Search

The visualization and supporting caption poses an interesting question about protest and dissent, not just in its forms but more so about its place in a fragile world. Can demands for green futures accommodate demands for secure labour, and in this particular case, in industrial spaces that link heavily to the fossil fuel economy? The image and caption lay bare that crisis, of a toxic paradox that never fully reveals itself. Perhaps the caption can play more to the unsettling nature of the question, locating the crisis of water, industry and labour in Flint a bit more explicitly.

The caption could definitely use a little more detail on Flint's water crisis. The question it poses is valuable and extremely vital and thus suggest a little more detail on the environmental conditions. Perhaps, building on some ethnographic data, maybe somehting someone said that struck you during the UAW strike, slogans raised, a small anecdote, might be helpful in bringing some proximity, for the viewer, to the people in the image, and on strike. 

I am assuming this is a photograph that was taken by the ethnographer. I find the juxtaposition between protesting auto workers (to the left of the frame) and the line of cars (lower half of the frame) a fascinating moment of tension that speaks to the myriad forms of toxicity that exists in one space. 

As stated in a previous response, building on the ethnographers experiences that day and through the image, might be helpful in seeing the people, place and protest a little more closely. 

I believe the most important statement this image makes is about dissent and its role in visualizing toxic conditions, be it precarious labour regimes or polluted drinking water that find presence in the everyday life of particular places. 

The visualization presents a glocal narrative of toxcities by linking the widespread phenomena of environmental and labor crises with local poltical economic conditions and issues of water scarcity.

The image can be morphed with visuals of various strikes to visually nuance the ethnographic caption.

It is captured by the ethnographer during the fieldwork and presents an interesting perspective visual of the strike with the surrounding landscape (of roads, cars, signals, etc.) and the sky.

The caption can be modified to include more narratives of the toxic relationships in Flint. This would help situate various scalar phenomena already discussed in the caption.

The artifact captures the widespread, interconnected, and intertwined realities of the toxicities at various scales in Flint. It utilizes the process of protest to unravel dialectic between economic and ecological realities.