"Dammed Waters": On Multiple Ontologies, Materiality Of Infrastructure And Future Dams In South Africa

• In Event: Messing with Methods in More-than-Human Worlds II

Abstract

Science and Technology Studies around infrastructure have tended to see and relate to dams as being inanimate objects which engineers know all about. That is not entirely the case. The ontological and a more-than-human understanding of dams as being relational and living objects which undergo changes and have a dynamic relation between living and non-living actants I propose can better inform and benefit STS. Dams I intend to show are constantly communicating through the agency of materials used and reading external forces. This work is an attempt to rethink and re-imagine the relationship people have with dams as being merely inanimate objects rather the water it stores gives it life and dynamism by responding to changing water levels. South Africa is well known for some of the pioneering dam builders in the world and several engineering innovations. The most notable example is the Berg River Dam Project in the affluent area of Franschhoek in the Western Cape, which has received international recognition for its integrated planning, design and implementation in dam construction. This dam site has been pivotal for number scientific researches which have studied primarily the chemistry, biology and limnology of the area; with limited ethnographic research. Using qualitative research methods of sensory ethnography, participant-observation, ethnographic interviewing and document analysis I will inquire on the multiple ways the dam speaks and how people the ways people relate and understand the Berg River Dam.

Author

• Thando Mcunu, University of Cape Town