Counterflows: Hydraulic Order and Residual Ecologies in the Dominican Landscape

Abstract

This article argues that transnational capitalism is buoyed up by a “hydraulic order:” a paradigm that advocates unfettered flows of capital, commodities, and people as conduits for development. I trace the asymmetries of this paradigm through the landscape formations and visual economy of the Dominican Republic’s mass tourist industry, highlighting how the State exercises “hydraulic power” (Deleuze &  Guattari) to produce and regulate a Caribbean fantasy landscape. Against this spectacle, I analyze recent landscape representations in the visual arts to argue that in making visible residual ecologies, and marginal places and subjects, they create counterflows to hydraulic order.