Goldstein VtP Collaboration Biography

 I am drawn to the VtP project because I am interested in mercury contamination. In its vaporous form. Mercury is invisible. It also has no smell. Classified as a long-range global pollutant, mercury can travel up to 9,000 miles. So while the place of mercury contamination might be specific, its effects are mobile. I am thus interested in both the situatedness of the “place” of Madre de Dios (Mother of God), Peru and its relationship to mercury usage in artisanal and small scale gold mining as well as the possible dis-location of mercury’s mobility. Making mercury contamination visible is not hard – you can see it in the destroyed landscape. Getting gold miners to “see” the toxicity of the liquid mercury that they use to amalgamate with the gold as well as to “see” the invisible mercury vapor has challenged public health officials and environmental scientists alike.