Pandemic Objects

Interesting online talk from the Victoria and Albert Museum discussing their online editorial project or blog to document objects which became important during the pandemic.

Brendan Cormier, Lead Curator of Shekou Design Museum Project, and editor of the blog talked us through seven themes he had seen emerging as this project grew. I’d heard him talk briefly on Museum from Home Day back in April, so I was fascinated to see how the project had progressed. I love the way it compares current objects to those in the museum’s collections linking us to the past.

He looked at how important communications had become at this time from the emergency of handwritten signs on shops to the developing government message visualised on the podiums at press conferences. He also examined how important the home had become to us and the blurring of the line between home and workplace which had only developed in the 19th century.

He alluded to toilet roll hoarding in a section on how the flow of materials became more important and how both digital and traditional technologies have been used to help us at this time, from Zoom chats to sewing circles producing face masks.

The picture is my own contribution, mock police incident tape, which was tied round theatres as part of the Scene Change campaign to draw attention to their closure.