Storying Water is a two-year artist residency at CREWW: The Centre for Resilience in Environment, Water and Waste, seeking to bring creative processes, practices and approaches into environmental science research and water management, to produce varied artistic work engaging diverse audiences and sparking change, and to evidence the strategic value of arts-based communications for environmentally-engaged organisations.

There is no life without water. Human society depends on plentiful supplies of it that are clean and fresh, and AI data centres demand it in vast volumes – yet our water systems are increasingly fragile, buckling under the strain and toxicity of human waste, and ever-more volatile as climate change escalates. With drought, flooding, pollution, and water shortages now constant themes in the news, the situation can seem desolate. A lot of critically important data and research fails to cut through. But there are many remarkable people and organisations doing positive work to improve water system resilience, often quietly, creatively, in partnership with nature, and hidden behind the scenes. This residency seeks to shed new light on the water system, and on remarkable places and people who work on it, to spark imaginative engagement with landscapes as waterscapes.

The Storying Water podcast is a narrative audio story about the water system, its value, and its resilience. Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Over the course of a journey down the River Exe from source to sea over ten episodes, the podcast explores what is actually involved in enabling drinkable water to get to our taps, what the risks are to water system resilience, and what we can do to improve it for the future.

Each episode explores a different aspect of the water system, beginning with peatlands, and moving down through reservoirs, farmland, drinking water treatment plants, urban riverscapes, underground networks, sewage treatment, lab testing, fishing communities, estuaries, and marine. It examines the harmful impacts of humans’ waste and chemical use, and our historical neglect of wetland environments, and reveals positive strategies and solutions to improve water and climate resilience, often by working with nature. Each episode is woven through with insights from water experts, as various as farmers and fishermen, campaigners and executives, scientists and regulators.

Shifting Waterscapes was a joint exhibition by Ellen Wiles and Arun Sood at the Thelma Hulbert Gallery in Jan-Feb 2026. It explored the value of waterscapes at a time of environmental change through the sensory experience of bodies of water, through a series of works involving sound, story, moving image, visual art, and mixed media. At the heart of the exhibition was a newly-commissioned immersive installation, Springs and Seepages: a collaboration with artist Emma Molony and the Otterhead Lakes nature reserve – a wetland with a rare springline mire habitat and acoustic ecology. The work features an immersive sound piece created through improvised music and field recordings produced entirely in situ, interspersed with fragments of poetic text. The layered film delves into the history, changed ownership and uses of the site, and its wildlife. Visual artist Emma Molony created a forest of canvases dipped in the mulch of the mire, then painted with natural inks. In the gallery space, film footage was projected onto the floor and onto a screen surrounded by beaver-sculpted wood. Wiles and Sood gave a live performance at the sold-out launch event. The exhibition was featured on ITV news. The film was shortlisted for a Mannington Hall Nature Award 2026.

Storying Water: Reimagine Resilience is a forthcoming exhibition showcasing the residency and the work of CREWW, in the Queen’s Building gallery space, University of Exeter. It will feature a major new commission by Molony.

Bringing together leading multidisciplinary artists and scientists with a shared passion for water system health and resilience, Ellen Wiles partnered with the Northcott Theatre team to produce Ripple Effects, a microfestival, in February 2026.

In the morning, artist Kathy Hinde led a deep listening walk along the River Exe. In the afternoon, Ellen hosted a microsymposium at the Barnfield Theatre, in which artists and scientists discussed the value of interdisciplinary collaborations for increasing water resilience, and shared experiences and ideas. The evening featured a showcase performance, in which leading artists from multiple disciplines took to the stage and shared new water-themed work. Jason Singh performed a new water sound piece featuring original music and beatboxing, Sarah Blissett performed a movement piece inspired by and involving a found whalebone, Kathy Hinde performed an audiovisual work exploring a river’s traces, Bryony Gillard performed an experimental essay performance on wastewater, Dan McKay and Adam Radage showed an extract of their feature film, Rock Pool, John Wedgwood Clarke performed poems from his Red River collection, and Ellen Wiles and Arun Sood performed a live version Springs and Seepages. The event was well-attended by diverse audiences, and featured on BBC TV and radio.

As part of Storying Water, Ellen has led and organised multiple creative workshops involving scientists, water industry executives and professionals, students, and members of the public.

Inherent in this artist residency was the idea that disciplinary boundaries between the arts, humanities and sciences are conceptually problematic and can limit the value and impact of research projects; whereas meaningful collaboration can benefit research, organisations, communities, and the natural environment. Workshops are a fruitful way of introducing new practices, exchanging ideas and approaches, and making fresh connections.

An initial creative writing workshop series involved scientists, industry executives and third sector leaders. A later map-themed workshop, led by printmaker Emma Molony, gave scientists who are involved with data-focused mapping in their day-to-day research the opportunity to experiment creatively with ideas around cartographic storytelling and map-making.

Ellen is an experienced speaker and communications expert, with specialist experience in the strategic value of arts-based communications and practices for organisations, interdisciplinary collaborations, and engaging diverse audiences with complex ideas and environmental issues.

She gives regular talks and lectures nationally and internationally, chairs panels, and gives interviews for podcasts, radio and TV. Events linked with Storying Water to date include presentations at the International Water Association Congress, the British Ecological Society’s annual meeting, the Devon WATER conference, a walking talk for Agile Rabbit, chairing the Water Futures panel at the South West Innovation Expo, and interviews on BBC radio, BBC TV and ITV news. Watch her ITV interview on Shifting Waterscapes here.

Ellen is happy to discuss relevant speaking engagements, interviews and communications consultancy projects. Please get in touch via the contact page or on LinkedIn.