Score #22: Draw a poetic governing principle for the water system
The word for river systems in Norwegian is Vassdrag, literally waterpull. The water is pulled by the moon and by gravity, by tongues, and our hands and machines and technology, and it is, itself, dragging rocks, minerals, soil, fish and plankton, that which it meets on its way through mountains, wetlands, fjords, pipes, dams, rivers, clouds, bodies, soil, peat, plants and animals.
The first national lawbook of Norway was the Landslov of king Magnus Lagabøte from 1274. It says that All water shall flow as it has flowed from time immemorial, no one shall change its course from or to another man’s land, if the water does not change its own way.
Today the Norwegian Watercourses and Groundwater Act states that Everyone must act carefully to avoid damage or inconvenience in the watercourse for public or private interests.
Who can have private or public interests in a river system? What are the waters’ own ways today?
The philosopher Derrida wrote in his book The Animal That Therefore I Am, that ideas about the animal, if they are possible, must derive from poetry. So if plants and animals are to be better represented, on their terms, in the political systems, our laws, a poetic language must be used.
A poetic mindset also reminds us that not all can be registered or controlled by us, the humans.
Score and text by Randi Nygård living in Oslo, Norway.
Drawing by Caitlin Franzmann, living in Brisbane, Australia.
Pencil on paper.