We exist in a dynamic entanglement with water, as an element present in a large proportion of our own bodily composition, to the rivers that cross and delimitate our cities, as well as an essential component in the harvesting of our food and the production of energy. We cannot conceive of an existence that dissociates water and life. Yet, our uncareful industrial actions speak differently, oceans are now full with microplastics, water reservoirs contaminated by pesticides or pharmaceutical chemicals and the flow of rivers are permanently diverted.
One key example of this seminar is the large-scale infrastructure project known as “Weserkorrektion”, which puts into evidence the complex historical relations between water, land and maritime trade, and how this takes place within Western-capitalist societies. At the end of the 18th century, the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen embarked on the resolution of straightening part of the lower weser, in order to allow larger ships to arrive to Bremen. The name “korrektion” already implies an anthropocentric perspective, where humans take the role of defining the nature of a nonhuman being, in this case the Weser, all with the ultimate intention of perpetuating the flow of goods and the efficient functioning of capitalist trade relations. Was there really anything that needed to be corrected?
In this seminar we will examine the term “korrection”, and slowly shift it to a perspective of un-correction. We will attempt to craft speculative narratives of more caring relations with water ecologies, taking emphasis into hydro feminist perspectives. The literature of this seminar includes the book Hydrofeminist Thinking with Oceans, and we will critically examine the extent of the term “we”, since relations are not all the same and are largely determined by a territory's colonial past. The entanglement of water and humans will be discussed through Barad’s notion of intra-action and becoming. The methodology of this seminar will include a series of field visits to places in Bremen and its surrounding where infrastructures of water are evident, such as the Werdersee, the port area, water treatment plants and several points of the Weser itself.