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2020-03-12
Two coworkers discuss the coronavirus oubreak, unaware that it will be the last day at the office for everyone before the Stay At Home order, in some cases permanently because 10% of the staff was laid off a month later. It illustrates the rapidity in which conditions can change.
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2020-04-05
I live in next to the Troon North Golf Course in North Scottsdale. At the begging of April, when we were first told to stay home, I realized that everyday there were hundreds of people golfing. This definitely didn't look like social distancing to me!
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2020-04-24
The title of this image specifically refers to the mask-ridden culture we are currently liviing in to contain the virus. It also refers to the 'silencing' of one's human/personal interactions, one's voice; one's community. In this isolation, the individual's pain and suffering become evident - not just for live's lost, people sickened, but loss of the 'normal'.
www.niloumakes.com
@niloumooch
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2020-03-30
A screenshot of a Facebook college meme group called "Zoom Memes for Self Quaranteens". As of 03/30/2020 it has 469,370 members. The group was created on 03/11/2020
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2020-04-17
Sign informing customers they must wear a face mask posted outside Nathan's Famous in Coney Island, Brooklyn.
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2020-04-24
Electronic sign in Prospect Park, Brooklyn.
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2020-04-29
Chalk writing found on Shore Road in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.
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2020-04-15
Sherri Denney was in the fourth day of quarantine in her home in Springboro, Ohio, when she thought about the toll the coronavirus was taking. She sat in her recliner chair and cried as the state’s governor checked off the number of dead and sickened, knowing there would be more the next day. Overwhelmed, Ms. Denney, 55, tried to put her feelings into words.
“Wow,” she began writing on an old sketch pad, quickly realizing the precise words would not come easy. “That’s all I can say. My emotions are ranging from sadness to fear to anger.”
The week before, a woman in Nevada turned to her own version of journaling. Mimi J. Premo recorded a video on her cellphone, giving voice to a kind of stunned weariness so many Americans are feeling. And in Indianapolis, in an interview recorded by two university research assistants, a man who is diabetic and H.I.V. positive talked about how the speed and unclear ways of transmission “freaks me out.”
The three accounts, snapshots of intimate moments during the pandemic, are a response to a call from historians and archivists across the country to document this extraordinary moment in history.
Universities, archives and historical societies, ranging from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History to a tiny college radio station in Pennsylvania, are rushing to collect and curate the personal accounts of how people are experiencing this sprawling public health crisis as told in letters and journals, audio and video oral histories, and on social media.
They are inviting people such as Ms. Denney and Ms. Premo to share stories and material from the 2020 coronavirus and its aftermath in real time. The idea is to bridge communal history and offer a fully realized look at the outbreak that can help the public, researchers and policymakers better understand how the pandemic permeated our lives.
ImageA journal entry by Sherri Denney. It was one of the first submissions to the coronavirus public memory project set up by Wright State University.
A journal entry by Sherri Denney. It was one of the first submissions to the coronavirus public memory project set up by Wright State University.Credit...Wright State University
Whether a somber handwritten journal or an endearing Instagram post, the contributions will offer a look at a nation attacked by a virus coast to coast. The stories document sickness and death. The profound disruption of American rhythms and rituals, evidenced by empty shelves and streets. The gnawing restlessness of sheltering in place. The ways people showed resilience and managed to still find joy.
“What we as contributors record is what the future generations will remember,” said Mark Tebeau, one of the project directors of a virtual archive founded at Arizona State University.
The team of historians and artists started A Journal of the Plague Year: An Archive of Covid-19 on March 13, two days after the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus a pandemic. The name was inspired by Daniel Defoe’s novel “A Journal of the Plague Year,” which chronicles the bubonic plague in 1665 London through the lens of one man.
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With the help of graduate students and scholars from about 20 universities, the archive has amassed more than 1,400 entries from 500 contributors across the world, including Australia, Peru and China.
Mr. Tebeau, a public and digital historian who heads the university’s public history program, said they are also reaching out to marginalized communities to ensure the project is inclusive.
One of the first entries came from Ms. Premo, 36, a customer service representative who lives near Las Vegas. She had not left her home for nearly a week in mid-March when she submitted the video. In the clip, just over two minutes, she wonders who might be stricken with Covid-19 next. A neighbor? A friend? A family member?
“No matter how many Skype meetings I have, no matter how much I am on Facebook, no matter how much I write in my journal and try to laugh through the tears, it feels so different,” Ms. Premo said.
“Living with this uncertainty is,” she added, pausing in the video, “it’s unsettling but I feel that no matter what happens, I guess it’s hope that keeps my spirits up.”
