I came across the phrase ‘know your exits’ while watching the X-Files, my best new corona hobby. It was just a sign on a door behind Mulder and Scully, but somehow really struck a chord. This pandemic has brought on strange new choreographies for all of us, inside and outside our heads and homes. In the physical world, we have to navigate people and objects as potential contaminants, and the rituals of domestic confinement trace weird new patterns onto our homes. In the mind, spooky paths for thought and anxieties have opened up, while many leading to assumed certainties have closed down. It all feels labyrinthine somehow, and personally, I’m still trying to figure out where or what my/our exits are. It certainly feels like a good time to ditch the old maps and draw new ones.
We at Bloodmoon HQ have been playing a game of musical consequences. Using our voice, and one instrument each, we’ve sketched out ideas inspired by the current moment, and passed them around until they feel complete. Working in this way allows us to reach out to one another from our own isolation, and to commune in a language that feels deeper and more essential than other means available to us right now. It extends us inwards and outwards.
Back Garden Session 1
Sade Mica
Dear World...
Yinka (age 11)
Last week HC! got in touch with the year 6 class at Pilgrim's Way Primary School in South Bermondsey, London. We offered the students an activity: to make posters for their windows at home, posters that sent positive messages to the world outside. Check out what they made throughout this issue.
Communicating with Plants
@callym.callym
Ok so first let’s do a super quick intro - like who am i, why should u listen to me talk abt plants, etc etc. I’m Callym (u can follow me on insta @callym.callym), i used to make art but now instead I’ve just gotten really into plants. When I’m like “yeah i have a lot of plants”, people think I mean like, idk, 10-20? But I’ve got probably like over 200. I’ve deffo got over 130 because once I was on the phone to my mum and she asked me how many I had and i got to 130 and lost count and that was like idk a year ago. I’ve only really been super into plants in the last like 3-4 years, and I’d say it’s only the last like 2 years I’ve gotten okay at actually keeping them alive!! Bc of the whole being stuck indoors all day thing, I’ve been spending a lot more time w my plants, stroking their leaves, checking them daily to see if they’ve grown, talking to them, petting them, u get the picture - they make me feel less alone, like I’m caring for these things and watching them respond to my love and watching them change throughout the year and even from one year to the next, it’s a really nice warm feeling, and I want to share that w u all...
i have a video call with my tutor and he asks me how i’m doing, how my work is coming along, and i tell him, well, it’s not doing too good. it’s not the ideas or the work, it’s the doing and the motivation and the thinking. i think too much about things that matter and things that don’t and i’m having a hard time figuring out which category this work falls into. some days i know it’s important and other days i’m worried about my grandfather who lives in new york and who is making a large paper maché heron. some times it’s important but other times i’m scared all this will be futile and the world will go back to the way it was before. some days doing the work makes sense, other days it doesn’t. other days i think about the people i can help and the people i do help and as much as i want to and as much as i do there will always be more people i wish i had helped. some days i can sit and write an essay about gender, but most days i can’t. most days i think about my friends who work essential jobs and the strangers who work essential jobs and i think about the deaths that could be avoided if certain people weren’t in power and i think about my sandals and my shorts that i didn’t bring with me because for some reason, in my head, i thought summer would never come. except i dont say any of these things. i say things are going alright, because everyone feels this way, so there no point in saying it, right?
Lauren's Top Hand Care Tips
Lauren Michelle Pires
1. Moisturise, moisturise, moisturise! The constant use of harsh chemicals in soap/sanitiser on skin can cause dermatitis (a type of hand eczema). A lot of people have been saying their hands have been abnormally dry, cracked and peeling - these are the side effects. As excessive washing is unavoidable during this pandemic, one way to keep your hands on top form and avoid dermatitis, is to simply moisturise. Every time you wash your hands. It's important to do this as dermatitis can become a chronic condition if symptoms worsen. Let your hands drink that moisture!
