Atlas of Everyday X
It wasn’t long ago that arrows, X’s, dots and dashes started springing up at our feet. These X’s and other notations are cautionary signs intended to advise where we should and should not be. Besides their everyday aesthetics of simplicity and improvisation, their sheer proliferation is hard to miss. Like some strange local positioning system or mark of a new situational awareness that we all need to adopt. Over time, some of them peel away or wear off as if to suggest things might soon return to ‘normal’, whatever that was. One day they will be gone – but the uncertainty of when remains their persistent subtext.
Atlas Everyday X was a lo-fi photographic project recording the everyday archaeological ephemera of the COVID-19 pandemic through a focus on social distancing floor-marks. Reflecting on how our encounters have been reshaped by new negotiations around space and bodily engagement, it was also intended to provide an opportunity for physically disparate individuals to come together virtually and share our current experience.
Part contemporary archaeology, part collaborative artwork, and part ongoing research into inscription practices, the Atlas invited us to reframe the signs of staying apart into a different way to connect. Participants were invited to contribute their photographs of these notations and gestures to a dedicated Instagram account @atlas_everydayx for the duration of FestivalCHAT 2020. Along with the image, the Atlas sought a brief description of the location in order to chart global nature of the project (e.g. a café near Trafalgar Square, London, UK). As the curator of this project I selected images from those sent to me, as well as my own images of this phenomena, to feature in daily updates.