This image of a storm water outflow underlies the way toxicity travels - a toxic “site” or “place” is never fully static, rippling and flowing in sometimes unexpected ways. National stories on Flint have so often focused on certain imagery (pipes, sinks and bathtubs filled with brown water), so it’s fascinating to see how toxicity in this context constitutes much broader social and ecological ecosystems.
Based off the graffiti in this image, I wonder - who travels near the storm drain? Where is it located in relation to the city of Flint? Does any graffiti refer to the water crisis or other issues you describe?
Unclear, although I assume it is created by the ethnographer. It’s centering of the drain, which lies under some kind of road or overpass, seems to underline the forgotten nature of the pathways of chemical toxicity. (Especially in relation to the first image, whose depiction of the former factory site also feels lonely and abandoned). The choice of season also enhances this aesthetic, depicting the landscape as barren in a particular way.
I really appreciate the historical contextualization provided in the choice of visualizations and captions here. It almost seems to write against spectacle... or at least, its general privileging in discourses on toxicity and disaster. Slow violence is certainly relevant here, although I don't feel like that fully encompasses the phenomemon you're getting at in Flint.
This picture visualises the opposition, but also the close proximity and inseperabability of the 'natural' river environment and channels of toxic industrial waste. It brings to the centre a storm water drain that may be easily overlooked otherwise.
The captionis evocative and explains the issue in a concise way. It gives the reader a sense of the residents of Flint and their experiences of living in this particular place and environment. A breif description of the presumed health effects of PFAS would clarify what is at stake with this recent discovery.
The image is a picture, but the source is not listed -presumably it is the author of the piece. The composition places the storm water drain right at the centre, drawing attention to it. As a black hole in an otherwise familiar-looking landscape it evokes the uncertainties and threats of the toxic flows that may be seeping into the river at this site.
I think this is a powerful image where the aesthetics and argument come together seamlessly, so I don't have any suggestions on how to enrich it.
This visualisation speaks about the ways in which toxics can be present yet invisble, the uncertainties around them and the local understandings and fears related to this not-knowing, or knowing after the fact, and the material traces and infrastructures of industrial projects through which toxics continue to spread and may be made visible.
