Archaeology and the technological revolution : an interdisciplinary fine art investigation of contemporary water infrastructures within the context of the Maltese Islands

Abstract

This research emerged from sustained engagement with domestic water systems, the infrastructures that quietly enable everyday routines. My initial encounters were not dramatic but rather mundane, through exposing pipes, discovering improvised repairs and observing water vessels being adapted through use. These encounters prompted a growing awareness of how such systems operate largely unnoticed. Over time, these observations become the point of entry into a wider investigation of water infrastructures as material, temporal and archaeological phenomena. I have long been interested in how materials obtain meaning through use, maintenance and neglect. In this research project, water systems became a lens through which contemporary technologies are investigated as they become ever more embedded within domestic landscapes. The domestic setting revealed itself as a site where wider concerns intersect with everyday acts of repair, adaptation and care. Throughout the research, my practice evolved through iterative making, fieldwork, documentation, and installation. Methods such as digital photogrammetry, material experimentation, and site observation were not employed as illustrative tools, but as ways of thinking through the work. Making becomes a form of inquiry, allowing questions to emerge from the material process itself rather than being imposed in advance. In this sense, the practice also operates through a form of speculative archaeology, where contemporary infrastructures and material traces are approached as fragments open to reinterpretation, excavation, and future projection. Rather than reconstructing fixed histories, the work speculates on how present-day objects, systems, and environmental conditions may later be understood, remembered, or fossilised within the context of the Anthropocene. In relation to this, the artworks produced are not conceived as final outcomes, but as provisional artefacts within an ongoing investigation. They register moments of attention, pauses in a longer trajectory of research that remains openended. This dissertation is grounded in an understanding of practice-as-research, where artistic production functions as a mode of knowledge generation. Rather than separating theory from practice, the project treats them as mutually informing processes. Materials, installations, and visual strategies operate alongside critical texts to explore how infrastructures can be read archaeologically, even whilst they remain operational. The notion of technofossils is particularly significant, offering a way to think about contemporary materials as future residues embedded within human, technological, and ecological histories. The interdisciplinary nature of this research reflects my interest in working across the boundaries of fine art and archaeology. While the dissertation draws from theoretical frameworks related to the Anthropocene, infrastructure, and material culture, it does not attempt to provide a comprehensive survey of these fields. Instead, it engages selectively and critically with texts that resonate with the concerns of the practice, using them to extend and complicate the questions raised through making. The written component should therefore be read as a companion to the artworks and installations, offering context and reflection rather than definitive explanation. It is important to note that this dissertation does not aim to arrive at fixed conclusions or singular arguments. Much like the installations themselves, it maps a field of relations, tracing connections between domestic water systems, technological histories, and speculative futures. The emphasis remains on process, accumulation, and unresolved inquiry. By foregrounding fragments, repetitions, and provisional structures, both the practice and the writing resist closure, reflecting an understanding of research as an ongoing and adaptive process. Ultimately, this project positions fine art as a method of thinking through complex systems that are often difficult to grasp through conventional analytical frameworks alone. By engaging materially and spatially with water infrastructures, the research seeks to make visible the temporal and ecological dimensions embedded within everyday technologies. This preface serves as an entry point into that investigation, situating the work within my own practice while acknowledging that it remains part of a longer trajectory of research that will continue to evolve beyond the scope of this dissertation.