Résumé
Our contribution is focused on an emerging project of “Water Library” (Aquathèque, PEPR OneWater) which aims to explore the feasibility of long-term storage of water samples in order to document the trends in water composition and the state of aquatic environments. Within the collective of researchers in environmental sciences and social scientists, we are trying to open up its design to actors outside from the academic sphere, transforming it into a real “library” or “museum of water” that stores different legacies : expert and lay knowledge about water, memory of threatened landscapes, social memory of living with and in these places,The installation will show what the Aquathèque could be like, thanks to an assemblage of art and science, visuals created by a plastic artist, samples and instruments used to collect and measure contamination or biodiversity, photographs and audio recordings of water-related stories and experiences. We will propose an interactive stand that offers different experiences, manipulating samples and instrument or listening through an headset.Through our intervention, we want to show how this process of designing “from scratch” a research infrastructure can open up to new questions and projected uses of this speculative environmental archive: strengthening and restoring relationships with these places, mobilizing and struggling to face water challenges such as chemical contamination and the degradation of biodiversity.