Video
Mimi J. Premo shared her thoughts in a video diary to Arizona State University.
Last week, the Library of Congress received its first Covid-19 collection: street scenes from New York, New Jersey and California by the photographer Camilo Jose Vergara. In addition to documenting stay-at-home life, mask styles, health care workers, the economic impact and how people are helping one another. The Library of Congress is also collecting web content, data and maps.
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History deployed a Rapid Response Collecting Task Force to chronicle the pandemic. “Museum staff is working to formulate a plan that achieves a balance between the urgency to document the ephemeral aspects of the historic turning points as they happen,” the museum said in a statement, “and the need to provide a long-term historical perspective.”
In response to the pandemic shutdown, StoryCorps, the story-sharing nonprofit, moved its platform online for the first time. Interviews that used to be recorded in a physical studio can now be done using video conference technology. The audio and a photo from each interview will be preserved in the StoryCorps Archive and with the Library of Congress. And students at Neumann University in Pennsylvania set up a series called the Coronavirus Diaries on the school’s radio station, WNUW-FM. Listeners record themselves sharing pandemic stories using a voice memo app or by leaving a phone message at the station. The diaries air hourly.
Local archives are also calling for oral histories and materials. The Atlanta History Center, for example, is asking the city’s residents for digital files and physical artifacts (the latter would be collected once the center reopens). The project, called Corona Collective, lays out how seemingly mundane items — a no-frills furlough notice, a handmade banner thanking emergency medical workers — help tell the story of how daily life in Atlanta changed.
Image
“Goodbye,” a drawing submitted to “A Journal of the Plague Year,” an archive of the coronavirus pandemic created by Arizona State University.
“Goodbye,” a drawing submitted to “A Journal of the Plague Year,” an archive of the coronavirus pandemic created by Arizona State University.Credit...Jeffrey M. Davis
Similar efforts are cropping up in big cities and small towns. Sometime during spring break in March, Jason Kelly, a professor at the Indianapolis campus of Indiana University, realized the coronavirus was likely to be the defining event for generations. For a professor who teaches digital public history, it meant something else, too: How people experienced the outbreak needed to be captured and organized in a searchable database. That was the seed of what is now the Covid-19 Oral History Project, based at the Arts and Humanities Institute on the Indianapolis campus.
Mr. Kelly turned to the 19 graduate students in his digital public history class and asked if they would put other coursework on hold to focus on the project, which uses “rapid response collecting” for Covid-19 lived experiences. Eventually the project will merge with the larger Plague archive
Such efforts to collect memories in real time was also used by groups after the Sept. 11 attacks, Hurricane Katrina and the Pulse nightclub massacre.
The page from Ms. Denney’s diary became one of the first submissions to the coronavirus public memory project set up by Wright State University.
“All of a sudden the pandemic was right here and personal,” said Dawne Dewey, head of special collections and archives at the university. “We put the call out because we need stories to help future generations understand this moment in history.”
The archive, partly housed on the fourth floor of the school library, includes the journals of survivors of the 1918 flu pandemic. One was written by Donald McKinney Wallace, a farmer who served in the Army.
Mr. McKinney was sickened with the flu in the fall of 1918. He was quarantined in barracks, separated from others by blankets hung from a wire. He wrote about the daily meal of soft boiled eggs and cold toast, feeling weak, a stubborn fever, isolation and the deaths of fellow soldiers — an account that could have been written today.
“A century ago, people told their stories in written journals,” said Ms. Dewey. “Now, we are capturing people’s thoughts and experiences through social media posts, email, audio and photographs.”
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2020-05-12
Article discussing the struggles of current high school seniors as they plan to enter college.
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2020-04-17
Walking along the boardwalk in Coney Island, a sign reminding the public how far apart they should stand appears.
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2020-04-29
Many residents in Brooklyn have posted signs outside their homes relating to the pandemic. This sign was found while walking around in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn.
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2020-04-12
Sign informing the public how far apart to stand from one another (6 ft.) near Belt Parkway entrance on Shore Road in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.
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2020-04-07
Walking along Shore Parkway, I see a locked gate and sign informing the public that playing in groups is not permitted.
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2020-04-24
Walking in Prospect Park, I see a sign informing the public of a playground closure.
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2020-05-10
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
Walking along Shore Parkway, I encounter this coronavirus graffiti.
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2020-05-11
Decenas de ciudadanos venezolanos llegaron hasta los exteriores de la embajada de Venezuela en Perú, ubicada en la cuadra 2 de la avenida Arequipa, en el Cercado de Lima, para pedir vuelos humanitarios que les permitan volver a su país de origen.
