Covid Zoom Chat
Durasi: 04:05
Oleh: Renee Melchert Thorpe
Asal: Bali
Deskripsi:
This is a short video piece abstracting the phenomena of friends meeting up in a virtual space during the pandemic. It is a new world, but I am not sure if humanity has made sense of it all just yet. I wanted to capture some of the anxiety and confusion broadcast in the heighth of the pandemic, while not ignoring elements of simple decency witnessed by me daily. This work let me play with and transform the realities and illusions of the pandemic through a collage of images and sensation.
People around the world have varying levels of tolerance for this sudden human need to stay in one place, and even in rural Bali, people turned to their televisions and internet to keep a connection to the world. The simplest technology (wear a face mask, social distancing) and the most sophisticated (satellite tv, social media on smart phones), were used by seemingly everyone in my world. Under lockdown, following local public health rules, images of the world came to me via the satellite and internet, and my closest friends were helpful villagers and yet also those far away to whom I was connected via a chat service called Zoom. I was keenly interested in policy updates and news from Hong Kong, Jakarta, and the United States, but sometimes the media’s images and messages were in stark contrast to the peace of my daily routines of living.
The sheer human dependence upon connection and communication, may just transform and overcome the media’s channels of chaos and ruthlessness.
People around the world have varying levels of tolerance for this sudden human need to stay in one place, and even in rural Bali, people turned to their televisions and internet to keep a connection to the world. The simplest technology (wear a face mask, social distancing) and the most sophisticated (satellite tv, social media on smart phones), were used by seemingly everyone in my world. Under lockdown, following local public health rules, images of the world came to me via the satellite and internet, and my closest friends were helpful villagers and yet also those far away to whom I was connected via a chat service called Zoom. I was keenly interested in policy updates and news from Hong Kong, Jakarta, and the United States, but sometimes the media’s images and messages were in stark contrast to the peace of my daily routines of living.
The sheer human dependence upon connection and communication, may just transform and overcome the media’s channels of chaos and ruthlessness.
