What was the first idea of the work, and how did it develop to what the idea is now? Identify the main themes and how you communicate them?  

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Originally, the work involved paint, projections and an interactive question session. We were exploring the idea of forcing people to question their own actions during the intense time of the initial lockdowns. The work would have lived in the realm of Big Brother or a social experiment, the answers from the questions informing the movement sequences. However, following discussions and COVID limitations, the work has evolved into a movement piece centred around the concept of a web and the influence of the media on the idea of ‘truth’. The web is significant as it forms a metaphor for entrapment and being caught in the ‘web of lies’ which exposes how the media can create fear through false information. 

  

Why is this work important? And does it comment of any socio-economic issues? Explain the reasoning behind picking this idea and developing it further. 

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The work is important as it brings to light what UNESCO has coined the ‘infodemic’ (2020, p.2). The concept of truth can become distorted in times of crisis especially in the age of social media, so it is important to create a work that provokes reflection and critical thinking on the validity of the information we ingest. Blind faith can lead to the spread of misinformation which, in the case of the USA, has allowed the virus to take hold ( Bagherpour & Nouri, 2020).   

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References  

Bagherpour, A., & Nouri, A. (2020, October 11). COVID Misinformation Is Killing People. Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/covid-misinformation-is-killing-people1/ 

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Coleman, A. (2020, August 11). 'Hundreds dead' because of Covid-19 misinformation. British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). https://www.bbc.com/news/world-53755067 

 

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation. (2020). Journalism, press freedom and COVID-19. https://en.unesco.org/sites/default/files/unesco_covid_brief_en.pdf