An understanding of pattern, affect- five senses in process, disrupted by what Lefebvre understood to be the simulacra- the present. This exercise as brilliantly described by J.Stein as a methodology can be used to indicate power relations that may be connotated as natural, or part of the landscape.
what happens when we sit outside of meatpacking factories? what can we see as part of the natural landscape- and how did or does it collapse in a time of crisis? Due to the limitations of COVID, and the actual historical development of meatpacking factories, the “rural” is preferred over the urban for these plants. It is argued that there is a correlation between locale of the factory and union organizing potential (Horowitz 1997).
I created a visual aid to stimulate affect by manipulating pattern with color distortion. I surveyed top news reports that addressed the lack of PPE and COVID-19 death– and compared them to pre deindustrialization and pre consolidated meatpacking areas. In the 20th century, meatpacking factories shifted between four to five major companies until the 1980’s. Following, these factories became part of multinational conglomerates steeped in global logistics, detached from local sourcing of animal products. These factories began to employee folks waiting to be in status all over the global the south. With that development, these rural factory communities situated and organized continuous waves of immigrant contributions toward development- creating a new territory.
What is silenced when people as workers, as contributors to an environment are not shown? What is amplified when we see infrastructure as the important aspect to reconcile during a time of organized abandonment? I gathered these questions and placed them with Empire’s Tracks by Manu Karuka (2019)- Karuka would argue that the amplification of infrastructure dominating the narrative of the failures of these processing plants lends itself to a particular counter-sovereignty.
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