In/between science and art: Posthumanist ruminations on Geomatics education

Abstract

This paper reports on a pedagogical intervention in an engineering curriculum at a South African university of technology. A storytelling intervention was introduced into an undergraduate geomatics diploma programme, and was theorised using critical posthumanism. The storytelling intervention was introduced in the curriculum to investigate how points of compatibility between the ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ sciences can be identified and demonstrated, as called for by numerous theorists. It was also used as a means to develop students’ social, environmental and ethical awareness, as well as to foreground student subjugated knowledge through the lens of geomatics. The basic tenets of posthumanism are explicated and the philosophy is used as both a navigational and analytical tool. A cartographic, diffractive methodology was developed (mainly from the work of Rosi Braidotti and Karen Barad) and employed for analysis. The analysis shows that geomatics education in South Africa is intensely humanist and anthropocentric, even though there have been attempts to reform the curriculum. It makes the case for fostering novel relations across disciplinary boundaries, and contributes to the development of transformative pedagogical techniques that are aimed at decolonisation and social justice.