New Currents: Indian Ocean Futures
As part of the long-term research project, New Currents: Indian Ocean Futures, the initiators have identified several Currents. Each of these covers an aspect of the shared histories and futures of the territories and regions surrounding the Indian Ocean. On this page, the Nieuwe Instituut will feature guest contributions and commissioned works relating to the various Currents.
The designed world around the Indian Ocean has been shaped by migration and the exchange between nodes of historical, cultural, environmental, economic and political networks. Thanks to their geographical location, these nodes are irreversibly connected to each other, and – in the midst of global and maritime powers on different continents – they are influenced by global political and economic interests. The Currents help them to navigate the interplay of these forces and forge alternative overseas alliances.
The present Currents
- The Indian Ocean region could be characterised as an Archipelago of Power. In this Current, the participating researchers explore ways to alter existing geopolitical flows by examining them from alternative, local, place-based perspectives, and by incorporating more regions into future spatial planning and political and climate strategies.
- Space, goods, labour and information move back and forth in material and immaterial flows between the regions around the Indian Ocean. Under the heading Data Flows, the authors of this Current investigate the possible futures revealed by these movements.
- Archives on both sides of the ocean bear witness to various ongoing forms of resistance in Africa and Asia that seem to echo each other as Oceanic Resonances. In this Current, researchers use archival and memory exercises to explore how shared heritage can express Afro-Asian community spirit.
- In the Current with the title Architecture of Development, the researchers adopt the narrative of ‘development’ as their starting point. They use design and architecture to offer alternative perspectives on concepts such as development aid and cooperation. This framework helps to reframe the colonial and postcolonial legacy of the region, and anticipate the shared spatial and political future of territories around the Indian Ocean.
- Water is abundant in the areas around the Indian Ocean. As well as the ocean they share, there are countless other seas, rivers and wetlands. In the face of rising waters, a problem that will only worsen with global warming, how can the inhabitants develop a shared Water Preparedness strategy? The researchers in this Current actively strive to think beyond the strips of land and water that form the prevailing starting point; their alternative way of thinking embraces coexistence with, in, on and around water.
- Just as desertification has disastrous spatial, environmental and economic consequences on land, so overfishing, pollution and climate change are having an enormously damaging effect on marine life. In this Current, researchers focus on the Ocean Deserts of the Indian Ocean and the impact on fisheries, livelihoods and food networks in the region.