'Dangerous Waters': Emotional Ecologies of Dampness and Displacement in Georgia

• In Event: Disaster Environments: Human/Non-Human Entanglements in the Wake of Catastrophe

Abstract

The monolithic sanatoria of the former Soviet spa resort of Tskaltubo served as shelter for thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) from Abkhazia for over three decades, later becoming spectacular sites of post-Soviet urban decay and ruination. Based on a feminist visual ethnography in Tskaltubo, this paper considers the more-than-human entanglements of IDPs and moisture, focusing both on the way that unwanted structural dampness has accelerated the decay of infrastructure, but also how moisture in its myriad forms (e.g., humidity/climate, radon-carbonate springs, penetrating and structural dampness, and mold from intrusion) has constituted a source of dread and anxiety for IDPs. In doing so, this paper argues that excess dampness is a core, but overlooked dimension of the slow, infrastructural violence of war’s capacity to harm over an elongated time horizon.

Author

• Ariel Otruba, Virginia Tech