The Toxic in Public Discourse: Art, Media, and Digital Spaces

Abstract Digital toxicity names both targeted harm and ambient conditions within networked life. This article analyzes interactive works associated with the National Film Board of Canada ( NFB ), including HIGHRISE (2009–2015), God’s Lake Narrows (2011), Bear 71 (2012), A Journal of Insomnia (2013), Circa 1948 (2014), Do Not Track (2015), The Space We Hold (2017), and Motto (2020). The argument elaborates the Canadian aporetic condition as a method for reading contradictions – reconciliation and colonial governance, stewardship and extraction, multicultural ideals and uneven power – and shows how these works embed ethical participation into form. Drawing on interactive documentary scholarship together with Indigenous and critical political thought and an anonymized dissertation study, the article identifies three recurring strategies – situated interactivity, ethical address, and infrastructural literacy – that redirect platform habits toward accountability. Rather than promise purification, these projects model art as a public service that cultivates protocol, attention, and responsibility within digital publics.