Videos
[Colors of Remembrance]
Computational Drawings: Custom software, CDC COVID Data, Projector
dimensions variable
2020-ongoing
This project is a virtual memorial to those who died during the COVID19 pandemic. During the lockdown, I would look out the window and wonder if my neighbors were ill or dying. The scale of the crisis was difficult to comprehend. This project was created during the lockdown. Each day new statistics were released, a new drawing was made. Each drawing represents the people who died on that day in the pandemic, with each date appearing briefly on the lower right. Each line represents a person. Each line in the entire project is given a completely unique (sometimes subtle, but computationally distinct) color.
The main version memorializes those who died in the US, and I have done memorials for other locations such as a particular state, or a different country.
Digital drawings begin with the Pantone color of the year for Spring 2020, starting with the first death in the COVID pandemic. In the United States, that date was on February 29, 2020. Originally I thought the project might be a 3-6 month project, but the last exhibition visualized two solid years.
Aesthetically, I use the formal language of minimalism and reintroduce narrative by approaching these drawings as visualizations, with each line representing a person lost to the pandemic that day. By creating drawings that act as both a visualization and a memorial to those lost to the coronavirus pandemic, I engage with the tragedy of the scale of loss, to hold a space for each person, with all their uniqueness.
Technical notes.
This project is written in javascript, with data pulled from publicly available data. The colors are set via HSV settings. The days cycle through Pantone colors, sorted by hue. Each year we go through the whole set of hues. The background hue is taken from 180 days from the current day color. The code takes the saturation value of the color of the line color, and juxtapose light and dark colors on the spectrum. If March 5th’s hue value is above 70% brightness, the background will be offset to 20-30% brightness, with the hue pulled at a 180 day offset.
I loop through hue values every year, but each line color is unique based on its saturation and value.
Exhibitions
- “Hope is a thing with feathers,” solo exhibition at Nancy Littlejohn Fine Art, Houston TX 13 May -3 July 2022. Exhibition Catalog.
- Biennial of the Americas, COVID-19 Memorial Virtual Exhibition, 15 June – 18 July 2021.
- Telematic Media Arts. “The Archive to Come”, San Francisco, CA, USA. Curated by Carla Gannis and Clark Buckner, 22 October – 17 December 2020.