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Going Viral: Survival Design

  • Manuel Olveira (author)
Chapter of: The Pandemic Visual Regime: Visuality and Performativity in the Covid-19 Crisis(pp. 149–193)

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Metadata
TitleGoing Viral
SubtitleSurvival Design
ContributorManuel Olveira (author)
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.53288/0448.1.07
Landing pagehttps://punctumbooks.com/titles/the-pandemic-visual-regime-visuality-and-performativity-in-the-covid-19-crisis/
Licensehttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
CopyrightManuel Olveira
Publisherpunctum books
Published on2023-11-09
Long abstractThe alteration in daily life resulting from the pandemic stimulates symptomatic presentations of the unconscious in the lives of people for whom reality has become a strange experience derived from the protocols, objects, and messages of the so-called new normal. The sixth chapter titled Going Viral: Survival Design explores those protocols, objects and messages that have become central to life during the pandemic. Face masks, cleaning products, banners, or other things have functioned as markers and symptoms of the situation. Some of them have been inventions with a strong DIY element, such as the hats created to enforce social distancing in Chinese schools. The chapter explores issues of functionality and objecthood in relation to everyday life, and domesticity, dealing with creativity within these realms; but also it explores the implications for the public space, especially those derived from the messages placed everywhere. An explosion of communication filled windows, doors and even the streets once we were allowed to escape confinement. This can be understood as if the social body affected by the pandemic were talking about fragility, urgency and survival produced by the ineffective neoliberal paradigm. In the social body’s many voices we can find references and tools to interpret the imperative viral reality that requires a search for new keys and paradigms.
Page rangepp. 149–193
Print length45 pages
LanguageEnglish (Original)
Keywords
  • COVID-19
  • objecthood
  • public space
  • survival design
  • emergency responses
  • distributed creativity
Contributors

Manuel Olveira

(author)

Manuel Olveira has been director of Hangar (Barcelona), CGAC (Santiago de Compostela), Centro Ágora (A Coruña), and MUSAC (León). He has curated several exhibitions and especially long-term and research-based projects, such as Lost in Sound (CGAC, 1999–2000), Open Processes (Hangar, 2004–2005), Publishing-Project (CGAC, 2006–2009), and Lecture-Performance (MUSAC, 2013–2014). Many of these were projects in progress and often generated archival documentation, such as the Covid-19 Archive. Olveira has organized courses, film screenings, and performance series on contemporary art with a critical perspective. He is author of essays on such artists as Luis Camnitzer (MUSAC, 2019) and Hessie (MUSAC, 2020). He has also created the web publishing project Complot (Hangar, 2004), the interview book Entre-vista (CGAC, 2008), and the essay collections Conferencia performativa (This Side Up, 2014) and Cómo vivir con la memoria (Puente editores, 2018). He has also published the novel Todo el tiempo del mundo (Libros de Rocamadour, 2014) and the book of poems Muero todos los días 2013–2021 (Eolas ediciones, 2021). His latest book is Habla del cuerpo social: Pandemia y politización del espacio público (Brumaria, 2022).