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Covid Memorial Ticker

John Henry Thompson 2021

COVID MEMORIAL TICKER: Remembering in the Midst

At the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic my partner, Shindy Johnson, and I contemplated a response to the ever growing global impact on the lives of essential workers and the most vulnerable African-American and LatinX demographic within that population. More than anything, we were concerned that the lives lost were not relegated to the status of a statistic, and that the grieving survivors did not feel alone, isolated and unseen.

The Covid Impact Project and COVID-19-Impact Dashboard were born.

Which led to:

Memorializing the Pandemic with John Henry Thompson and Homer Jackson

The COVID-19 Impact Project: Extracting Stories From Data, 2021 Feb NYU-ITP Course.

The Covid Memorial Ticker, this installation.

How can a public memorial be presented for the many who have died (and will die) from the COVID-19 pandemic? The COVID Memorial Ticker explores one possibility as an installation on the floor of NYU-ITP. Total deaths in the USA per day from COVID-19 are displayed as simple squares. The death count for yesterday is shown along with the count of each preceding day, back to the beginning of the pandemic - February 2020.

There is a 10 second pause as each day is displayed for a few moments of silence for the deceased.

We have not become numb to the sheer scale of pandemic death in the USA, so we strive to keep the daily numbers in the public consciousness. We hope to communicate the ongoing nature of the pandemic and to let grieving families know that they and their loved ones are not forgotten.

Credit epvisual.com for initial support.

2021 02 02 covid 19 ticker - video Instrumental music credit Music credit: Madiba Johnson