Miriam Waltz Annotations

Miriam Waltz's picture
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What does this visualization (including caption) say about toxics?

Saturday, February 29, 2020 - 9:20am

This image speaks to the mutliple scales at which toxics operate when it comes to air pollution, and how they are entangled in political sruggles. It also speaks to how different types of data can be mobilised in the particular political framing of an issue as wither a question of social justice or individual rights.

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Can you suggest ways to enrich this image to extend its ethnographic import?

Saturday, February 29, 2020 - 9:17am

In the caption there is mention of political borders marked in red within the image, but I do not seem able to see this - only a purple makring of what I presume is the outline of Delhi. Are they the dark-grey rectangles? If so, maybe adjust either the image or the caption to avoid confusion.

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What kind of image is this? Is it a found image or created by the ethnographer (or a combination)? What is notable about its composition | scale of attention | aesthetic?

Saturday, February 29, 2020 - 9:15am

The image was made by the author and is based on NGO-generated data of toxic hotspots in Delhi overlaid with data from a scientific paper, with added political borders. This composition draws attention to toxic clusters near these political borders, illustrating the point that pollution is a social justice issue. The origin of the banner on the left is unclear to me.

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Can you suggest ways to elaborate the caption of this visualization to extend its ethnographic message?

Saturday, February 29, 2020 - 9:11am

I would suggest to possibly include more detail on ethnographic details of life in Delhi - who are the people living in the particular hotspots and other zones that are mapped? What are their experiences of pollution? What are the different political groups living within the indicated borders?

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How does this visualization (including caption) advance ethnographic insight? What message | argument | sentiment | etc. does this visualization communicate or represent?

Saturday, February 29, 2020 - 9:09am

The visualization supports the argument that pollution does, at least somewhat, stay inside particular (political) borders. The aim is to challenge a particular discourse of air-as-equalizer that stands in the way of a social justice approach to tackling air pollution by framing air as a human rights issue.

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