Inspired by Cody Dock's scientific initiative, a charity and social enterprise steering community-led initiatives to regenerate local waterways in East London, this animation highlights the "killer shrimp," an ominously named "invasive1" species that serves as a pivotal indicator of water quality within the catchment.
The animation unravels its interaction with the urban waterways in the lower catchment of the River Lea in Newham, East London. The killer shrimp's enduring presence unveils the haunting echoes of industrial activities on the river—transnational shipping, pollution, canalisation, and vegetation destruction. With a carefully chosen colour palette, the video captures the shadow of industrial pollution on the delicate living conditions of the killer shrimps.
These feral entities 2 find themselves navigating new habitats shaped by the unintended consequences of human actions. The animation illustrate the interplay between human-altered waterscapes and the shrimp's influence on these evolving environments.
1 The term "invasive" is used here to describe the ecological impact of the killer shrimp on the local environment, acknowledging the nuanced and sometimes problematic associations with xenophobic discourses. 2 Tsing, Anna L., Jennifer Deger, Alder Keleman Saxena, and Feifei Zhou. Feral Atlas: The More-Than-Human Anthropocene, Redwood City: Stanford University Press 2021
