Anticipating Ruinations

Ecologies of ‘Make Do’ and ‘Left With

Bibliographic Data

ID8087284
AuthorsRahul Mukherjee (0000-0002-3439-0831, corresponding author)
Year2017
Volume16
Issue3
Pages287-309
Publication date2017-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Visual Culture (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1470-4129 • E-ISSN: 1741-2994
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1470412917740884
OpenAlexW2782437764
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited20

This article examines sites of ruinations that include zones of radioactive decay, ‘illegal’ housing projects, electromagnetic emissions, and e-waste dismantling and metal extraction. These sites have stories of people who are anticipating ruinations such as dreading a nuclear fallout or apartment demolition that has not yet happened. The article argues that ruination is an explicitly political process and exploring relations between humans who are living in ruins with the objects/things they are left with, out there, could lead to questioning power relations – both state power and infrastructural power. Borrowing from research methods such as media archaeology, media geology and media anthropology, the article points to generative connections between mediations of ruins and media ruins (consisting of media objects/infrastructures that are themselves marked by disruptive materialities and (un)planned obsolescence). While approaching media ruins, interrogating the politics embedded within research methods would help in understanding ruination itself as a political project

Aesthetics · Archaeology · Art · Business · Demolition · Materiality (auditing · Media studies · Obsolescence · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Sociology · State (computer science · Digital Media and Philosophy · Geographies of human-animal interactions · History · Law

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