The Lapindo mudflow is one of the most controversial disasters in Indonesian history. Despite its... more The Lapindo mudflow is one of the most controversial disasters in Indonesian history. Despite its unique biophysical features, most consider the mudflow a social disaster as scientific conflicts about its main trigger have evolved into legal disputes over accountability and rights. This paper examines this 'trigger debate', the stakes of scientific contention and the broader social and natural dynamics that shape the terms of this debate. A Latourian impulse drives this analysis, which aims to improve both understandings of-and responses to-complex disasters. This paper also notes that the stakes of representation extend to constructions of its stakeholders, especially to victims. As socionatural disasters become an increasingly common feature of the contemporary world, from mud volcanoes to extreme weather events caused by global warming, it is more important than ever to understand the dynamics of representing disasters and stakeholders.
With the emergence of the so-called “nonhuman” turn in the arts, humanities, and social sciences ... more With the emergence of the so-called “nonhuman” turn in the arts, humanities, and social sciences in recent decades, various intriguing and frequently dazzling articulations of Marxian terminologies and insights have arisen. While these intersections with Marxism are occasionally inharmonious, such friction can recast lines of inquiry both within and outside Marxian traditions, enhancing analytical tools and altering senses of purpose. This article stokes these productive tensions by articulating Marxism with actor-network theory (ANT) and animal studies. In addition to using ANT and animal studies to apply Marxian concepts like exploitation and alienation to the nonhuman world, it considers ways that Marxism might contribute to nonhuman studies by analyzing the dynamics of nonhuman exploitation, foregrounding the historical productive processes that express social and ecological relations, and promoting discussions about developing better political and economic systems. These readings illustrate Marxism's ongoing relevance to current nonhuman studies.
This article explores the aesthetic and rhetorical operations at work in selected written testimo... more This article explores the aesthetic and rhetorical operations at work in selected written testimonies by victims of the Lapindo mudflow in East Java, Indonesia, focusing on the ways these texts articulate with contentious political movements that seek to bring forth justice and stability to those impacted by the disaster. Despite the formal conventions and political commitments that complicate the communication of trauma through testimony, I argue that researchers and observers must account for victims' perspectives and experiences to better understand this complex disaster. Readings of H.M. Maksum Zuber's memoir, Titanic made by Lapindo (2009), and a collection of short stories by schoolchildren whose lives have been altered by the mudflow, the Cerita pendek karya anak korban Lapindo [Short stories of the children of Lapindo] (2009), provide the centerpiece of this work, as I analyse the relationships between the testimonial text, the specific individuals involved in their composition, and the various contentious political communities that the works reference. The article concludes by employing Michel Callon's notion of ‘overflowings’ to consider the unexpected ways testimonies might articulate with political contention.
This essay provides a reading of both Greg Egan’s “The Caress” and Hardt and Negri’s Empire to ex... more This essay provides a reading of both Greg Egan’s “The Caress” and Hardt and Negri’s Empire to explore the conditions of power and art in contemporary and future global societies. Together, these texts provide complementary descriptions of increasingly intrusive and pervasive modes of control that regulate our everyday being. I suggest that Egan’s text provides examples of the ways that art can both confirm and exceed control in the age of Empire. By bringing these texts together I want to illustrate the ways two registers of control—productive and artistic—invade, destabilize, and regulate our being. These registers of control are paradigmatic of recent historical shifts in power and subjectivity that are connected with cultural, political, and economic transitions that characterize postmodernity. In addition to locating and assessing expressions of control, this essay places “The Caress” and Empire into dialog to explore the limits of control and offer glimpses of new, and perhaps unexpected, ways for people to act and create in the world to counter control.
This essay explores the relationship between animal sacrifice, the production of human subjectivi... more This essay explores the relationship between animal sacrifice, the production of human subjectivity, and expressions of power, using a newspaper photograph of a goat being thrown into a famous mud volcano in Indonesia as a point of departure. This devastating mud volcano, widely known as the “Lapindo” mudflow, began in 2006 and continues to release mud in 2012. I also use this disaster as a case study to observe the ways violence against nonhumans helps sustain individuals and communities within certain social and ecological orders, both in Western and Indonesian contexts. As this project traces the various ways sacrificial violence expresses subjectivity, it will consider the staging of unequal power relations in both the execution and the representation of the sacrifice ritual. By recognizing these manifestations of power, we – who have the cognitive faculties, cultural determinations, and social agencies that enable us to perform violence, abstain from performing violence, and contemplate occurrences of violence – refine our capacity to not only identify violence toward other animals, including other members of our own species, but also understand the ways violence shapes our being and relating within ecological networks, so that we can become better, or at least more self-aware, actors in our ecological communities.
