Digital Memorial Ticker
Remembering in the Midst
By John Henry Thompson and Shindy Johnson
Grieve, Mourn, Memorialize
In the darkest days of the pandemic the scale and pace of the loss of life overwhelmed us. We were deeply pained to think of all of our fellow Americans – especially New Yorkers – many of whom were dying alone and scared. Our hearts ached for the families of the deceased whose traditional community-centered ways of mourning and grieving were upended. We tried to comprehend the compounded trauma of loved ones left behind to grieve in an environment where a hug was a fearsome thing.
Concept
We never became numb to the sheer scale of pandemic death in the USA. As the number of COVID-19 dead mounted… as the pandemic waxed and waned, “surged” and receded, we strove to keep the daily numbers in the public consciousness.
The COVID-19 Digital Memorial reflects our desire to wrestle with a pandemic over the course of 3 years where the scale of loss almost necessitates a degree of anonymity. This memorial is our way of holding space for us all to reflect and know that our loved ones are gone but not forgotten.
“The number is manageable. We will treat it as a debt that can be forgiven one day. Forgiven and forgotten.”
COCO FUSCO
Whitney Biennial Reflection on COVID-19 and the unmarked graves of Hart Island, NYC.
A Grim Design Challenge
In the winter of 2022, the highly contagious Delta Variant of the COVID-19 virus swept across the world, the United states experienced several consecutive days of staggering loss of life. As our COVID-19 Impact Memorial Ticker faithfully trudged backwards from the statistics of 01/21/2022 to 01/20/2022 and then on to 01/19/2022… we ran out of space in the ticker window. The number of pixels that we use to represent each life for tsome of the consecutive days: 01/21/22 and 01/19/22 COULD NOT ALL FIT in our ticker window. For us, this represented a very grim design challenge. How do we design a memorial for a mass death event while in the midst of that event?
January 17-21 Snapshot Memorial Ticker Web Preview
COVID-19 Memorial Ticker at NYU Tisch/ITP Snapshot on January 26, 2022 1:31PM. Photo taken as we were arriving at ITP
Memorial Ticker in Community Spaces
Installation at NYU’s Brooklyn Campus: “Remembering in the Midst”
How can a public memorial be presented for the many who have died from the COVID-19 pandemic? The COVID-19 Memorial Ticker explores the concept of “Remembering in the Midst” as a public facing installation in the lobby of New York University’s Brooklyn campus at the historical 370 Jay Street building.
Total COVID-19 deaths per day in the USA 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 been fighting this pandemic for far too long, but we have to resist becoming numb to the sorrow. Because in order to heal, we must remember.”
President Joe Biden
Large Scale Outdoor Projection, Flatlands, Brooklyn, NYC
Here we demonstrate how our ticker can be used in public memorials. Outdoor projections require unobstructed access to a highly visible building with a surface free of windows and other apertures. This projection is on one wall of a building that houses some activity of the NYC Department of Education in Flatlands, Brooklyn NY.
We use a Optoma projector with a Manfrontto 055 tripod. A power source for the projector is mandatory. We used an outdoor power source with and outdoor extension cord.
The ticker projection can accompany localized memorials that include images and obituaries of the deceased.
COVID-19 Impact Project Memorial Projection
Memorial Ticker Projection Closeup
Memorial Projection on Public Building
Experimenting with Memorial Projections in Brooklyn
Large Scale COVID Ticker Projection
Backyard Projection Setup
Hyper Local Memorials
Technology: p5VideoKit developed by John Henry Thompson
The p5VideoKit a control panel for mixing video in the browser. It allows the user to apply visual effects to live video from connected cameras or streaming from other devices on the internet. p5VideoKit is designed to be re-usable and extended with an artist’s own p5js code for visual effects and interaction.
For the COVID-19 Memorial Ticker, the CONTROL PANEL is used to quickly test out different options for the ticker including different geographic options (from global options to local options). In particular, we allow you to see data for New York State and New York City which is still reporting COVID-19 deaths.
We are interested in supporting hyper local memorials by providing customized tickers using local statistics to be included in local memorials. Here are samples of two potential local tickers that can be central to or a backdrop to community mourning and memorialization.
Brooklyn, NY COVID-19 Memorial
New York City COVID-19 Memorial
The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) continues to collect data on COVID-19. The data is organized by zip code and reformatted in this ticker visualization to give a more intimate presentation of the loss of life over the 1000+ days since the onset of the global pandemic. With some minor adjustments to the code we can produce tickers with customized text for each borough or for a single zip code.