The e(thi)co-political aesthetics of ‘designer water’: ‘becoming water’ in the Anthropocene

Abstract

This essay attempts to affectively politicize the global condition of water in the context of ‘designer capitalism’ by calling on its commodification through a colonial discourse that romanticizes Nature to sell its ‘bottled purity.’ The ethical concerns of ‘designer water’ (bottled water) are raised within the broader agenda of ecosophy as inspired by Félix Guattari’s last essay, The Three Ecologies. Designer water is explored in relation to Global and Modern Water proceeding to raise the question of ‘multiple water ontologies’ where indigenous water ontologies present further ethical and political issues within the Anthropocene era. I end with a section called ‘becoming water’ with an attempt to provide a pedagogical way to face the crisis of water in the Anthropocene based on the journey taken through this problematic.