The Lapindo mudflow is one of the most controversial disasters in Indonesian history. Despite its... more The Lapindo mudflow is one of the most controversial disasters in Indonesian history. Despite its unique biophysical features, most consider the mudflow a social disaster as scientific conflicts about its main trigger have evolved into legal disputes over accountability and rights. This paper examines this 'trigger debate', the stakes of scientific contention and the broader social and natural dynamics that shape the terms of this debate. A Latourian impulse drives this analysis, which aims to improve both understandings of-and responses to-complex disasters. This paper also notes that the stakes of representation extend to constructions of its stakeholders, especially to victims. As socionatural disasters become an increasingly common feature of the contemporary world, from mud volcanoes to extreme weather events caused by global warming, it is more important than ever to understand the dynamics of representing disasters and stakeholders.
With the emergence of the so-called “nonhuman” turn in the arts, humanities, and social sciences ... more With the emergence of the so-called “nonhuman” turn in the arts, humanities, and social sciences in recent decades, various intriguing and frequently dazzling articulations of Marxian terminologies and insights have arisen. While these intersections with Marxism are occasionally inharmonious, such friction can recast lines of inquiry both within and outside Marxian traditions, enhancing analytical tools and altering senses of purpose. This article stokes these productive tensions by articulating Marxism with actor-network theory (ANT) and animal studies. In addition to using ANT and animal studies to apply Marxian concepts like exploitation and alienation to the nonhuman world, it considers ways that Marxism might contribute to nonhuman studies by analyzing the dynamics of nonhuman exploitation, foregrounding the historical productive processes that express social and ecological relations, and promoting discussions about developing better political and economic systems. These readings illustrate Marxism's ongoing relevance to current nonhuman studies.
This article explores the aesthetic and rhetorical operations at work in selected written testimo... more This article explores the aesthetic and rhetorical operations at work in selected written testimonies by victims of the Lapindo mudflow in East Java, Indonesia, focusing on the ways these texts articulate with contentious political movements that seek to bring forth justice and stability to those impacted by the disaster. Despite the formal conventions and political commitments that complicate the communication of trauma through testimony, I argue that researchers and observers must account for victims' perspectives and experiences to better understand this complex disaster. Readings of H.M. Maksum Zuber's memoir, Titanic made by Lapindo (2009), and a collection of short stories by schoolchildren whose lives have been altered by the mudflow, the Cerita pendek karya anak korban Lapindo [Short stories of the children of Lapindo] (2009), provide the centerpiece of this work, as I analyse the relationships between the testimonial text, the specific individuals involved in their composition, and the various contentious political communities that the works reference. The article concludes by employing Michel Callon's notion of ‘overflowings’ to consider the unexpected ways testimonies might articulate with political contention.
This essay provides a reading of both Greg Egan’s “The Caress” and Hardt and Negri’s Empire to ex... more This essay provides a reading of both Greg Egan’s “The Caress” and Hardt and Negri’s Empire to explore the conditions of power and art in contemporary and future global societies. Together, these texts provide complementary descriptions of increasingly intrusive and pervasive modes of control that regulate our everyday being. I suggest that Egan’s text provides examples of the ways that art can both confirm and exceed control in the age of Empire. By bringing these texts together I want to illustrate the ways two registers of control—productive and artistic—invade, destabilize, and regulate our being. These registers of control are paradigmatic of recent historical shifts in power and subjectivity that are connected with cultural, political, and economic transitions that characterize postmodernity. In addition to locating and assessing expressions of control, this essay places “The Caress” and Empire into dialog to explore the limits of control and offer glimpses of new, and perhaps unexpected, ways for people to act and create in the world to counter control.
This essay explores the relationship between animal sacrifice, the production of human subjectivi... more This essay explores the relationship between animal sacrifice, the production of human subjectivity, and expressions of power, using a newspaper photograph of a goat being thrown into a famous mud volcano in Indonesia as a point of departure. This devastating mud volcano, widely known as the “Lapindo” mudflow, began in 2006 and continues to release mud in 2012. I also use this disaster as a case study to observe the ways violence against nonhumans helps sustain individuals and communities within certain social and ecological orders, both in Western and Indonesian contexts. As this project traces the various ways sacrificial violence expresses subjectivity, it will consider the staging of unequal power relations in both the execution and the representation of the sacrifice ritual. By recognizing these manifestations of power, we – who have the cognitive faculties, cultural determinations, and social agencies that enable us to perform violence, abstain from performing violence, and contemplate occurrences of violence – refine our capacity to not only identify violence toward other animals, including other members of our own species, but also understand the ways violence shapes our being and relating within ecological networks, so that we can become better, or at least more self-aware, actors in our ecological communities.
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