Search

This visualization invokes a neglected playground swing-set structure as representative of a toxic present. The image reads as memorial to a past —once part of vibrant family neighborhood supported by its relationship to a burgeoning automotive industry —and as uncertain future confronted with imaging ways to rebuild, reinhabit place as stitched in or out of the corporate fabric. This visualization focuses on the consequences of tying place so closely to economic industry.

The caption is rich in detail and provides readers a guide to the image. The language embedded in the caption is of loss and a sense of betrayal (dream-turned-nightmare) on a family and neighborhood scale. I wonder how a corporate scale narrative would texture this image, if and how the "old-new" equations have changed.  

I am uncertain if Ben Pauli photographed this image or found it. The season this photograph was taken is a strong element of the photograph, adding to the sense of desolation (even the trees in the foreground and back are barren). It is almost monochromatic. 

This image is rich in ethnographic import. As a documentary image, I do not know how I would enrich it. 

The visualization situates an abandoned playground as symbol at the fulcrum of temporalities in order to highlight the automotive industry's impact on community life. This image represents the toxic present based on corporate promises of an American Dream that collapsed. I am curious and hopeful about the possibility for independent future visions pointed to in the caption. 

We tend to think that we learn from our mistakes, but history has shown us that we don’t.  This image reminds me of Kim Fortun’s approach to late-industrialism, but at the same time seems to suggest a return to the “industrialist” economic model. It points to the tension between economic realities, toxicity, global politics, the concept of (re)development, among others. In this case, a paternalistic corporation was good at making people dependent on it.

Changes don’t come easy and I’m sure that it’s hard to get out of this model of dependence.  The author states that residents are more aware of toxicity in their lives. I would love to know what residents are doing to reflect their awareness. What kinds of toxicity are they exposed to? Is there a history of cancer in the community for instance (I’m thinking about Christine Walley’s work here) Is the community doing something to become less dependent on corporations or are there no alternatives?

It is an image created by the author that portrays toxicity in a very graphic way.  This is what we expect to see when we hear the words toxicity, it’s almost a cliche.  A destroyed playground in a dry landscape with leafless trees in the background perfectly represents toxicity.  But in this particular place it also lets us know that once there were families and children there.

The photo itself says a lot.  I think it would be interesting to have a smaller size image collated to this one, with the new factory in the front and the same old playground at the back, making the “whose development” statement even stronger.

.