This visualization does a great job of highlighting the high stakes and enormous scale of the problem posed by petrochemical industries. It invites viewers to think about toxics as global citizens connected to an interlinked system of consumption and pollution.
The answer that comes to my mind is ‘scale’, this image and caption introduce nicely the idea that the local ethnography is part of a global problem. One then wonders what is the scale of the environmental damage behind each of those petrochemical plants.
It was unclear to me the meaning of each number on the petrochemical sites, also I was wondering which of those is your fieldsite.
I understand this image is part of a bigger project, and it really works for introducing the global scale of the petrochemical activities.
It says that petrochemical-related toxicity is part of a global business.
Maybe a way to connect it more clearly to the geographical site of your ethnography.
I find this article crucial for thinking through any ethnographic work, but especially for visual representations of toxicity. The question of representation in visual material is just as important, if not more so in some instances, than that in text. There is a certain "excess" to visual material, the likes of which can either powerfully evoke ethnographic questions or else perpetuate a violent ethnographic gaze.
Scott Jung seems to be telling a story about making a place online for oppositional work (by bureaucrats) that needs to stay out of view.Rose and Benedict want to tell a story that prompts an imagination for decolonized computing… They see this as work toward “regenerative narratives” that helps us imagine decolonized futures (referencing Octavia Butler, et al and Horkheimer & Adorno, 1944)...
Hae Seo Kim: This is a story of re-location, quite literally and figuratively: moving North Koreans into the body politic of South Korea. The spatial story told here could be about techniques of re-location: plastic surgery, learning to vote; etc. I can imagine a photo essay, with each image about a technique of re-location, linking to a photo essay with supporting material. Gehad Abaza has a story about repatriation… moving people back into places (demonstrating something about ways modern states work).
The image draws attention to the everyday lives of those who must clean up coastal toxicity/pollution. The caption is short and informative and doesn't get into the details of what is going on and why. There is another caption (not critical commentary) associated with the image that goes into more detail, but could be more concrete in terms of describing what is going on in the image, who the workers are, how the land and sea are affected and why. It feels more descriptive than analytic but nonetheless is very interesting.
