A Pandemic Crisis Seen from the Screen: A Reflection on Pandemic Imagination

TY - CHAP

T1 - A Pandemic Crisis Seen from the Screen

T2 - A Reflection on Pandemic Imagination

AU - Pold, Søren Bro

AU - Rettberg, Scott

AU - Nacher, Anna

PY - 2024/11/1

Y1 - 2024/11/1

N2 - Since the COVID-19 pandemic faded in early 2022, the agenda has been overtaken by other major issues, such as the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, and this has led to a certain tiredness if not bare repression of the pandemic experience. However, we believe it is important to revisit the cultural experience of the pandemic not only to reflect on how it challenged us and our societies but also to point out alternatives that are still relevant now, even if other problems have occurred (see figure 12.1). In fact, the very experience of the pandemic as a hyperobject might be worth reflecting on, as we will attempt to do below, in order to understand and deal with other continuing hyperobject crises such as racism, inequality and climate destruction (Morton 2013). Our focus in the following will be on our research on electronic literature, digital artists and the pandemic, which we will present below, including a focus on our chosen work by the artist Ben Grosser The Endless Doomscroller, which will be put in relation to other works from our exhibition, collection and documentary.

AB - Since the COVID-19 pandemic faded in early 2022, the agenda has been overtaken by other major issues, such as the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, and this has led to a certain tiredness if not bare repression of the pandemic experience. However, we believe it is important to revisit the cultural experience of the pandemic not only to reflect on how it challenged us and our societies but also to point out alternatives that are still relevant now, even if other problems have occurred (see figure 12.1). In fact, the very experience of the pandemic as a hyperobject might be worth reflecting on, as we will attempt to do below, in order to understand and deal with other continuing hyperobject crises such as racism, inequality and climate destruction (Morton 2013). Our focus in the following will be on our research on electronic literature, digital artists and the pandemic, which we will present below, including a focus on our chosen work by the artist Ben Grosser The Endless Doomscroller, which will be put in relation to other works from our exhibition, collection and documentary.

KW - COVID 19 pandemic

KW - electronic literature

KW - net art

KW - digital aesthetics

KW - digital narrative

KW - electronic poetry

KW - hyperobject

KW - memory studies

KW - metainterface

KW - platform culture

U2 - 10.1386/9781789389869_13

DO - 10.1386/9781789389869_13

M3 - Book chapter

SN - 978-1-78938-986-9

T3 - New Directions in Media and Cultural Research

SP - 193

EP - 213

BT - Encountering the Plague

A2 - Sowa, Wojciech

A2 - Whyton, Tony

PB - Intellect

CY - Bristol

ER -