Items

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  2020

  VART 3030 Fordam University, email of assignment prompt

  Email from Casey Ruble, an instructor at Fordham University, VART 3030. Asked students to "familiarize themself with the archive and begin posting images etc. of their observances of the world around them." Students submitted to archive during the Spring semester 2020
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  2020-12-03

  Connecting Past COVID-19: #3

  When this professor’s students hold up signs for him on camera in their Zoom classroom, he is more excited to see their faces for the first time after they had kept their cameras off all semester.
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  2020-12-04

  Connecting Past COVID-19: #2

  The professor of this class is not sure whether her students’ cameras are off intentionally or if she had made a mistake. She is subsequently surprised by her students holding “We love you” signs, saying she loves them back and asking to take a screenshot.
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  2020-12-09

  Connecting Past COVID-19: #1

  At first, the professor of this class thought that he had done something wrong when all of his students’ cameras were turned off on Zoom. He then thought it might be a new cool trend. He was surprised and emotional when his students surprised him with hand-made signs showing their thanks.
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  2020-05-12

  Liminal

  When trying to remember the year, I think of the last few weeks before we left. There was something in the air that made this semester — this particular semester — feel like the end. And so, maybe we laughed harder and louder than we did before. And we cried so much more and we tried to do what we could to enjoy ourselves — to hold onto what we had left. And we had dance parties and dinner parties that made us feel alive and supported — no one was alone. Although we’ll be back at some point, it will feel like starting over again. And maybe that’s good, maybe that’s necessary. And maybe we’ll come back and say, “Hey, it’s nice to meet ya! My name is ...” because things have changed. We all will have changed. But maybe, just maybe, it will be better than before.
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  2020-05-12

  Sequestration

  The intention of my short film “Sequestration” is to serve as an atmospheric piece that reflects the fears of our current reality. I aimed to achieve a sense of uneasiness in this film through the audio and visuals captured in my own neighborhood in South Florida. The unusual emptiness resulting from the circumstances of COVID-19 inspired me to play off of the themes of loneliness and isolation when capturing footage. Despite the dark nature of this film, I really enjoyed making it and it served as a great stress reliever amidst the coronavirus pandemic. I think it is important to take advantage of the therapeutic effects that creating art can offer us in these difficult times.
• 2020-05-10

  A Walk through Covid-19 Brooklyn: We're all in this Together

  As college seniors approaching our last few months, we have all been talking about how we wanted to spend our final days together. We were aware of the reality of having more responsibility after graduation. And just like that - the time we had left vanished. It isn’t fair that our college experience didn’t have the closure it deserved. It wasn’t supposed to end like this. But among the things that seem unfair right now, who am I to complain about something so selfish and short sighted? My college is in the Bronx, and while most people returned home to their families for quarantine, I simply switched boroughs. New York City is a warzone, over 200 people are dying everyday. One day, the death toll exceeded 800. And while I have never seen my city mourn like this, I have never seen it come together like this either. Every night at 7 pm, Maryann, two houses down from mine, stands in her driveway and plays “God Bless America” on a speaker for all the neighbors to hear. Amanda that lives down the block became a licensed nurse a few months ago. Her mother, Fran, has made a hobby of making masks out of old fabric. My sister spends hours on the phone talking to her special education students and their families about the adjustments being made. As a result of this pandemic, Dalia across the street has had an increase in patients wanting appointments because of the increase in mental health problems. When I go for my daily walk, everyday I see a new sign thanking healthcare and essential workers, signs saying things like, “Brooklyn Strong!” Nothing brings people together like tragedy. There are differences among all these people I have mentioned and they are all being affected in different ways. However, at the end of the day, any one of us can get sick. We are all human. We have different ethnic origins, identify as different genders, practice different religions, have different mental and physical disabilities, but viruses don’t care about that. Although certain health or economic factors may make specific groups more at risk for serious illness from the virus, a virus is non-discriminatory when it comes to the presence of cognitive or physical disabilities. It will survive and debilitate any human body. We all share a common enemy. During this pandemic, so many different kinds of people are fighting for something bigger. This fight against a force imperceptible to the human eye has in fact diminished differences, brought people together to fight for change in new and influential ways, and shown the strength of the fabric of our society.
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  2020-04-06

  Rainbow Series #15

  #friendswhogive was started to teach my children that GIVING to others can be just as rewarding as receiving, especially at the Holiday time."- Denise Heckelman, Founder #friendswhogive organized a "rainbow hunt" for kids. Families can post drawings of rainbows in their window and as children walk and bike ride around they can count how many rainbows they pass along the way. #FordhamUniversity #VART3030 #RainbowSeries