The visualization makes the argument that indoor air quality numbers (as measured by the ethnographer) cannot be read simply as a reflection of pollution from the outdoors. Rather the ethnographer suggests that there is an interpretive context within which these numbers can be understood. In this case the highway breeze interacts with smoke from the residents in the building to create particular effects that are reflected as the numbers.
The image has been created by the ethnographer to juxtapose the reading from air quality monitor and images of the highway with respect to the apartment, and a view from the apartment. It shows relative distance from the apartment and the highway in a horizontal manner, though the caption refers to the depth as well. The window seems dusty and brown, which could be read as aesthetically representative of the poor air quality.
The image is striking and points to many scales at which we can think of air quality--personal air quality within an apartment, air quality from outside the building, sources of air pollution within the building. Each of these points to different processes which produce toxic and poor air quality. I would be curious to see how the ethnographer thinks about air quality in relation to these different sources, and what it does for her thinking about the pollution from outdoors (the refinery, vehicular pollution, etc).