2. Excessive hand washing can also cause nails to weaken and cuticles to get hard. If you have cuticle oil then use this daily, leave it by your toothbrush or bedside table and make it part of your routine. A good alternative is hair conditioner, not packed with the same vitamins as cuticle oil but it does the trick! When you're showering, put the conditioner over your cuticles and massage in.
3. Anyone who's freaking out because their gels have grown out and they can't go to their usual salon appointments.. take a deep breath. And do not pick the gel off! Your natural nail only has 3 layers and by picking the gel off you're reducing this down to 2 layers. There's plenty of tutorials on youtube (that are easy to follow), and will show you how to do this without causing damage.
The following images are scans of pieces from the Exquisite Corpse Project in 2019. The Exquisite Corpse Project grafts participants together to create a collection of clothes and a body of work. Following the format of the Surrealist parlour game, a fragment is made by one player then passed on to the next player to add to. The clothing revealed at the end is a fun surprise. From cutting and pasting, ripping and sewing, bleaching and dyeing, the clothes transform overtime like collages reconstructed over and over again. What comes together is not by prefabrication but by juxtaposition, as improvised assemblages that show us possibilities and hold multiplicities of meaning. Borrowing from the project’s DIY and communal spirit, I believe that we can pull through difficult times in social distancing by rethinking clothes/garments/fashion as a form of expression. A wardrobe of old clothes can be reworked into new pieces, rare moments of leaving home can suddenly become an opportunity to showcase oneself, to find joy in reinventing oneself, to deliver messages through the body, to directly connect with others. Where words fail, clothes speak louder than ever.
#coronaspeak: language in a crisis
Josh Mcloughlin
If someone had said ‘social distancing’ to you last summer, you’d probably think they just needed a bit of me-time. Back then, ‘PPE’ referred to the favoured university degree of the Tory ruling elite and ‘vectors’ were something graphic designers occasionally mentioned, but no-one else knew or cared anything about.
Covid-19 has changed the way we think and speak about the world. In a matter of weeks, politicians, journalists, and the public have adopted a radically unfamiliar lexicon cribbed from science, created new words and metaphors, and repurposed existing language to make sense of an extraordinary and ongoing global event.
The result is a unique viral vernacular: #coronaspeak...
The house is dirty and the garden overgrown. At the back is a patch of rhubarb. ‘It’s been there forever, won’t go away.’ I hack off the bright pink stalks with a bread knife, exposing their lime green centres. Carefully I remove the poisonous leaves and discard them in a pile by the patch of fruit I have not cut away. They are huge and floppy. It is getting dark and the evenings still have bite to them. Inside where it is warm, I sift flour into a bowl and chop in chunks of yellow butter. The butter is cool and firm from the fridge but as I rub, squeeze and roll it between my fingers it softens, joining with the flour to form tiny misshapen balls. Add brown sugar and the mixture turns to sand – soft, grainy, and golden. Rhubarb in a baking dish – no need to cook beforehand. For a fruit that is so tough it contains a lot of water. I think of it weeping in the oven, turning to a hot, squishy mess. There are also blackcurrants, dark purple, almost black, which stain my fingers and leave a bitter taste on my tongue. More butter, more sugar and the dry goods on top, patted down to seal in the fruit. Another sprinkling of sugar crystals so it caramelises in the oven and then – forget about it. Five of us sit around the table, sipping Jameson’s with ice, making jokes to fill the space. ‘How long do you think it will it be?’ ‘Just another few minutes.’ ‘What? I don’t mean the food.’ While the others talk I slip out and return with the piping hot dish, silencing the conversation. The top is crisp and dark with burnt sugar. We cut through the crust to reveal the fleshy insides, purple, pink, green, sweet and sharp and soft. The heat runs through our bodies, comforting, reassuring. We eat the whole thing.
