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May 28, 2026

What Leaks Through

Contamination, emergence, and the things that seep past barriers

Barriers fail. Chemicals seep into groundwater. Information escapes containment. People rise from the floor.

Australia is suing 3M for $1.4 billion over "forever chemicals" — substances designed to never break down, now leaking into everything. In Washington, eleven people are presumed dead after contamination poured into the Columbia River. In Iran, after months of enforced silence, people are finally emerging online with skepticism intact.

Some things can't be contained. Today we look at what leaks through.

After the Fire, Water by Dana Svetliza
Contamination

Australia sues US conglomerate 3M for $1.4 billion over 'forever chemicals' contamination

PFAS. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances. They call them "forever chemicals" because they don't break down—not in decades, not in centuries. They're in the groundwater now. They're in the blood. 3M knew. This cyanotype captures what comes after destruction: "After the fire, water arrives — not as urgency, but as a slow process." That's the horror of forever chemicals. The urgency has passed. The contamination happened years ago. Now it's just the slow process of discovering how far the damage spread, how deep it went. Vegetal forms in negative, memory of what was. The drops mark passage of time. Time that means nothing to chemicals engineered to last forever.

After the Fire, Water

by Dana Svetliza

"This cyanotype records a moment of pause and waiting. After the fire, water arrives — not as urgency, but as a slow process. The drops mark the passage of time."

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Encantado do Rio by bosquegracias
Disaster

11 presumed dead as recovery efforts resume in Washington chemical tank rupture that sent contamination into Columbia River

The Columbia River has carried life for millennia. Salmon, trade, civilizations. Now it carries contamination from a ruptured chemical tank, and eleven people are presumed dead. This piece was made at the Quemquemtreu River after an evacuation—art created in the aftermath of displacement, at the meeting of water and forest. "Encantado do Rio"—enchanted by the river. We are enchanted by rivers. We build beside them, drink from them, dump into them. When the tank ruptured, the enchantment became a curse. The river doesn't care. It just flows, carrying whatever we give it downstream.

Encantado do Rio

by bosquegracias

"Artistic work created at Quemquemtreu River — El Bolsón, after the evacuation of Bosque Gracias. Techniques of drawing and 3D, collab between @qabqabqab y @olhosdesuna."

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BUGOUT by Kyle Flemmer
Fraud

Federal prosecutors charge Google engineer for allegedly using insider info to make $1.2 million on Polymarket

He worked on AI. He had information. He used it to bet on prediction markets, allegedly pocketing $1.2 million. The system glitched, and someone exploited the glitch. BUGOUT: a glitched NES game, corrupted in real-time, then recomposed. The original game was about heroes fighting evil forces. After corruption, it's just chaos—pixels misfiring, logic broken, the underlying code exposed. That's what insider trading looks like when you zoom in. Someone found where the game was broken and made money off the corruption. The dirty dozen indeed.

BUGOUT

by Kyle Flemmer

"Screen recording of SD Hero Soukessen - Taose! Aku no Gundan (1990) for Nintendo Entertainment System glitched with Real-Time Corruptor and recomposed in Aseprite."

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A person getting up from the floor by Ilya Bliznets
Emergence

Iranians emerge online with skepticism and defiance after months of blackout

They cut the internet. For months, an entire country lived in enforced digital silence. And now? They're back. Not grateful. Skeptical. Defiant. "A person getting up from the floor"—the title says everything. Not leaping up triumphantly. Not bouncing back. Just the slow, deliberate act of rising after being knocked down. The dithered, fragmented image feels like dialup, like a connection slowly resolving, pixel by pixel. Iran is getting up from the floor. The blackout leaked something it wasn't supposed to: proof that the people can survive without the internet, and proof that they want it anyway. On their own terms.

A person getting up from the floor

by Ilya Bliznets

"AI, digital painting and dithering collage. 2000x2000px. For the event OBJKT4OBJKT 2026."

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The Permeable World

Nothing is watertight. Chemicals seep through soil. Information leaks past firewalls. People emerge from blackouts. Engineers exploit the cracks in the system.

We build barriers and the world laughs. Forever chemicals that refuse to die. Secrets that refuse to stay secret. Silence that can't hold back the signal forever.

What leaks through today? And what will you do when it reaches you?

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