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2020-05-12
Artists criticise Brazil's president, Jair Bolsonaro, for ignoring the recent deaths of several authors, artists, and actors. Bolsonaro once cited a dictatorship-era torturer as his favourite author.
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2020-04-20
This project explores the consequences of the global pandemic of Covid-19 in my private life.
Fear, tranquillity, anxiety, relief...are some of many feelings that we have been experiencing during the self-isolation;
as an artist, everything I created during this moment have ended up relating to the present situation as it is undeniably
affecting many sides of my life. Therefore, I decided to create a body of work that "like a private diary" would register
what in the future will only be a memory.
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2020-05-13
feeling of isolation at the beginning of spring. acrylic on canvas.
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2020-05-01
N/A
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2020-05-13
We are cocooning in Donegal. Our house is beside my husbands parents. They are clearing their house. It’s almost like clearing a path to death :(
They are getting rid of stuff they aren’t using. Me and my husband aren’t stuff gatherers...but this was a memory he wanted to recapture. The sound and smell of coffee being made. We don’t have a coffee machine so there’s no pint in buying a new one when this one works. Also I miss going to coffee shops.
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2020-05-10
I was really bored and needed something to help me pass the time while stuck at home. I was able to purchase this paint by number kit online. I severely underestimated how much time it would take to complete this painting. The portion that is painted took me about three days of on and off work. I am still working on it, and I have all the time in the world right now.
It is interesting to see how different people pass their time during the pandemic. Some people are doing major projects while others just small ones. #CSUS #HIST15H
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2020-05-12
I saw this meme while swiping through an app called Ifunny. The image was amusing and very relatable. I realized in the moment that I did not actually remember what day it was because of the zero structure in my life now. It is a funny take on the situation everyone is in. #CSUS #HIST15H
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05/12/2020
The image is a permanent message posted on the game client of League of Legends since the quarantine began. As more people are spending time at home, the online gaming servers of League of Legends are being overburdened because too many people are accessing the game at the same time. This leads to game lag and increased strain on the internet service providers. This seems to be a direct effect of the Covid-19 outbreak since more people have free time, why not make time move faster by playing video games. I am certain there is increased traffic with all video games, online or offline, because video games are a popular source of home entertainment in today's world. Riot Games created the image. They are the company responsible for creating the game League of Legends.
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2020-05-12
#CSUS #HIST15H
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19/03/2020
Ashi is 6 years old. She wanted to draw a picture of a beautiful day.
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05/20/2020
An article posted to the site Reddit.com about a protest against the opening of a state in the US; it comes after several protests have been made against lockdown orders.
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03/02/2020
This was a series of pictures that My football team posted at the Special Olympics basketball tournament that my football team volunteered at. No less than a week after this event, an article came out in the Fremont tribune saying that there was a player at the event who had just tested positive for Covid-19. Following this news me and the rest of my teammates had to self quarantine for a week. This was tough for us players and our coaches because many of my teammates lived on campus and did not have access to a kitchen to cook food. But thankfully our coaches were able to bring everyone quarantined food one a day during our week long Quarantine.
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05/13/2020
For the first time in its 64-year-history, the Eurovision song contest has been cancelled due to the effects of Covid-19. This is the official statement from the European Broadcasting Union following the cancellation, and will be followed by an outpouring of support and efforts to celebrate Eurovision despite it not happening this year. #HUM402
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13/05/2020
HUM402 In April 2020, Masterchef Australia premiered its 12th season, and received the best ratings in years. As well as featuring old 'Fan Favourite' contestants, for a stressed out nation in lockdown the nostalgia, comfort, and domesticity of Masterchef, and the lack of other places to be of an evening, definitely contributed to the shows success. I know my family is hooked for the first time in eight years, and Masterchef has become something we look forward to doing together every evening.
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2020-05-12
Poem
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05/11/2020
The pandemic has had a severe impact on businesses everywhere, but especially small, local ones with not a lot of financial stability. In some cases, these businesses have had to shut their doors for good, not able to sustain the lack of revenue. In my hometown of Orangevale, the place pictured has been serving the community for over 40 years. Despite much popularity over the years, Annie’s Breakfast & Steaks had to close for good recently.
Since I worked as a busser here for over two years, this closure affects me personally. In addition to working there, I’ve been going to breakfast there since I was four years old. I also know all the waitresses, cooks, bussers, and managers that worked with me. It is tough to see a place that was a hallmark of my hometown close down. I feel that this photo exemplifies the true reality of economic hardship that is being seen all across the country.
As this pandemic goes on, we must understand what the long term economic, psychological, and social effects will be. For every day the lockdowns continue across the country, the future of our society becomes more uncertain. We must stay vigilant, healthy, and safe, but we must also find ways to get back to a sense of normalcy so that businesses like Annie’s don’t suffer a similar fate.
