The Lab is a space of creation, experimentation, and collaboration between research, archives, and technologies.  We aim to generate knowledge that is relevant for science and relevant for local communities.  This is not just an assembly of devices (scanners, lights, tables, computers and “clouds”) but a human and digital network drawing on different trajectories and groups that comes together to expand our knowledge and narratives of the past and present of the waters of Cuyo. 

WaterS, Plural

If modern water (H₂O) was broken down, isolated, purified, and analyzed in a laboratory (as Linton 2010 puts it), we look to reassemble it in a historical, social, and environmental framework that lets multiple waters flow. Waters are not only a “natural resource” that can be manipulated and monetized.  Waters also embody multiple relationships and fertilize and propel histories that we are looking to uncover and explore. 

Regional/ Hydrological

By stressing the placename Cuyo we want to focus attention on the environmental and hydrological histories of the center west of Argentina. This region includes the Argentine provinces of Mendoza, San Juan, and to a lesser extent San Luis.  This framing is also aimed at a certain historical revision: recasting the place of the province sin national history and making visible territorial processes at a scale that is smaller than national or that exceeds political boundaries, because it is defined by the flow or deviation of waters (watersheds, oases, deserts, and so on).

Multilingual/ Transnational

Beyond our focus on the region of Cuyo, the Lab also aims to challenge geographic and national boundaries, in light of our multilingual and transnational composition. This focus also enables us to reflect on the global challenges of water from a regional perspective open to international dialogue.

Short History of Cuyo Waters Lab

Back in 2013, as part of a related research project, Mark Healey gained access to the archive, then known as the Archivo Pasivo, now the Archivo Histórico del Agua –of the Departamento General de Irrigación. That inspired Mark Healey and Facundo Martín to join forces to develop a project to explore and make visible this documentation. Out of this joint effort to catalog and later digitize the archive, a network of researchers and developers came together around a shared interest in making these materials accessible and visible.