The Obituary of Aral Sea- Balancing aesthetics and performance in the Anthropocene

Abstract

If the extinction of a place is irreversible, how do we design the slow, beautiful death of a place? With the Aral Sea’s desiccation as a site for landscape design intervention, this thesis highlights ecological markers to create a range of instructional encounters of Aral Sea’s slow demise. In the face of irreversible anthropogenic extinction, the markers signal to future generations the effects of human activities such as extractive water diversion, cotton plantation, fisheries, and open-air bioweapon testing. This thesis includes five ecological marker events that provide an alternative to restoring the hydrological system. They include salt narratives of the brine pool, rapid decay of a shipwreck, tillage mounds of resistance, sand accumulating machines, and growing a licorice corridor. Working with nonhuman entities such as sand, salt, and licorice, these markers slow down desiccation processes, promote the coexistence of nonhuman agencies, and form new ecological relationships.