​PROJECT DNBA

Many of Katjanelson’s notes refer to her MFA thesis project: “An Examination of the Indexical Configuration as an Art Work Using Monitoring of Air Pollution as One Hypostatic Source”. The work was part experiment, part activism. Katjanelson (then Janoff) stamped two hundred white flags with the acronym DNBA, (Do Not Breathe Air) and a serial number. She left each flag at a different New York City location for two weeks, photographing them when they were pristine, and again upon their retrieval. This systematic test of the effects of urban soot and vehicle emissions on the environment was ahead of the conservation movement curve. As she followed up on the data she collected, she pursued sophisticated scientific ideas that supported the integration of bureaucratic systems with her conceptual thesis. Reading Heidegger, Katjanelson dwells on “stereo chemistry” - the study of spatial relationships of particles that compose a compound. Her notes include her examination of the structure of hydrocarbons and the invisible damage the atmosphere was inflicting on humanity. While these notations inform her thesis project, her preoccupation with the unseen structure of the material world was deep and sustained.

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