Source/Link:

Antonia Burchard-Levine on Are.na

Text:*

*extract from longer text by author, which was sent to K LAB in preparation before attending Workshop 2; see detour 306

[…] The delineation of a territory becomes an evolving construct as boundaries can take on all kinds of geometries and meaning; sometimes responding to terrain and geology, and other times to political arrangements. Yet, what is the implication of a national border in the face of a planetary ecological crisis? As this crisis begins to shed light on the limits of current systems in place, we are led to rethink our frameworks for governance, jurisdiction, and how we inhabit our planet.

[…] In this context, the management of watersheds and transboundary water systems becomes particularly fascinating. Water systems embody complex morphologies, are unfixed and fluctuating; and involve a range of complex, entangled, and nested issues and ramifications. Fluctuating water systems ignore political boundaries, thus unknowingly transgressing jurisdictions. Yet, there is no doubt that water resources are absolutely vital to all forms of life and thus its management and control must be reframed in light of ecological realities.

[…] MERA is a speculative proposal for a new sovereign layer of governance based on the logic of watersheds, exploring the past, present, and potential futures of the Caspian region.