Post 4 - Nicolette Tsamos

I care about drawing connections and sharing my observations with an audience through creating images and using found materials, specifically concerning the status of local ecosystems. Despite many understanding that the Earth's functions rapidly deteriorating is negative, an inherently scientifically objective idea, there is resistance to accepting this truth. To deny the false claim that climatic change and urbanization are not directly related to the conditions of living through late-stage capitalism, I want to provide a lens into the problems already developing from our failing economic system and growing corruption.

Differences in housing construction, pollution of air, soil, & water, and decreased quality of life and mental health due to lack of green spaces, are some of the effects on human life. Animal and plant life are equally impacted by pollution, habitat loss, and the replacement of permeable with impermeable surfaces, along with other biophysical processes associated with urbanization. I must convey the intersectionality of this issue when addressing it. People of color, people who are disabled, people who are unhoused, etc. receive the brunt of the effects of urbanization. However, urban settings also provide very high social capital which is simultaneously extremely valuable to human well-being. I want my audience to understand the connection to the pollution of our environment through my images and presentation. I imagine it will be received as a reminder and as a timestamp of our current stage of degradation in the Anthropocene.

The examples of my work in this post will fulfill my mission by presenting a tool we use to track the levels of local pollution in New Jersey watersheds. I plan to display soil samples of differing levels of contamination alongside a map including the sites they were sampled from and other highly contaminated areas.

                

18 x 24, Charcoal, Unititled