OBJECTHOOD #9
In OBJECTHOOD #9, RWM talks to Kyveli Mavrokordopoulou about her work around nuclear sites, radioactive waste management and temporal and spatial thresholds. Exclusion zones – the concept, the aftermath, the rhetorics around them – become the main focus of our chat. But Kyveli also touches upon a host of related issues surrounding what she calls ‘nuclear unknowns’, as well as alternative approaches to the short but dense history of radiation and nuclear power.
The second guest is researcher and activist Nishat Awan, talks about unsettlement and geopolitical borders, especially in relation to Pakistan and her field work in Balochistan. We discuss colonial legacy, forced displacement and other ways to conceptualise mapping and spatial analysis tools for working in border areas. Nishat also ties these first person-experiences to her Topological Atlas project, which advocates “moving away from a dominant mode of mapping where experience is elided through a mode of representation that privileges precision over the messy reality of life”.