Patient Zer0: Creating Online Generative Art During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Patient Zer0 is an interactive generative artwork, designed around the poem “In Memory of Anyone Unknown to Me” by Elizabeth Jennings and created during the first confinements imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. While it has been showcased in several online exhibitions, this article details and analyses, for the first time, the artwork's algorithmic approach, as well as its aesthetics, the different media components, and the artist's intentions behind their inclusion and combination. In line with Springgay's, Irwin's, and Kind's a/r/tography, a recent creative research method is presented here, a/r/cography, which is complemented by a phenomenological dimension, as the author experienced the events from a physical, intellectual, and emotional perspective, in isolation, while at home in Portugal. The whole process was documented in a digital journal, which not only supported the underlying research but also documented the artwork variants and evolution. Patient Zer0 was entirely coded in Processing.js.