Groundwater Earth tells the hidden history of the largest distributed mass of freshwater on the planet. The fruits of groundwater are all around us: nearly half the global population drinks it and over half of all crops are irrigated with it. Groundwater extraction technologies are to agriculture and urban growth what the elevator was to the booming American metropolis of the early twentieth century. The exhibition traces for the first time the preposterous, practical, and perilous experiments with groundwater. It focuses on the Indo-Gangetic plains and Sonoran Desert—two major sites of experimentation with groundwater extraction since the nineteenth century. Combining over a decade of fieldwork in the Americas and Asia, with archival research undertaken in three continents and vast amounts of data collected using remote sensing satellites, Groundwater Earth examines the scales and slow-motion impacts of groundwater extraction on the tilt of the earth to the shape of cities and farms.
An exhibition of artwork by Professor Emeritus Alec Purves, On Looking, will be on view at the Yale School of Architecture Gallery from May 15 to July 6, 2024. The show gathers watercolors and travel sketchbooks spanning from 1965 to the present. Professor Purves joined the faculty at the School of Architecture in 1976. Since 1979, he has taught the Introduction to Architecture course that still provides a foundation for undergraduate majors. He served as Acting Dean in 1992 and co-directed the School’s summer drawing program in Rome from 2002–2015.