{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1734994"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1734994/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2025PH7385/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2025PH7385/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"low","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2025PH7385","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PH7386","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PH7388","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PH7389","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PH7390","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PH7391","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1734994","accessionNumber":"CD.25-2023","objectType":"Drawing","titles":[{"title":"Transects: Allahabad to Varanasi","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"This is a series of six transects that run perpendicular to the Ganges River from Allahabad to Varanasi. It was created by Anthony Acciavatti to research and map the river. Acciavatti’s Ganges Water Machine project is the first research project to comprehensively map India’s Ganges River Basin, one of the most fertile, populous and infrastructure-heavy river valleys on the planet, home to more than 600 million people. From 2005 to 2015, he travelled by foot, boat and car documenting the Ganges from its source in the Himalayas to the historic city of Patna nearly 1,000km downstream.\r\n\r\nAssistant Professor at Yale University, Acciavatti conducts research in the fields of architecture, geography, and technology. In his book, Ganges Water Machine: Designing New India’s Ancient River, his fieldwork and research provide a comprehensive visual recording of the territory through layering data on population density, monsoon patterns, infrastructure and agriculture.\r\n\r\nWith these transects, Acciavatti says he wanted to show how the river expresses herself and how she interacts with the levels of human activity like roadways, which he mapped himself by foot and car. The segments are made by overlaying layers that show hydrological features, cultivated land, human settlement, primary roads, and post- and pre-monsoon water tables. This illustrates how infrastructure intersects with urban settlement and agriculture to show how common and private property alters the flow of water. When overlaid the layers reveal a coherence to the ways in which space is shaped. \r\n\r\nHe also illustrates there is an even, diffuse level of urban settlement despite the lack of water tanks, lakes, and irrigation systems in the three right panels. He argues this is because these areas are being serviced by many tubewells, which is a type of water well that runs underground that affects the river. These exist even in large cities like Allahabad and Varanasi where people have sunk their own tubewells into the ground because municipal water systems cannot provide clean water for them on a regular basis. In this way, Acciavatti says his transects expose how water exists as much above the surface as it does below.\r\n\r\nAcciavatti’s research has since focused on this groundwater and how people’s use of groundwater affects landscape.","physicalDescription":"","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Acciavatti, Anthony","id":"AUTH383012"},"association":{"text":"Maker, Designer","id":"x30792"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[],"techniques":[],"materialsAndTechniques":"","categories":[{"text":"Digital Art","id":"THES289934"},{"text":"Digital Design","id":"THES273936"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"DAD","id":"THES260586"},"images":["2025PH7385","2025PH7386","2025PH7388","2025PH7389","2025PH7390","2025PH7391"],"imageResolution":"low","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"DAMS","id":"THES280561"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"DAMS","id":"THES280561"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"DAMS","id":"THES280561"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"DAMS","id":"THES280561"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"DAMS","id":"THES280561"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"DAMS","id":"THES280561"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"drawing","id":"AAT33973"}],[{"text":"drawing","id":"AAT33973"}],[{"text":"drawings","id":"AAT33973"}],[{"text":"drawings","id":"AAT33973"}],[{"text":"drawings","id":"AAT33973"}],[{"text":"drawings","id":"AAT33973"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[],"productionDates":[],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Transects: Allahabad to Varanasi (set of 6 drawings), from the Ganges Water Machine project, Anthony Acciavatti, 2005-2016. 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