The Sappi Papermill was right across the street from my favorite local ice cream shop--The Frosty Cove. I'd sit and enjoy my ice cream overlooking Muskegon's namesake lake, but two smokestacks, as well as their accompanying odor, were always there too. They were part and parcel of the experience. My Michigan was never "pure" like the image before. It's industrial roots were always there, layered and woven into the state's natural beauty.
For the Muskegon communtiy, these smoke stacks told a spatial story.. fixitated along this shoreline they told a story of immigration, success, decline, national and state politics, globalization, toxicity, and even now, with their disappearance, they tell a story of promise, a nod to the future. The demolition of these two smokestacks symoblize more than a specific moment in time. They are sedimented with different layers of history that look to the past and future. I want to use this collaborative project to help animate this story in all of its complications. This story isn't "pure" like the image that was shown before, but it's not purely toxic either.
Visualization Post-2008
Imposing landscapes...
The Sappi Papermill was right across the street from my favorite local ice cream shop--The Frosty Cove. I'd sit and enjoy my ice cream overlooking Muskegon's namesake lake, but two smokestacks, as well as their accompanying odor, were always there too. They were part and parcel of the experience. My Michigan was never "pure" like the image before. It's industrial roots were always there, layered and woven into the state's natural beauty.
For the Muskegon communtiy, these smoke stacks told a spatial story.. fixitated along this shoreline they told a story of immigration, success, decline, national and state politics, globalization, toxicity, and even now, with their disappearance, they tell a story of promise, a nod to the future. The demolition of these two smokestacks symoblize more than a specific moment in time. They are sedimented with different layers of history that look to the past and future. I want to use this collaborative project to help animate this story in all of its complications. This story isn't "pure" like the image that was shown before, but it's not purely toxic either.