Out of words: The æsthesodic cine‐eye of Robert Gardner: An Exegesis and Interview

Anthropological evaluations of the film work of Robert Gardner have been compromised by their reluctance to engage with it as art, and more broadly, to celebrate rather than vilify the aesthetic possibilities of the genre of ethnographic film. Even recent experiments with reflexivity have done little to challenge the realism that undergirds anthropological reception of non‐fiction film. By contrast, this article and interview considers Gardner's work as both anthropology and art. In particular, it addresses the evolving dialectic of the verbal and the visual in his films, from Bhinden Harbour (1951) to Passenger (1998). It also argues that recent efforts by anthropologists to rethink the concept of culture from a post‐semiotic perspective, foregrounding corporeal embodiment in the constitution of culture as much as the self, expand the theoretical boundaries of visual anthropology. In turn, it suggests that this reorientation towards sensation and perception should allow for a more approbatory understanding of Gardner's films.     

A Novel Dual-Compartment,Continuous-Flow Wetland Microcosm to Assess Cis-Dichloroethene Removal from the Rhizosphere

The anaerobic biodegradation of tetrachloroethene commonly results in the accumulation of chlorinated intermediates such as cis-1,2-dichloroethene (cDCE). Frequently, groundwater contaminated with chlorinated ethenes discharges to natural wetlands. The goal of this study was to quantitatively evaluate the effects of wetland plants and microorganisms on the fate of cDCE in the wetland rhizosphere. To accomplish this goal, a novel dual-compartment wetland microcosm was designed. A Phragmites australis individual was maintained in the microcosm, which was operated with continuous flows of air and mineral medium through the foliar and rhizosphere compartments, respectively, to incorporate mass transfer/transport processes that are important in natural wetlands and allow steady-state assessment of changes in dissolved O₂ and cDCE or [1,2–¹⁴C]cDCE levels. Substantial amounts of [¹⁴C]cDCE were phytovolatilized through a healthy P. australis individual to the foliar chamber. Rhizodegradation by native microorganisms associated with P. australis roots also converted substantial amounts of [¹⁴C]cDCE to ¹⁴C-labeled CO₂ and non-volatile compounds, presumably through cometabolic reactions that could be enhanced by the release of O₂ and exudates by P. australis. These results suggest that, in some cases, the intrinsic capacity of native wetland plants and microorganisms to remove cDCE from the rhizosphere may be substantial.