Miasma #5 draws its name from the Pine Street Canal area Lawrence Barnes called a “miasmic frog pond” in the 1870s before lumber mills and coal gasification plants polluted it with coal tar.

The installation uses a 1920’s-era hand-crank forge grill to heat (char)coal, captured with a thermal camera and projected on a wall with an overlay of Tetrazine molecules chemical structure, a coal tar derivative. Below the forge, a fountain pours Mountain Dew soda, containing FD&C Yellow #5 food dye (Tartrazine).