In The Wake:
The Silent Drift of Environmental Neurotoxins
In the Wake: The Silent Drift of Environmental Neurotoxins is an interactive light-based installation that makes visible what is ordinarily unseen: the slow, pervasive spread of environmental neurotoxins that research has linked to increased rates of Parkinson’s disease. Created in collaboration with geographer and spatial epidemiologist Dr. Brittany Krzyzanowski, the work transforms complex mapping data into an embodied, sensory experience that connects scientific research to lived human impact.
The maps in this work are not imagined landscapes. They are real locations where contamination has been documented and studied by Dr. Krzyzanowski. In Montague, Michigan’s White Lake, trichloroethylene (TCE) from a factory site leached into the surrounding environment. In Walpole, Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Bird Machine Company released airborne manganese into nearby neighborhoods. In the windswept Williston Basin near Williston, North Dakota research suggests that the drift of agricultural pesticides may be linked to elevated rates of Parkinson’s disease. These places, and the communities within them, carry the long shadow of these invisible exposures.
These maps, created through a meticulous emulsion lift process, become delicate, translucent portraits of vulnerability. Their fragility mirrors both the tenuous balance of our ecosystems and the human nervous system itself. A network of LEDs and proximity sensors invites viewers to participate in the act of uncovering. As one approaches, dormant light stirs and spreads across the map in warm, flowing waves, revealing the invisible currents of contamination that thread through everyday landscapes.
In the Wake is not only a record of what has already happened but also a gesture toward what could still change. By revealing what is hidden, the work encourages awareness and action, reminding us that where we live should never determine our risk of disease.
More from Dr. Krzyzanowki’s research on Parkinson’s Disease: Proximity to Golf Courses and Risk of Parkinson Disease