The E(thi)co-Political Aesthetics of Designer Water: The Need for a Strategic Visual Pedagogy

Abstract

This essay attempts to affectively politicize the visual art educator to the global condition of water in the larger context of designer capitalism. The ethical concerns of “designer water” are raised within the broader agenda of ecosophy as inspired by Giles Deleuze and by the last great essay by Félix Guattari. The essay takes an aesthetic line of flight that rests its trajectory on “anti-globalization” forces of protest and on an astonishing multiplicity of artists who are sensitizing us toward “becoming water.” The essay ends with the work of Al Gore, whose pedagogy provides a lesson for art educators in a world of visual designer spin. Hopefully, the argument is compelling enough to initiate an ecological sensibility into the visual curriculum.