This visualization creates a temporary toxicity inventory in Pasadena, California. Based on a series of documents, the author illustrates how the discursive practices that make toxicity or the slogan invisible in the distant past can be visually intervened. This intervention illuminates what was erased or circumscribed to the past, transforming it into a colorful visual representation of the (lineal) temporalities of toxicity.
The visualization tells us the fourth-part of a story about a toxic place, which aims to change its historical past marked by war-era toxicity through a renewed narrative detached from its toxic past. However, other narratives emerging from local activists put into consideration the untold history in the new development planning. Therefore, the visualization shows us a constructed reality of toxicity, with different representations and imaginaries through time.
This visualization says that toxics are often purposely rendered invisible through discourse and imaginaries around places.