Groundwater is a source of life. In Kentucky, nearly 2,000,000 people rely on it every day. Yet people rarely think about the water that runs beneath the Bluegrass.
Because it exists largely out of sight, it often remains out of mind. And is becoming increasingly vulnerable. This is the paradox of infrastructure. The systems that sustain everyday life are often the systems we notice least. In 2015, Public Works partnered with the Kentucky Geological Survey to change this.
Building a participatory model for environmental stewardship
By integrating human-centered design, AI, data science, and embodied learning, each component of Livestream was designed to guide community members from groundwater awareness to understanding, engagement, and long-term stewardship.
Within the first weekend, the public art installation recorded over 35,000 interactions. That’s 35,000 moments of connection with an infrastructure many residents had never considered. But raising awareness was only part of the equation. Livestream:
Strengthened cross-sector communication and collaboration among scientists, educators, government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and community members
Expanded groundwater data collection from once every 30 years to once every 15 minutes
Equipped citizens and scientists with more knowledge, tools, motivation, and support to become stewards of groundwater
Demonstrated how sound and the built environment can work together to change how people understand complex systems and their roles within them
Expanding environmental stewardship from the ground, up
Livestream was never simply a public art installation or educational outreach program. It was an exploration of how design can expand environmental stewardship by helping people better understand, connect with, and care for the systems that sustain everyday life. Livestream effectively:
Made an invisible infrastructure perceptible Transforming groundwater data into sound enabled people to experience groundwater rather than merely learn about it.
Expanded groundwater stewardship Livestream challenged the assumption that monitoring and protection are the sole responsibility of scientists. By creating new opportunities for community members to see, understand, and connect with groundwater, the project expanded who could participate in stewardship and how stewardship unfolds.
Demonstrated the role of play as a precursor to behavior change Rather than telling community members they need to learn about groundwater, Livestream invites people to play. By playing, people discover how their actions impact groundwater and how groundwater impacts their everyday lives. In this context, people became active makers of meaning rather than passive recipients of information.
Provides a scalable model for environmental stewardship While Livestream focused on groundwater, the underlying approach can be applied wherever awareness, understanding, and care are disconnected—from climate resilience to healthcare, aging, and community development. The challenge may differ, but the opportunity is the same: expanding stewardship increases our collective capacity to notice, respond, and protect what sustains us.
