Design Gain for your Membrane

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Data Artwork

This last year we saw more than 400,000 Americans perish due to COVID-19. This is a significant blow for all of us, but it is difficult to really comprehend and connect to numbers on such a large scale. My intention is to create a visual and tangible representation of those we have lost to COVID-19 to encourage expressions of grief, promote healing, and advocate for access to healthcare. I want to encourage the community to come together around these expressions of grief and healing and engage each other in meaningful dialogue, while urging the community to consider the lessons we have learned from our experience with COVID-19 and helping to facilitate positive change within the community. My desire is to underscore the need for social support to engage in healthy grieving practices and promote mental wellness.

The Cost of Ignorance

I wanted to create a work that both reflects the statistical significance of the data considered, as well as the strong emotional turmoil that data represents. 

Tapestry has been used throughout history as a way of telling stories, most recently as a method of data visualization. The symbolic significance of weaving fibers together is a potent representation of how we are all affected by the tragedy the pandemic has wrecked upon us. We are all connected by the same thread of fate and experience these interesting times together.

This work includes the data from COVID-19 deaths over the course of 2020. The data is segmented by weekly total in rows and by daily total in columns, using the numbers to create patterns within the weaving. Each numeric range is indicated by a different color of yarn, and time is linear from the top (March 2020) to the bottom (March 2021). The weaving is hung from a structure inspired by Torii gates, to represent a sacred space and a doorway through which we may travel together. For each 10,000 deaths, rya knot has been tied to emphasize the significance of that milestone and to help viewers understand the scale of the data.

Daily totals are indicated in grey on the left, with lighter colors and shorter lines equaling smaller numbers. The weekly totals are on the right, with brighter shades of red equaling higher numbers.

Detail of the join used to create the color patterns within the weaving. Each daily strand was joined with its weekly counterpart.

Creating a rya knot. The fibers are wound around a pice of cardboard, then cut to maintain equal length.

Rya knots stack in a line to form the base of the weaving and ensure the work above does not unravel.

WSU Senior Design Show: Visceral

2020 was a challenging year for everyone, full of deep, visceral emotions. In the wake of COVID-19, social unrest, natural disasters, and the worst economy since 2008, and there is a lot of baggage to deal with. Everyone has their own ways of dealing with these types of emotions. 

The purpose of this show is to highlight a few of these challenges and create a space of expression, healing, and action.

I created the show card design using a collage of public domain Smithsonian lithographic drawings to create a surrealistic representation of COVID-19 in 2020. The dragons represent the disease itself, with people both fighting against and perishing to them. The moon and the hand represent our government turning a blind eye to the trauma of the people and pushing a pseudo science agenda, all while the vaccine floats above, ethereal and out of reach. 

Visceral Group Artist Talk, shot and edited by Nathan Birch

Bridges Health is a student-led, faculty-guided, interprofessional clinic that provides a variety of free preventive health & wellness services. Virtual, phone, walk-in, & appointment-based services are available. For more information visit bridgeshealthwinona.org

Supporting Bridges Health Winona

Because of the disproportionate number of people from lower socioeconomic groups who have become sick and died, I would like to use this artwork to advocate for a local Winona organization called Bridges Health. Bridges provides healthcare and counseling services to uninsured or under-insured individuals. If you would like to honor those we have lost, please consider donating your time or resources to Bridges Health. Thank you for sharing space with me today.