On his fourteenth journey to South Africa, Oscar Hemer repeatedly comes across the casual expression “going to the dogs” and starts reflecting on dogs and other companion species with regards to his ongoing exploration of “speculative anthropology”. When does something go to the dogs? Is there a correlation between contaminated diversity and decline? Even though contamination may appear to be a hopeless motto for political mobilisation at present, he arrives at the conclusion that it is the only option for a country—and a planet—increasingly pressured by essentialisms of multiple varieties that all counteract the fine balance of everyday conviviality.

The chronological travel account from March 2022 is juxtaposed with a parallel text, written before and after (October in Berlin), which from a slightly altered perspective reflects on the process and the form of the “Conviviality and Contamination” project.