Due to the scope of the image, my eye first went to the broader expanse in the background. It wasn't until reading the explanation that I looked closely enough to see the transposed rods from the exhibition. I wonder if there isn't any way to scale this differently so that this could be conveyed more clearly as it seems to be the most salient point of the image.
Immediately, I want to know more about this image. Is County Club Drive the name of a residential street (and thus houses ARE built there), or is it a road that leads to a county club, and thus marketed as an elite recreational space? In either instance, how does class factor into this visualization of toxicity?
In your caption for the image, you state that it "makes claims to stop future housing developments." I don't know when this mapping project began or the date for this image, but I'm curious - was it successful is discouraging new housing developments?
To get at my earlier questions about class, how can we collage this image with a Zillow type visualization that shows relative property prices of developments in this area? How can that help us to see the intersectionalities of toxicity and socioeconomics?
One of the strongest elements in this work, for me, is the potential for this project to illustrate, ethnographically, new configurations around property, value, etc. based on these new forms of infrastructure DNA, which is the data infused in zip codes and area codes and addresses. These living, public biometrics are measured in terms of exposure and this informatic shows that. Rather than walkability, is there an air quality measurement in the property's portfolio? Will there be soil samples as part of the house tour? I think this image carries a lot of hypotheticals about the future.
It is a representation of toxicity in immigration policy both formal and informal in creating the political climate around immigration.
I have an emotional reaction to the convoluted way in which policy manifests itself as represented by the image.
My gaze is fixed first on the face and then upon the word "alien".
This is an extremely evocative and powerful ethnographic image. The strength of emotion behind Juan's eye's forces the reader to consider what was he feeling at this moment in time? Did he know what was to come next (stripping, sprayed with pesticides, dehumanization)? Was he angry, humiliated, frustrated - or a complex mix of many emotions?As an aside - given that you (Salvador) and Juan share last names, are you related? If so, what types of information might you have access to that an outside researcher would not?
This image encourages a conversation about the state's role in creating and managing toxicity. Such an ID card would support James Scott's idea of state legibility of its subjects.
