The forced confinement due to the Covid-19 pandemic has been framed as a condition from which to reassess modern life's habits and values, and build upon such reassessment in order to reimagine a more sustainable and equitable future. A ubiquitous feature of such confinement has been the transition from physical/presential modes of expression and interaction to virtual ones, typically supported through electronic platforms. In the current conditions of physical distancing and confinement, electronic-platform culture presents a tension between two opposite but coexisting aspects – isolation and connectedness – both of which it seems to amplify: the former through its implication of physical distance, the latter through its global reach. My poster will offer a reflection on today's recourse to electronic platforms under conditions of physical confinement in light of physiological evidence and philosophical ideas, in particular the work of ancient Chinese thinker Zhuang Zhou's (369-286 BC) emphasis on contemplation as vehicle for the achievement of virtue and wisdom.
isolation
The criminal punishment system in the United States confines over two million people in overcrowded, unsanitary, and unsafe environments where they cannot practice social distancing or use hand sanitizer and are regularly subjected to medical malpractice and neglect. EXPOSED documents the spread of COVID-19, over time, inside these prisons, jails, and detention centers, from the perspective of prisoners, detainees, and their families. Quotes, audio clips, and statistics collected from a comprehensive array of online publications and broadcasts, are assembled into an interactive timeline that, on each day, offers abundant testimony to the risk and trauma that prisoners experience under coronavirus quarantine. On July 8th alone, there are over 100 statements included in the interface — statements made by prisoners afflicted with the virus or enduring anxiety, distress, and severe hardship. Unfortunately, their words are all we have. Since the first reported coronavirus infection in the US, incarcerated people have been subjected to extreme forms of isolation — visits have been suspended, phone privileges restricted, and the use of solitary confinement expanded exponentially. Prisoners are stranded in quarantine without adequate food or medication — abandoned and unseen. EXPOSED reveals the overwhelming scope and scale of this humanitarian crisis. The monochrome, image-less, headline-styled interface, which allows viewers to step through thousands of prisoners’ statements, is designed to visualize their collective suffering, and signal that the injustices they endure are structural.
--
The quotes, audio clips and statistics included in EXPOSED are excerpts from a wide array of online publications and broadcasts. All excerpts are linked in the interface to the original source.
(Author's description on project site)



By: Sharon DanielDesign and Programming by: Erik LoyerResearch Assistant: Brian MyersResearch Interns: Alyssa Brouwer, Nailea Castillo, Brandon Castro, Anysia Deak, Srijeeta Islam, Jacinto Salz, Charlotte Schultz
Wandering Meimei / Meimei Liu Lang Ji is a bilingual interactive fiction app designed for mobile interfaces for the Chinese market. This story is an intertext to the traditional Chinese comic strip, Sanmao Liu Lang Ji (Wandering Sanmao), a homeless boy. Meimei, meaning little sister, is an allegorical character and contemporary representation of the largest migrant population the world has ever seen: the migrant female factory worker. Through the app, you can make contact with the character Meimei who works in a smartphone factory in the Pearl River Delta city Guangzhou. Meimei's only technology and access point to the outside world is through her own phone. The social media hub and interface enable you to enter and become a part of Meimei's story.
(Source: ELO Conference 2014)


Curlew is an interactive, multimedia poem about one man's encounter with the forces of nature. The narrative centers on Catsinas, a fisherman living alone in a makeshift shack on Curlew, one of several barrier islands in the Gulf Coast known as the Chandeleurs. Based on a true account, the story chronicles the man's futile attempt to save Curlew's shoreline to a storm's destruction of his adopted home.

The work entails the use of a Kinect Game System that allows for the audience to interact with the poem and participate in the narrative.
A visual poem created with Macromedia Flash. It pictures a self that strives with closure and isolation. The theme of the work is the relation between individual world and external environment.
(Source: 2002 ELO State of the Arts gallery)



An old 3.5" floppy disk found on a deserted road turns out to contain a disturbing narrative.

Flash version requires Flash Player 6 or higher. Open source version requires Javascript enabled browser. Compatible with iPad.