Toxic Semiotics

Toxic Semiotics is a video that weaves together a semi-fictionalized story about chemical waste being transported globally. In this story that set in the future, the narrator shifts between virus, fungus, and demon, and sometimes the story is told from a human/the artist’s perspective, to think about our porous and entangled existence in a polluted and toxic world. The video connects the toxic, militarized landscape of California and its visual similarity to the “other Mediterranean” landscapes (Lebanon, in this case), which brings forward the history of bioprospecting and militarization.