Send message to Contributor

Short abstract:

installation/ workshop

Abstract:

The deliberation about recycling water for direct human consumption activates a range of intimate expert engagements with their object(s) of knowledge, as well as different types of expertise, sometimes in the same body. On the one hand sit technocratic experts; On the other hand, sit a different kind of expert/expertise, that of a culturally-informed, perhaps biologically innate disgust at the diverse contaminants present in wastewater. Research demonstrates that as people begin to understand the technological processes behind water recycling, their acceptance of, and trust in, the process increases. That trust, however, is uneven—while people may decide the technology itself is efficacious, they may remain suspicious of other infrastructural aspects (trust in policy makers) or environmental impacts the technology interacts with. How might researchers and stakeholders move the conversation beyond yuck to explore other issues? This making and doing project explores how using community-designed flavor profiles to tell stories engaged stakeholders across the decision-making spectrum in conversations about what futures advanced water treatment technologies might bring about. By “making taste public” (Voss & Guggenheim 2019) through a family friendly product, a gourmet popsicle, this making and doing project highlights new possibilities in expanding public deliberation around sustainability transitions while also revealing new challenges in the process of moving conversations beyond the subjective stage of the “yuck” factor into the realm of concerns about systems.