I am sitting in my bedroom, wearing green safety goggles next to a CoolTouch Mattress and a bedframe propped up vertically against the wall. On the floor, in its pre lockdown spot, lies a rudimentary 1.2 x 1.2m DIY laser etching device emitting a sharp marine-blue beam. There is a strong smell of burnt linen rising from the reproduction and ghostly traces of family, friends and stranger’s drawings, images and signs that have been sent to me over the last week. My plan is to mount these to a kite that I will fly off the back of my bicycle, so that I can give my neighbours a glimpse into the marks of my creative network.
Ageing and Ageism in the Age of Covid19
Shir Shimoni and Lynne Segal
Shir Shimoni, a PhD student in the Department of Culture, Media and Creative Industries at King’s College London, and Lynne Segal, Anniversary Professor of Psychology and Gender Studies at Birkbeck College discuss age and ageism in the media coverage of Covid-19.
With so much of our lives now online, this issue explores how we are spilling out of chat rooms and video calls to make ourselves and others seen, heard and felt.
At a distance, our contributors are craving contact. Signs arrive on kites and messages emanate from pavements; forms of communication that might have felt pointless before now hold radical meaning. Projecting raw emotions and political urgency, we are on OVERDRIVE, and that’s one thing that feels good!
But between the barrage of whatsapp notifications and endless news feeds there’s also quietness and emptiness. There is time and space for boredom or loneliness, for noticing, for remembering how to listen and what it is to be touched.
The pandemic is polyphonic. Use the chat box in this edition of HORRID Covid! to add to the raucous song.
Tenaya Tells It
Tenaya Steed
Dear huns,
This week has been a hot mess of homemade facemasks, virtual parliament sessions and nurse shortages at Nightingale Hospital. I’ve received messages from the lonely and the bitter, from self-identifying ‘monsters’ who secretly love the lockdown, and a baby who thinks everyone bar her parents is just a floating head on a screen. From the gal who’s been hiding in the shower to escape her space-invading lock-picking boyfriend, to the fella with a tinny museum tribute to his out of control vices, you have come to me with warmth, honesty, laughs, and TikTok warnings. Shout out to the Dad making everyone leave their online orders in the shed for 3 days before entering the home, the stranger who can’t shake off uncertain feelings of failure and worthlessness, and the nail-biting mice-infested somebody with a whole bunch of problems: this one’s for you, and the rest of ya.
Communicating through vegetables, through ancient preserving techniques, through time, through care, through teaching, through salt, through lacto fermentation.
Our new internet explorer @richard.2.0.2.0 pointed us in the direction of this tiny online lounge. Fancy a chat by the fire? Click to picture to enter.
Words
Pandemic
Flattenthecurve
Sombrero
Social distance
Ventilation
Intubation
Vectors
Immunocompromised
Evilgenius
Comorbidity
BC
PPE
Furlough
Asymptomatic
Marathon
Secondwave
WFH
Elbump
Infodemic
Lockdown
Isocosm
Unprecedented
Transmission
Superspreader
Time capsule
Want to send a message to the future? We are making a time capsule!
Anything collected or created on Monday 27th April 12.00am-11.59pm can be included in the time capsule. We’re looking for bits and bobs that best represent another Monday of your lockdown. Are you teaching in your pyjamas? Creating another character on Sims? Send screenshots, receipts, artworks, crisp wrappers and voice notes +++ to horridcovid@gmail.com
We will bury the capsule physically and digitally at 6pm on Wednesday 29th April. Join us on Instagram @horrid_covid
An Intro To Our New Games Researcher!
Thea Christy-Parker
Social distancing is creating a contact vacuum and zoom calls were quick to plug to void. But what if they’re not your thing? I am here to (hopefully) help. Over the coming issues, as the new games researcher for Horrid Covid, I will be exploring many aspects of games and gaming, and how they are fitting into our lives at the moment.
Games offer a mind-bogglingly wide spectrum of opportunities, including places to hang out, learn, problem solve, collaborate, compete, or build new worlds entirely. From the game-like instagram filters flooding group chats, to intensely competitive family board games, they seem to be offering a much needed chance to spend time with one another in an entertaining way - or to escape into other worlds on our own.
