Time on the waterline : coastal reclamations and seawalls in Sydney and Japan

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Abstract

Coastal reclamations may represent humanity's overreaching lust for land, but from where I stand in 2015 on the beach below the reclamation at Elizabeth Bay on Sydney Harbour, gazing at the sandstone seawall, what compels my attention is the way this reclamation is giving up its substance to the sea. As the geological time of the wall engages with the rhythmic time of the sea, my own geosubjectivity comes momentarily into view. Recollection of the reclamation park of the 1980s as a gay cruising site sparks a consideration of how open minds and touching bodies in that decade form a background conducive to closer human-nonhuman relations in the present decade. Finally, moving to the Seto Inland Sea, Japan, to reflect on the time of concrete, I examine the historical move from stone to concrete as the favoured material for seawall construction.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)53-65
Number of pages13
JournalJournal of Contemporary Archaeology
Volume5
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2018

Keywords

  • Japan
  • Sydney (N.S.W.)
  • concrete walls
  • queer theory
  • reclamation of land
  • sea level
  • sea, walls

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