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Short abstract:

Tracing the history of the modern Pernambuco violin bow from the 19th century, this paper addresses the connections between colonialism, environmental crises, indigenous land access, and European classical music.

Long abstract:

Apace with European colonialism, the violin bow became the object of extensive experimentation. The large influx of wealth to Europe opened new avenues for musical performance, alongside which a desire for bigger instrumental sounds arose. Bow makers experimented with different woods to find new sounds, but it wasn’t until the 19th century that the shape of the modern violin bow was fully established, when a tropical wood became available to bow makers.

Pernambuco (paubrasilia echinata) is endemic to Brazil’s Atlantic rain forest. This tree was once Portugal’s central colonial interest and its biggest export from Brazil, which in fact was named after the precious dyewood. When due to changing markets the wood became affordable enough to become a resource for instrument makers, it quickly became the dominant material for bow makers, as it offers the ideal combination of lightness, density, strength, and elasticity to produce more versatile sounds.

After centuries of colonial extraction, Pernambuco is now an endangered species protected under the international CITES Convention. As bowmakers continue to use the wood, the production of bows is increasingly becoming a contested ground, where the cultural heritage of violin makers and the interests of musicians clash with decolonial and environmental conservation efforts in Brazil.

The violin bow is a contact zone, in which diverse landscapes, histories, and ontologies encounter one another. Tracing the history of the modern Pernambuco violin bow, this paper addresses the connections between colonialism, environmental crises, indigenous land access, and European classical music.

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Short abstract:

Established in 1903, integrating German technology and Laoshan spring water, Tsingtau Beer symbolizes cultural and colonial narratives. This study (a performance lecture) explores Tsingtau Beer's role in China's colonial history and modern identity through community dialogues and field research.

Long abstract:

This study scrutinizes Tsingtau Beer as a prism to explore the nuanced dynamics between China's colonial legacy and its journey towards modernity. The establishment of Tsingtau Beer in 1903, through the amalgamation of German brewing technology and Laoshan's spring waters, serves as a pivotal instance of technological and economic exchange, elevating the beer from a mere consumable to a symbol of Tsingtau's colonial narratives.

Investigating Tsingtau Beer's composition and history, this study aims to demystify the colonial undertones and historical reverberations that contribute to its acclaim. It endeavors to dissect how the colonial past intricately wove China's contemporary identity and technological progress through this tangible medium,which is deeply embedded in societal consciousness and collective memory.

As an immigrant from Tsingtau residing in Berlin, the researcher infuses a decolonial self-technology into the research methodology, melding the object Tsingtau Beer with the lesser-known German colonial tenure in Kiautschou. Employing community dialogues and field research during the Tsingtau International Beer Festival, with colonial echoes in the contemporary context, the study plans to delve into the personal memories associated with this colonial epoch, marked by its violence and intricate relations. Potentially aligned with the Dekoloniale Festival 2024 and leveraging the dramaturgy approach of Paper Tiger Theater Studio, the study's conclusion, through a performance lecture, aims to engage the public deeply in the intertwined narratives of colonialism and identity, as symbolized by Tsingtau Beer. This approach encourages a critical examination of colonialism's enduring influence on the societal and cultural landscape of China.

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Short abstract:

By following cinchona/quinine with respect to German colonialism my paper asks how relationalities of colonial plantations and industrial history can be narrated in decolonizing and power critical ways.

Long abstract:

Quinine was in use for malaria prophylaxis for their colonial soldiers by the British Empire in India, and it was also applied in the colonization of Africa to preserve the health and labor force of the colonizers. Inspired by the Dutch colonial cinchona plantations on Java and within capitalist competition dynamics, German colonial actors aim at cultivating their 'own' cinchona and begin experimenting with cinchona plantations in Africa – with only limited success. While both a German pharmacist and two Frenchmen claim to have invented an extraction method of the substance of quinine from cinchona barks, the industrial production of quinine – one of the forerunners of Germany's chemical and pharmaceutical industry – begins in the German Reich in early 19th century and soon becomes the world's largest quinine production at that time.

My presentation follows cinchona/quinine during German industrialization and the colonization of Africa. I will show how the circulation of seeds and plants, botanical knowledge as well as gardeners, farmers and administrators between European and colonial botanical gardens and plantations was going hand in hand with the expansion of colonial transport, administrative infrastructures and industrialized technologies. I will relate this to the industrial history of quinine extraction, processing and production in the 'German Reich'.

My presentation will be accompanied by self-reflexive questions as: How do the legacies that result from these entanglements affect my own research? And how can these colonial, industrial, and infrastructural entanglements be narrated in decolonizing and power critical ways?

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Long abstract:

This ongoing research delves into the coevolution of the electric grid and the internet within post-colonial landscapes. Infrastructures are viewed as relational and co-produced, reflecting broader social, institutional, and political networks (Bowker et al., 2009; Edwards, 2010; Star & Ruhleder, 1996). The study examines the material, temporal, and ideological dimensions of infrastructural development, analysing how technological networks reflect and reproduce broader socio-political dynamics. I aim to recouple electricity and the internet beyond notions of demand and supply of energy and/or data.

Media scholars like Starosielski (2015) uncover colonial histories embedded in undersea cable networks, revealing how imperial legacies persist in contemporary infrastructures. Research in urban contexts illustrates how ICT infrastructures intersect with basic services, perpetuating socio-economic disparities (Broto & Sudhira, 2019; Lim, 2018; Guma, 2019). This research further explores the nexus between the internet and electricity in India, paying attention to how they are materially and ideologically symbiotic.

Drawing on Hughes' notion of large technical systems (1982) and Edwards' (2010) infrastructural inversion, the temporal, infrastructural, and ideological dimensions of the electric grid and the internet are compared and analysed. The notion of "infrastructural imaginaries" further illustrates how the internet becomes interwoven with national development narratives, perpetuating colonial trajectories of control (Mukherjee, 2019). This study aims to provide insights into the dynamics of technology, power, ownership, and colonial legacies in shaping contemporary infrastructures. Through historical and document analysis, it extends to post-colonial contexts, where infrastructures are shaped by colonial legacies.