best as it does not require any time and it makes certain that running a tap will not lead to any significant increase of becquerels in the air. Becquerel is the international unit of radioactive activity. (...)
a fragment of my text from the catalogue for the exhibition "Miasto, którego nie było"
translated by Iza B-Kelly, Simon Kelly
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