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2020-04-14
A picture of a page in my nature journal. I started a nature journal when lockdown was announced in order to make sure I was going outside every day and also to share with my girlfriend when quarantine was over. Communicating online is so important, but I also wanted a means to communicate with her that felt like it could be kept forever.
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2020-05-01
An article on how elements of 'lockdown culture' are attitudes and pasttimes commonly attributed to the lesbian experience.
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2020-05-13
little things- a poem
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16/04/2020
I saw that MMR was having a sidewalk contest and I wanted to enter something cool, so I started this project on April 15, 2020. My neighbors helped me a bit and when my project was about done, we were washing our hands out side and the water spilled all over my art and ruined it. The next day, I redid the entire project! And that day and it was just starting to get hot outside at the time, but all the work was worth it! I also wanted to make people walking by, smile and bring a little color into this quarentine! My Family and I also put bible verses around our sidewalk to give encouragement to everyone! What gave me the inspiration to do this chalk art? Well, I saw so many other people and kids posting and doing chalk art around their neighborhoods, and it made me want to be more creative!
#chalkart #mmr
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2020-04-01
"Um... for me it hasn't really because I'm not religious but for people in my town it has." "Mm... they can't go to thier church services or any gatherings or anything like that so everything they're doing is now at home and they can't go to their volunteer work for their church."
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15/04/2020
Spring is a magical time in the desert. The weather and cacti blooms are nothing short of amazing. My two young daughters and I spent a lot of time outside during this quarantine and always looked forward to our daily walks where we could admire the bright colors and unique shapes of the cacti blooms. We feel so blessed to live in such a beautiful area.
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2020-04-01
“I'm not sure. On the one hand, I do not want to be run or ruled by fear over the unseen or things that I cannot control. If for some reason myself or anyone in my family were to get covid and passed from it, as upsetting and sad as it is, it is a part of life and it is how the world works and sometimes bad things happen to good people. But I feel like the biggest thing is I just don’t want to be run by fear over something that may or may not be as big of a deal as most media persons are making it out to be.”
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04/07/2020
A local store (Fleet Farm) that sells firearms. Prior to the pandemic, the display had always been stocked full with brand new firearms. Now it has been picked clean of affordable personal defense handguns. Due to new fears citizens have amid the pandemic, a record number of firearms have been sold.
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2020-04-01
“I don't think it has really. To a point I’d say my faith has more affected my thoughts on covid-19.” “Sure, we're not gathering in person anymore so no church on Sunday no school none of that. We do have church on Sundays it's like live streamed to everyone. It’s sent out on Facebook so everyone is still going to mass but that's been one of the changes. Some of the nuns there are holding virtual rosary and like prayer group Zoom prayer group and stuff like that. So, they're still trying to be connected as much as we can but definitely some technical changes for sure.”
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2020-04-01
“I don't think it has. I think it's just as strong as it was before.” “We've been gathering over social media platforms. We had continued to do our one stay Bible study but unfortunately the past two weeks we’ve been unable to do so hopefully in the next couple weeks they'll be back up and running again.” “Unfortunately, participation hasn't been at its best. However, I’ve been using all the teachings that our fathers at the church have taught us and I've been applying that to the past couple weeks of my life.”
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04/03/2020
The Sam's Club in Eau Claire limiting soap for customers to one per item. This tells us the levels of desperation consumers went in panic buying basic items coupled with the disruption in supply chains that created shortages for everyday consumers.
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2020-04-01
"As the cases kept getting higher and higher, I felt more inclined to press into the God and press into the Lord um even as my anxiety and stress went higher and higher because of the fact that I kept thinking I might have it I might have it but I did not have it at all really."
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04/10/2020
It was a beautiful Spring day and called me to freedom but only nature is free these days.
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04/01/2020
This collaged journal page was written on a day I was worried and frustrated that my husband couldn’t get the post-heart attacks are that he needed.
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03/27/2020
Collaged page in my personal journal.
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2020-04-24
“Covid hasn't really affected my beliefs at all. It's just kinda given me more time to spend reading the Bible and praying and stuff like that. Also, I've been putting an emphasis on caring for people and reconnecting my family using FaceTime....”
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2020-04-01
“It's really re-upped my belief in God because I know that through God we will be able to get through this and everything is going to be okay in the end.” “We're not gathering at church anymore but we're doing Zoom meetings and we are having support groups online and that's been really helpful.” “We've been doing some food drives to get food to a lot of the central workers and the elderly and also just like providing emotional and spiritual support for those in need.”
