Acid mine drainage (AMD) is the result of complex interde-pendencies between geological, ecological and cultural agencies. Its effects have been disastrous throughout the world, including in South Africa’s Witwatersrand region. Colonial and capitalist attitudes toward the environment have precipitated the contemporary situation; scientific approaches to remediation must be complemented by the development of alternative sensitivities. Sound art may work toward such an end, as discussed in this paper via Acid Love, an installation produced for the Watershed conference in Johannesburg in collaboration with the Centre in Water Research and Development (CiWaRD) at the University of the Witwatersrand. The piece, inspired by poet and performance scholar Fred Moten’s articulation of the term ensemble, presents AMD as an expression of unreconciled yet interdependent human and nonhuman action [1].
Johannesburg has its origins in the extraction of gold and labor from the Witwatersrand Basin—one of the oldest geological formations...