Water Works: Visualising Water Contamination
Abstract
This presentation is a Lightning Talk delivered as part of the Water@Leeds 2025 confluence. It sets out previous work on developing visuals for a digital story about water contamination in Bhopal created in collaboration with the Bhopal Medical Appeal as part of the LivingBodiesObjects project (University of Leeds/Wellcome Trust funded). It also sets out plans to develop this work further in the UK context by focusing on co-creating new methods of visualising water contamination and PFAs contamination with water action groups in North and West Yorkshire.
Full text
Water Works: Visualising Water Contamination Dr Lynn Wray (School of English/School of Earth and Environment) Current Research: Methods for Visualising the Health and Environmental Impacts of Water Contamination and Engaging Water-Affected Communities in Research
Image Credit: Drawing by Lynn Wray
Image Credit: Map adapted for Shorthand by Lynn Wray from original StoryMap by Chris Stringer
Image Credit: Sequential drawings subverting the Union Carbide advertisement ‘A Hand in Things to Come’ by Lynn Wray for a social media campaign by the Bhopal Medical Appeal.
Image Credit: Drawing by Lynn Wray
Image Credit: Drawing by Lynn Wray
Conventional documentary photography and film were ill-suited to the context: •Representational challenges of water contamination. •Political Context and Surveillance •Ethics and emotional burden. •Demands of the Attention Economy Clockwise from top left: LBO meeting with community activists in Brij Vihar, Bhopal. Jared (BMA) filming. Tabish Ali (BMA) interviewing a resident. (Photo Credits: Lynn Wray).