Items

• 
  2020-10-02

  Socially Distanced Formal Event

  HIST30060 This is a photograph of myself and three other final year Undergraduate students at Ormond College, The University of Melbourne, taking a socially distanced group photo before "Club Dinner." During non-COVID times, this is normally a major event for students and is one of the most anticipated events of the year. Given COVID restrictions, the dinner was not able to run as normal, but students still took the opportunity to dress up in formal clothing and share socially distanced dinner and drinks. Personally, this photo is one of my favourite to come from this year featuring my friends and I, because it shows an adaptation to abnormal times. It is, I suppose, an attempt to find normalcy.
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  2020-05-01

  Street art in South Melbourne

  Outside my work the council of Port Phillip commissioned an artwork on Coventry Street South Melbourne by Bridgette Dawson who goes by Melbourne Murals. She remastered the renaissance creation of Adam masterpiece dedicating the work to physical distancing. This piece developed throughout March when social distancing was fairly new and the mural demonstrates the way social distancing impacted everyday life. During this period the council of Port Phillip organised an initiative for property owners to register their buildings to have murals painted on the exterior. This would give artists work during a hard financial time and would deter graffiti. Port Phillip council also created a map for viewing their new street art installations, encouraging new walking paths when life seemed on repeat. I see this artwork nearly everyday and customers continually comment on it and smile about it. It’s a reflection of how COVID changed our lives and the spaces around us in South Melbourne.
• 
  2020-10-29

  Kmart Online Booking System

  My housemate and I looked in to opening hours once the stage four restrictions were lifted and retail could reopen. We were surprised to see that we could book online to get first preference in entering a Kmart store, which is a feature completely non-existent before the pandemic. Although necessary to ensure social distancing, booking online to enter a store further digitises our everyday lived experiences. This may not be an issue for people with access to the internet like myself, but it has the potential to further ostracise people with limited or no access to technology. HIST30060
• 
  2020-04-08

  Jewish Melbourne: The Plague Year Hypertext Haggadah

  An interactive hypertext haggadah I wrote for my family’s Zoom seder in 2020. I used Twine, a popular open-source, interactive fiction tool, to write a choose-your-own-adventure haggadah. It was the first zoom-based seder I had ever attended, and I didn't know how long my family would tolerate technological difficulties and the often awkward, fragmented conversation that some Zoom conversations/events can descend into. (Let alone the near-impossibility of group singing via zoom). Apart from this, it’s fairly common in my family, as in many others, that parts of the seder are skipped over, or their inclusion is contested, and I thought that trying to conduct a seder via zoom would only make people more eager to get it over with and reach Shulchan Orech, i.e. the getting drunk/ shittalking part and then call it a night. Writing/Compiling a hypertext haggadah was my attempt to facilitate a more fluid seder, in which parts could easily be skipped over on the night, among other reasons. In practice in turned out to be a bit of a shemozzle, which is partly due to some technological illiteracy among the mishpachah, and also partly because my hypertext haggadah is a rabbit warren (over 5,000 words spread over over hundreds of individual pages joined by hyperlinks), and so moments of anarchy would often ensue when people strayed from the communal path (which I enjoyed tbh, but were clearly frustrating to my uncle, whose ideal seder is basically the Two-Minute Haggadah: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2013/03/the-two-minute-haggadah.html)
• 
  2020-04-03

  Jewish Melbourne: 'Zooming in on Pesach'

  Newspaper article by Rebecca Davis and Sophie Deutsch, published in the Australian Jewish News, explaining that "Religious organisations are reminding the community that they must not allow visitors into their homes for seders this Pesach, noting “these measures are about saving lives”."
• 
  2020-08-07

  Jewish Melbourne: 'High Holy Day Services in the shadow of Covid'

  Newspaper article by Rabbi Yonatan Sadoff (from Kehilat Nitzan) in the Australian Jewish News, 7 August 2020.
• 
  2020-04-14

  Jewish Melbourne: South Caulfield Hebrew Congregation Pesach Reflections

  On 14 April 2020, Rabbi Daniel Rabin from South Caulfield Hebrew Congregation recorded a livestream from the shul with "Some reflections pre last days of Pesach and Yizkor on Thursday." This video was streamed to facebook, where it remains.
• 
  2020-09-14

  Jewish Melbourne: article in The Age - "Preparations under way for Jewish New Year - without synagogues and big dinners"

  This is a newspaper article by Carolyn Webb and Hannah Schauder, published in The Age on September 14, 2020, entitled "Preparations under way for Jewish New Year - without synagogues and big dinners". It covers what different rabbis and synagogues are doing for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur
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  2020-09-11

  Jewish Melbourne: Blake St Hebrew Congregation Shabbat Services

  Throughout the lockdown, as synagogues have been closed, Blake Street Hebrew Congregation has conducted Shabbat services via zoom, and shared videos on their Facebook page. At times this has involved singing with Moshe Hendel Feiglin for Mincha, which can be seen in this video.
• 
  2020-06-23

