On good days, St. Louis’s Air Quality Index sits on the high end of green—polluted, but not dangerously so. During these days, the city’s air is often just about to slip from the green “good,” to the yellow “moderate.”. As summer intensifies, the year-round pollution caused by the coal industry, tobacco use, and radon gas starts to take its toll. Original version published at http://www.2014missouriexhibit.org/ and short-text version displayed at Material Monster's physical exhibit.

Doctor House. Doctor Cox. Doctor Lecter. These names, these titles—they have weight. Some of it is their pop culture clout: they are fun, they are snarky, they say it like it is (even if one of them does eat people, and another is a space alien). But there is something more than that. “Doctor.” We know who they are. Stories about doctors are not exactly a new thing. Doctor Faustus gave way to Doctor Frankenstein, and so on. But like any story that doesn’t die, the doctor fable has changed, reflecting the culture around it. _ Alternate version in publication through ICSJ.

Reflection. You’re familiar with it, in its various forms. Your face in the mirror, your thoughts on a page; as the Latin suggests, little pieces of you are bent back on themselves and aligned on a surface for convenient viewing. Reflection often seems like arbitrary testing or busy work, the sort from which it would be nice to be freed in higher education.