In this final episode of the opening trilogy for the theme Hydropolitics: Water, Ontology of Law, Resources, and Necropolitics, we trace the forgotten currents of history carried in riverbeds and canal walls from the Indus Valley to the Thames, from imperial docks to pink dolphins and seals returning to once-toxic waters. This is a journey through sediment, memory, and design, where water is both archive and witness. We follow the lives displaced by infrastructure, the species surviving against industrial odds, and the ghosts of empire still embedded in our cities. As we meander back to the River Trent, we ask: what does water refuse to forget?
Thank you to the wider collective for supporting me with research, editing and for creating the space for me to meander!
References
Indus River Dolphins
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/7/can-pakistans-indus-river-dolphins-be-saved
“I am going to the sea, clear the path”
Amazon River Dolphin
Pink river dolphin present in the Rupununi – research reveals
Otters
Otters spotted at National Trust's Calke Abbey for first time
West India Docks - Canary Wharf
West India Docks - London Museum
Texts & Films
Colomina, B. and Wigley, M. (2016) Are We Human? Notes on an Archeology of Design. Zürich: Lars Müller Publishers.
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