I started taking pictures of these squares of gravel that appear systematically on the streets of my neighborhood. What I really wanted to do was somehow get an overhead shot, a bird’s eye view, of all these squares, because from any other angle they don’t seem to be distinguishable from the rest of the road in a photograph. These squares are what remain when construction crews come in and try to directly see the water pipes that lie underground. Sometimes the pipes are replaced; sometimes they dig only to check that the pipes are made of lead, and if they’re not, the pipes are left alone. Pipe replacement continues to be an essential, basic need for the entire city of Flint. Maintenance involves its own destruction in need of further repair. I hear high-income property owners in neighborhood associations talk about these squares primarily as aesthetic blemishes, inconveniences like the ubiquitous potholes on Michigan roads. This tends to be an evaluation made primarily in terms of conformity to an ideal of urban roads amenable to the smooth transit of cars. I tend to read this sentiment as a class-specific (i.e. resonating with home-owners, car-owners, etc.) reaction to the squares that emphasizes neighborhood aesthetics over neighborhood toxics. Expanding beyond a defensive position toward property damage, is there another perspective from which to view repair in terms of rigorous and ongoing toxic amelioration that begins but doesn't end with changing pipes?
Cite as
Anonymous, "Repair", contributed by Elena Sobrino, Center for Ethnography, Platform for Experimental Collaborative Ethnography, last modified 3 March 2020, accessed 19 April 2024. http://centerforethnography.org/content/repair
Critical Commentary
I started taking pictures of these squares of gravel that appear systematically on the streets of my neighborhood. What I really wanted to do was somehow get an overhead shot, a bird’s eye view, of all these squares, because from any other angle they don’t seem to be distinguishable from the rest of the road in a photograph. These squares are what remain when construction crews come in and try to directly see the water pipes that lie underground. Sometimes the pipes are replaced; sometimes they dig only to check that the pipes are made of lead, and if they’re not, the pipes are left alone. Pipe replacement continues to be an essential, basic need for the entire city of Flint. Maintenance involves its own destruction in need of further repair. I hear high-income property owners in neighborhood associations talk about these squares primarily as aesthetic blemishes, inconveniences like the ubiquitous potholes on Michigan roads. This tends to be an evaluation made primarily in terms of conformity to an ideal of urban roads amenable to the smooth transit of cars. I tend to read this sentiment as a class-specific (i.e. resonating with home-owners, car-owners, etc.) reaction to the squares that emphasizes neighborhood aesthetics over neighborhood toxics. Expanding beyond a defensive position toward property damage, is there another perspective from which to view repair in terms of rigorous and ongoing toxic amelioration that begins but doesn't end with changing pipes?