The visualisation shows us political leaders of an area experiencing both floodings and water shortages engaged in a ritual to address the water scarcity. The argument is that this amounts to political apathy, and we get a sense that this is all these leaders do in this regard.
The caption is quite brief and could be elaborated in different ways to extend the ethnographic message. It would be interesting to know more about the political situation that is described, as well as the place that is mentioned, Chennai. What is the extend of the flooding and the water scarcity, how many people are affected, what are their experiences? What is this ritual and how can we understand it in this context?
The image is from a newspaper article, so it is a found image.
One way to potentially enrich the image would be to circle the politicians that are mentioned, or somehow make them visible, or annotate their appearance with relevant quotes or quotations of their failures in governance.
This visualisation speaks to toxic politics of apathy or disregard of particular types of measures to protect citizens from the effects of flooding and water scarcity.
This visualization presents political apathy on climate change by showing the political leaders of Tamil Nadu participating in a discrete event: a ritual praying for rain. The critical commentary is dense and layered. If I understand correctly, the critique of political apathy centers on a critique on inadequate governance and infrastructure to address cycles of flooding and drought in chennai. Yet the photo shows political leaders engaged in an action—its effectiveness in doubt—but they are not displaying apathy. The disjunction provocates.
I think the caption could be expanded. As I noted earlier, a whole essay is embedded in this visualization. I would like to see more elaboration of the term, "political apathy" as I think that's such a weighted, rich frame for understanding this image.
This is a found image. It includes a photograph as well as source caption and a "trending" box. The photo is the central focus of critical commentary. I notice one woman in the photograph of dozens of male leaders (political and religious??). Most of the men are wearing white. The woman is in a brightly color sari. One man has a turquoise shirt on and another a tumeric and red colored scarf. They are oriented toward the photography and are gathered around a fire vigorously burning. Most are standing, behind a seated (on the ground) semi-circle of men.
This image is rich with ethnographic import. It is a found image. I would not know how to enrich this image further.
This visualization indexes climate change and political apathy. It is part of a larger photo essay which focuses on global urban coastal places as sites of toxicity. The cycle of flooding and drought in Chennai shape the image and commentary. This visualization is about the toxic politics that surrounds issues of governance and climate change within coastal communities.
