'There is nothing less spectacular than a pestilence': Picturing the pandemic in Mass Observation's COVID-19 collections.

IF 0.8 2区 历史学 Q2 HISTORY & PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
Annebella Pollen
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引用次数: 1

Abstract

What is to be gained by studying visual observation in Mass Observation's COVID-19 collections? What can we see of the pandemic through diarists' images and words? Visual methods were part of the plural research strategies of social research organisation Mass Observation (MO) in its first phase, when it was established in 1937, but remained marginal in relation to textual research methods. This continues with the post-1981 revival of the Mass Observation Project (MOP), with its emphasis on life writing. With wider shifts in technology and accessibility, however, even when they are not solicited, photographs now accompany MOP correspondents' submissions. In MO's substantial COVID-19 collections, images appear in or as diary entries across a range of forms, including hand-drawn illustrations, correspondent-generated photographs, creative photomontages, and screengrabs of memes. In addition, diarists offer textual reflections on COVID-19's image cultures, such as the role of photographs in pandemic news media, as well as considering how the pandemic is intersecting with the visual in more abstract ways, from themes of surveillance and 'Staying Alert' in public health messaging to internal pictorial imaginaries produced as a result of isolation and contemplation. Positioning these materials in relation to wider patterns in pandemic visual culture, including public photographic collecting projects that make explicit reference to MO as their inspiration, this article considers the contribution of the visual submissions and image-rich writing in MO's COVID-19 collections to the depiction of a virus commonly characterised as invisible.

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“没有比瘟疫更壮观的了”:大众观察组织COVID-19藏品中描绘的大流行。
通过研究大众观察站COVID-19馆藏的目视观察,可以获得什么?通过日记作者的图像和文字,我们可以看到疫情的哪些方面?视觉方法是社会研究组织Mass Observation (MO)于1937年成立的第一阶段多元研究策略的一部分,但与文本研究方法相比仍然处于边缘地位。1981年后,大众观察项目(MOP)的复兴延续了这一趋势,其重点是生活写作。然而,随着技术和可访问性的广泛变化,即使不征求他们的意见,现在MOP记者提交的照片也会随附。在MO的大量COVID-19收藏品中,图像以各种形式以日记形式出现,包括手绘插图、记者生成的照片、创意蒙太奇和表情包的屏幕截图。此外,日记作者对COVID-19的图像文化进行了文字反思,例如照片在大流行新闻媒体中的作用,并考虑了大流行如何以更抽象的方式与视觉相交,从公共卫生信息中的监测和“保持警惕”主题到由于隔离和沉思而产生的内部图像想象。本文将这些材料与大流行视觉文化的更广泛模式(包括明确提及MO作为灵感来源的公共摄影收集项目)联系起来,考虑MO COVID-19收藏中的视觉提交和图像丰富的文字对描述通常被认为是不可见的病毒的贡献。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
History of the Human Sciences
History of the Human Sciences 综合性期刊-科学史与科学哲学
CiteScore
1.60
自引率
11.10%
发文量
31
审稿时长
>12 weeks
期刊介绍: History of the Human Sciences aims to expand our understanding of the human world through a broad interdisciplinary approach. The journal will bring you critical articles from sociology, psychology, anthropology and politics, and link their interests with those of philosophy, literary criticism, art history, linguistics, psychoanalysis, aesthetics and law.
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