  Jewish Melbourne: Jewish Holocaust Centre's AGM

  On 23 June 2020 the Jewish Holocaust Centre in Melbourne held their AGM. In their announcement of the AGM they told members "In light of the COVID restrictions, admission to the AGM is by registration only to ensure we comply with Government restrictions and maintain safe distancing." The photos from the AGM show people gathered together, but sitting at a safe distance from each other.
• 
  2020-04-25

  Social Distancing at the Supermarket

  This photo depicts a supermarket in Tasmania, Australia, where social distancing measures are being enforced. Red tape is used to create a line where customers have to queue prior to entering the store. The staff member to the left of the image is counting the customers as they enter the store to enforce the customer limit.
• 
  2020-03-28

  James Boag's poignant press ad

  I saw this ad in our local paper on the first Saturday after the toughest social distancing restrictions were announced with gatherings in public of more than two people prohibited. I felt this was a very poignant press ad placed by a well-known, sturdy, enduring, local brand. It empathised with the public as well as encouraging support for the distancing measures.
• 
  2020-04-24

  Car Service details

  Extra precautions not normally required
• 
  2020-04-20

  Protect the Elderly not the 1%

  This graffiti went up in April inext to the Prahran Market, Stonnington, one of the areas in Melbourne with the highest count of Covid cases, which is also very affluent. The reference may refer to the poor compliance to lock down procedures in this wealthier area, with many residents of the suburb attending the market and not adhering to social distancing rules. I took this image after visiting the supermarket next door to the market for essentials. I was distressed by the number of people socialising at the market and not complying with social distancing measures, and came across this graffiti immediately after. It struck me as particularly relevant.
• 
  2020-04

  Feeding the Locals

  At night when I look outside my loungeroom window I can see lights dancing in the shadows. It gives the comfort of life going on, a party, a celebration. But of course that's not what is happening. It's just a guy trying to save his business by reinventing it for Isolife XOXO
• 
  2020-04-24

  Street as playground

  With social distancing in place and stay-at-home rules, kids are playing more in the street right outside their own properties.
• 
  2020-04-09

  "Eyes in the Sky"

  The Mercury (online) published on its daily coronavirus blog an article entitled, “'Eyes in the sky' to monitor travellers.” The article informed the public that helicopters would be used over the coming Easter long weekend to ensure Tasmanians were adhering to social distancing and lockdown laws. HUM402
• 
  2020-03-29

  First zoom birthday party

  One of my son's classmates turned 5. We were invited to make cupcakes and zoom into a celebration - it felt poignant, and incomplete.
• 
  2020-03-20

  #behindthemoat

  This captures the island nature of Tasmania - Australian but not. I saw it the first day of a 14 day travel related isolation, a moat within a moat
• 
  2020-03-25

  Papa bear in an Urrbrae House museum window at the University of Adelaide's Waite campus, South Australia

  Inspired by the book 'Going On A Bear Hunt' by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury, people across Adelaide started putting teddy bears in their windows for children to find when they were out walking. Like all museums in Australia, Urrbrae House (a historic house museum} was closed to public visitors due to Covid-19 social distancing restrictions. So during the museum's closure, the Urrbrae House manager decided to put three teddy bears - Mama, Papa and Baby Bear - in various windows of the building for local children to spot. She then alerted people to look out for the bears via social media with the following post: "Mama, Papa and Baby Bear at Urrbrae House heard that bears all over Adelaide were sitting in windows to enjoy the sun and offer a smile to anyone going by while on a safe social distancing walk. While the museum is closed and our bears are in social isolation, they thought this was a splendid idea and have joined in." The picture represents one way people tried to remain connected during the pandemic and a desire to bring joy to children and their families at an uncertain time.
• 
  2020-03-23

  Is it still OK to go for a walk?

  Advice about walking, and how it is making people feel
• 
  2020-03-31

  Playground closed

  All the local playgrounds closed from today. This one is Rossi Reserve in Ford Street, Ivanhoe.
• 
  2020-03-31

  Rosemary for remembrance (and roast lamb)

  Neighbourhood in virtual lockdown but some people leaving out excess for others, corner of 14 Waterdale Road and Latham Street.
• 
  2020-03-31

  New park rules appeared today

  We are going for a walk every day for exercise, noting as the days go by new signs and information about social distancing. These signs were not there yesterday, and the teenagers playing basketball at the hoop and the kids playing on the playground have now disappeared. Just groups of two, or families with a few more, walking slightly furtively past one another. And many more bicyclists whizzing past on the shared paths — have already seen a bingle or two.
• 
  2020-03-24

  Social sequestration at the shopping mall

  Taped up seating at the local shopping centre
• 
  03/24/2020

  Alexander Oral History, 2020/03/24

  Alexander describes how his life has changed in the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic lockdown. Some of his challenges include teleworking for a new job, watching over his kids now that they can’t go to school, and coping with shortages of necessities and lack of normal entertainment such as sports. He talks about how he thinks it is a good thing that his kids are not at school, as primary schools are known to be germ spreaders. Alexander conveys his hopes that the lockdown will end soon and normal life will be able to continue.