Carving Space and Time. Interruptions and (Un)Predictability in Infrastructural Design of Emeralds and the Mining Formalization in Colombia

Abstract

AbstractColombia accounts for 80 percent of the world's emerald market. The famous beauty of its emeralds is due, in part, to the delicate work that carvers have been developing for decades in downtown Bogotá workshops. They articulate the materiality of the stones, their bodies, and the carving machines, and take precise measures with a paradoxical aim: to exceed them. This way, the valuable qualities of emeralds emerge as surprises from the indeterminate relationship between measures and excesses. In this article, I show that Colombian carvers do this by constructing an (un)predictable space and interrupted time, related to the linear spatiotemporality of three recent political processes in Colombia: the peace agreement with FARC, the country's entry into the OECD, and the formalization of mining. Using “resource becoming” and infrastructures studies, I argue that this spatiotemporal conflict helps us to rethink the relationship between time, labor, and unpredictability in economic formalization and national pacification contexts.