Riverkin: Seizing the moment to remake vital relations in the United Kingdom and beyond

1. We show how the dire state of the Earth's rivers entangles intimately with ‘thingifying’ processes at the heart of colonial modernity. Known in many precolonial and Indigenous contexts as person-like kin, we describe how rivers the world over have been re-done primarily as thing—amoral, controllable, a potential commodity like anything else. 2. We develop and work with a provisory concept of kin as those constituents of environments that reciprocally nurture, and contribute to the substance of, one another's life and wellbeing. 3. We show how kinship with rivers figures centrally in primarily Indigenous-led struggles in various regions of the globe for the recognition and enforcement of river personhood and rights. This is partly because people are motivated to fight passionately for their kin. 4. With some careful caveats, we argue that associating river kinship exclusively with Indigenous worlds undermines its potential for global impact. Thus, as an apposite case study, the latter part of the paper focuses on some of the social–ecological trends which we suggest are opening up the possibility for the re-establishment of ‘riverkinship’ in the United Kingdom. 5. We reflect on the potential for riverkinship to help cultivate political constellations fitting to the challenges of the Anthropocene

Riverkin: seizing the moment to remake vital relations in the UK and beyond

1. We show how the dire state of the Earth's rivers entangles intimately with ‘thingifying’ processes at the heart of colonial modernity. Known in many precolonial and Indigenous contexts as person-like kin, we describe how rivers the world over have been re-done primarily as thing – amoral, controllable, a potential commodity like anything else. 2. We develop and work with a provisory concept of kin as those constituents of environments that reciprocally nurture, and contribute to the substance of, one another’s life and well-being. 3. We show how kinship with rivers figures centrally in primarily Indigenous-led struggles in various regions of the globe for the recognition and enforcement of river personhood and rights. This is partly because people are motivated to fight passionately for their kin. 4. With some careful caveats, we argue that associating river kinship exclusively with Indigenous worlds undermines its potential for global impact. Thus, as an apposite case study, the latter part of the paper focuses on some of the social-ecological trends which we suggest are opening up the possibility for the re-establishment of ‘riverkinship’ in the United Kingdom. 5. We reflect on the potential for riverkinship to help cultivate political constellations fitting to the challenges of the Anthropocene

Of clocks ticking: Heterotopic space, time and motion in William Kentridge’s The Refusal of Time

In William Kentridge’s The refusal of time (2012), comment on time as both a scientific and a human entity is produced. A complex mix of the visual and nominal vocabularies of early ‘rudimentary’ technological invention, scientific experimentation and contemporary digital language characterises the artwork. Conceptually, the structural, technological and visual components of the work predominantly articulate figure tropes of space, time and motion. The work is explored through the lens of heterotopia as articulated by French philosopher michel Foucault, with special attention to the artist’s articulation of space, time and motion. the construal proceeds through the investigation of the visual metaphors implied by the organisation of space; the depiction of movement; time ticking; the allusion to human beings’ fascination with invention; science and technology; and the products thereof, especially the creation of automatons. interpreting the work as representing heterotopic temporality in space, it is argued that such heterotopic entities defy clock time as stringent ‘regular’ time. an examination is conducted of the meta-narratives on science and technology alluded to in The refusal of time, including mention of the early development of automatons; modernistic French thought; advancements in physics around 1900; and postmodern takes on science and technology.Art and Musi