Internationally sought-after semiconductors require tons of water for their production. But where does the water come from? And who gains access to it and on what terms?

Advanced semiconductors are largely manufactured at the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). However, the profit growth of TSMC is much more predictable than the rainfall in Taiwan in the past decades. Su Yu Hsin addresses the water network in Hsinchu, Taiwan in her film Particular Waters and underscores the complexity of global semiconductor supply chains from the perspective of water and scale. With hydropoetics storytelling, she reconstructed the drought in 2021 through the perspective of a female water truck driver. Insights gained through field research in collaboration with Prof. Ya-Chung Chuang of the National Yang-Ming Chiao Tung University, the hydrosocial engagement of semiconductor manufacturing and its ecological consequences are strongly incorporated into her artistic work.

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