Hidden Thirst began as a search for a critical dataset — something important that people hadn’t seen, brought into visible form. The investigation moved through water: global footprint data, daily consumption, scarcity. Then AI entered the frame. One paper stopped everything: a single ChatGPT query consumes 500 ml of freshwater, evaporated through cooling infrastructure and never recovered. That number needed a form. Not a chart. Not a screen. An object — cast in the material of things that are meant to last.
The brief was to find hidden data. The data found was hiding inside something everyone uses and nobody questions.
Freshwater consumed by a single ChatGPT query — evaporated through data-centre cooling towers and never recovered.
Daily queries to ChatGPT alone. Each one draws half a litre. The aggregate is a river.
A single bronze vessel cast to hold exactly 500 ml — the data made precious, permanent, and impossible to ignore.
The research started broad — water footprint data, daily consumption figures, scarcity statistics. The aim was to find a dataset with genuine stakes that hadn’t been designed around. Then the AI angle surfaced: Ren et al. (2023) at UC Riverside had quantified the freshwater footprint of large language models. The 500 ml figure — specific, verifiable, per query — was the anchor. Precise enough to design around. Universal enough that anyone could feel it.
Bronze was chosen because it carries cultural weight: it is the material of monuments, bells, and things societies decide must last. If AI’s water cost deserves to be remembered, it deserves bronze.
One query. half a litre.
Data, made precious.
A single bronze vessel sits on a linen-covered plinth under a focused spot light. It holds exactly 500 ml — the freshwater consumed by one ChatGPT query. A spiral poem etched into its surface can only be read by turning the object in your hands.
From brief to built
Locked the design brief from research findings and critical theory — one vessel, exactly 500 ml, carrying engraved poetry. The form needed to communicate without labels or explanation.
Built the base form and proportions in Autodesk Maya, then brought the model into ZBrush to refine surface texture, add the engraving layout, and develop tactile detail for the casting process.
Printed using a Bambu Lab printer with Polycast filament at the highest resolution setting — preserving every surface detail and engraving line needed for the investment casting process.
Bronze cast at a professional foundry using the lost-wax method. Post-processing included sandblasting, hand finishing, and polishing to achieve the final surface.
Displayed alongside Weight of AI at the Falmouth MA Degree Shows. Visitors picked up the vessel without prompting — the form invited touch. Several asked if the 500 ml was real.
The volume is exact. The material is permanent.
The volume is exact. The material is permanent.
The 500 ml volume landed without explanation — visitors understood the concept before reading any text. Bronze carried its own argument as a material of permanence, and the spiral poem demanded physical engagement, turning the act of reading into a bodily experience. Process constraints — engraving limits, casting tolerances — strengthened the design rather than limiting it.
Give the vessel a life outside the gallery.
Tour the vessel beyond the university context — climate-tech conferences, policy spaces — where the audience doesn't share the same priors. Commission poem translations into languages spoken in water-scarce regions, so the work speaks to the communities it concerns. Pair the object with a live data feed of real-time AI water consumption.