The experience of being physically alone but feeling a sense of togetherness is also interesting, and I think that games offer us the chance to do that. I particularly appreciate this in the international long distance relationship that I am in, and especially in the current lockdown situation. A small, regular section of this entry will be a review of the games we are playing to stay connected, in case any of you are also separated from people who you care about and in need of new ways to pass the time together.
I am looking forward to embarking on this journey and hope that you will come along for the ride as well!
Click the computer to access some further reading inspired by the content of this issue. Written by internet explorer @richard.2.0.2.0
The examples of IRL Comms scattered throughout this issue were found by Bryony Phibbs Wardle and others.
Time capsule
Want to send a message to the future? We are making a time capsule!
Anything that is collected or created on Monday 27th April 12.00am-11.59pm can be included in the time capsule. We’re looking for bits and bobs that best represent another Monday of your lockdown. Are you teaching in your pyjamas? Creating another character on Sims? Send screenshots, receipts, artworks, crisp wrappers and voice notes +++ to horridcovid@gmail.com
We will bury the capsule physically and digitally at 6pm on Wednesday 29th April.
An Intro From Our New Games Researcher
Thea Christy-Parker
Social distancing is creating a contact vacuum and zoom calls were quick to plug to void. But what if they’re not your thing? I am here to (hopefully) help. Over the coming issues, as the new games researcher for Horrid Covid, I will be exploring many aspects of games and gaming, and how they are fitting into our lives at the moment.
Games offer a mind-bogglingly wide spectrum of opportunities, including places to hang out, learn, problem solve, collaborate, compete, or build new worlds entirely. From the game-like instagram filters flooding group chats, to intensely competitive family board games, they seem to be offering a much needed chance to spend time with one another in an entertaining way - or to escape into other worlds on our own.
The experience of being physically alone but feeling a sense of togetherness is also interesting, and I think that games offer us the chance to do that. I particularly appreciate this in the international long distance relationship that I am in, and especially in the current lockdown situation. A small, regular section of this entry will be a review of the games we are playing to stay connected, in case any of you are also separated from people who you care about and in need of new ways to pass the time together.
I am looking forward to embarking on this journey and hope that you will come along for the ride as well!
An Intro From Our New Games Researcher
Thea Christy-Parker
Social distancing is creating a contact vacuum and zoom calls were quick to plug to void. But what if they’re not your thing? I am here to (hopefully) help. Over the coming issues, as the new games researcher for Horrid Covid, I will be exploring many aspects of games and gaming, and how they are fitting into our lives at the moment.
Games offer a mind-bogglingly wide spectrum of opportunities, including places to hang out, learn, problem solve, collaborate, compete, or build new worlds entirely. From the game-like instagram filters flooding group chats, to intensely competitive family board games, they seem to be offering a much needed chance to spend time with one another in an entertaining way - or to escape into other worlds on our own.
The experience of being physically alone but feeling a sense of togetherness is also interesting, and I think that games offer us the chance to do that. I particularly appreciate this in the international long distance relationship that I am in, and especially in the current lockdown situation. A small, regular section of this entry will be a review of the games we are playing to stay connected, in case any of you are also separated from people who you care about and in need of new ways to pass the time together.
I am looking forward to embarking on this journey and hope that you will come along for the ride as well!
Henry and the Phone Witch
Femi Oriogun Williams
I
It seems odd to have to tell you this. Really quite odd. Seeing as we’ve been breathing the same air for the last two months or however long it’s been. But I really want you to know this. I really need you to know that this is not going to last forever. That just like everything has its beginning, it has its end.
I
It seems odd to have to tell you this. Really quite odd. Seeing as we’ve been breathing the same air for the last two months or however long it’s been. But I really want you to know this. I really need you to know that this is not going to last forever. That just like everything has its beginning, it has its end.
I
It seems odd to have to tell you this. Really quite odd. Seeing as we’ve been breathing the same air for the last two months or however long it’s been. But I really want you to know this. I really need you to know that this is not going to last forever. That just like everything has its beginning, it has its end.