on march 24, 2020 a covid-19 pandemic
public health emergency was declared
by the government of british columbia in canada
i will be starting an online blog writing project called,
oz factor | | 03.24.2020 to 03.24.2021
*NOTE: This blog project is published in reverse order for ease of reading
© 2020-2021
respirator
it's currently 8:47pm pst on march 23, 2020 in north vancouver, british columbia, canada. i've lost track of time already - cliché, i know - what does that mean anyway? i think this is self-isolation day 7 for me during the covid19 pandemic swepting the globe currently. it's weird, it's dystopian, i thought i'd be dressed better ...
i knew this was coming ...
i haven't written anything other than scribbles in my art book for years. business paperwork has made my writing cold and very brittle. this is awkward, like learning to walk again. this is nothing like the formal, third person narrative the business world likes to adhere to - their own sense of social distancing i guess...
this is also nothing like the decades of diaries i kept. i burnt all my diaries from ages 6 -18yrs. in an act of emancipation from my parents when i turned 18 and moved away to college. while i regretted doing this, i couldn't help but pick it up again twelve years later or in difficult times. there is something about writing, there is something about words and getting your thoughts down somewhere to get it away from you. maybe laurie anderson was right after all. maybe language IS a virus!
oz factor | no. 1 | #writing #language #virus
oz factor is an ongoing blog and photo project for the duration of the covid19 pandemic.
one banana, two banana
in checking in with where my thoughts go, i think i'm going to be talking about the idea of viruses and the metaphorical. how they effect your perception, especially concerning personal space.
i'm starting to see interesting and awkward social interactions with self conscious people slowing processing that things will not be going back to 'normal' for some time! it didn't take long to start hearing political analogies to this being a war, but i will be getting back to talking about what a virus can be, next time.
i learned a new word today, covidiot!
covidiots are people who party and gather in large public gatherings ignoring all warnings despite the bombardment of news and information. they also panic-buy and think nothing they do effects others, denying aged and frail in a single thought, foaming at the mouth with xenophobia - 'who me? i can't be a carrier, besides it's a china virus!' you tell people to stay home to flatten the curve in the rise of active cases of this anomalistic and aggressive pneumonia, and instead people pack a lunch and head to the fucking beach like it's a civic holiday!
balancing societal compliance with freedom is a tricky one and based on leadership and society's collective sense of trust, public duty and empathy towards others. that is going to be difficult and different for each individual as they are asked to step into self responsibility.
so far one fact is constant, consistent and clear. with each epicentre of severe outbreak, there is a heavy death toll, because people ignored staying home - that's science! wuhan, iran, italy, spain ... now nyc! america, wake the fuck up! this is not a movie!
oz factor | no. 2 | #space #virus #covidiot #freedom #empathy
oz factor is an ongoing blog and photo project for the duration of the covid19 pandemic.
people loose, dogs leashed
while i'm busy practising the new social mandates and mantras of handwashing, cleaning, and social distancing via the joey ramone height equation - 2 metre saftey distance between two people is approximately the height of joey ramone - an interesting thing to see are people's thought processes through crisis! all it takes is a major event effecting many people to see binary thinking raising it's ugly, dual head. how quickly people take sides and let loose with theories instead of solutions to mask their own lack of coping.
due to many in social isolation, i'm wondering how many people now wish they had upgraded their digital skills, had to find out how to make their first conference call to teach a class or how many older people are feeling shut off. i'm also wondering when the next time i will see someone in person without having to think of joey ramone!
boundaries and perceptions of personal space are an individual gauge and dependent on the morals and customs of the culture, society or country. from here i could go into mentioning the added points of taboo in touching or consent and personal space. maybe later...
but i do want to look at the conspiracy theory of covid19 being a mind virus. what is that? according to the urban dictionary definition:
so according to conspiracy theorists, covid19 is the 'regular seasonal flu' and the death rate is 'natural attrition' of older people with compomised health. while it does effect seniors, it also has taken the life of otherwise healthy young adults and children. a 36 and 21yr. old and today a 17yr. old! as of today, march 25, the global death rate is almost 23,000 people and doesn't show any sign of slowing! seasonal flu? really?
i don't seem to recall a yearly flu where the dead
are laid out on ice rinks in spain!
furthermore, they believe that the overzealous preparation and containment of the virus is, for lack of a better word, a fixation, an overreaction, and that human lives are not worth financial burden! medical 'experts' with no training. meanwhile, they appear to have emotionally flattened to any news of the suffering of others while droning on and on about their precious theories. gotta sell that book. gotta present that conference, gotta get those subscribers numbers up! ... shaking my head.
while various strains of flu have different mortality rates throughout history, there are many still alive today, including myself, who lost family members to the 1918 spanish flu, taking 50 million lives! clinging to theories, passing judgement and doing nothing in the real world to help others within your own communities really makes me wonder who exactly has the real mind virus!
oz factor | no. 3 | #mind #virus #boundaries #perception
oz factor is an ongoing blog and photo project for the duration of the covid19 pandemic.
oz factor
oz factor, it describes that feeling so perfectly! that feeling of being in the woods, so quiet you only hear your own footsteps crunching the snow below your weight. then you come to a complete stop, slowing your breathing right down to inaudable - mouth breathing, and you hear nothing! no cold wind, no birds, no movement or animals, NO THING! it's hyper self awareness in the moment and it's utterly sublime! really close, really personal! that's the oz factor!
you. in your body. in nature.
jenny randles specializes in writing books on ufos and paranormal phenomena ... 'she coined the term, 'oz factor', describing the odd state of consciousness involving changes to the perception of time and space, during which strange phenomena and close encounters can occur.' ~wiki
are we not living in strange times? are we not living in stasis, between a known past, a self-responsible present to effect a more positive future?
is this covid19 a chance to hit the pause button while in self isolation and re evaluate your priorities? are we not living in strange times?
oz factor | no. 4 #ozfactor #sublime #jennyrandles #selfresponsibility
oz factor is an ongoing blog and photo project for the duration of the covid19 pandemic.
apoco-choco cookies
the learning curve for people using online media apps and communication has shot up probably 1000%. individuals using skype, facetime, wechat to check in on their family and friends, communicate from isolation with virtual visits and sharing information - lots of it about everything! businesses are now using video conference calling for meetings while everyone works from home for the foreseeable future. boom! welcome to the 'future' home office, just like that.
the concept of home offices are still too foreign to many, yet the work future for many to come, believe me, i've been doing it for 14yrs! things are changing on many fronts now including: work and employment, healthcare and support, education, finances and the economy, arts and culture ... everything!
we're in a bit of a evolution revolution right now!
⦿ dyson, known for excellent engineering, is working on ventilators
⦿ france is using it's high speed bullet trains to rush covid patients to available hospital beds throughout the country.
⦿ seniors and the frail now have priority to services right after corporate cleaning and before opeing to the public, including pharmacy and food stores.
⦿ 3d printers and glass blowers are busy creating parts for hospital ventilators.
⦿ distilleries are making free hand sanitizers
people in self isolation or quarantine are: cleaning their houses; nervous baking; exercising and meditation; playing conference call music gigs live; shaving their eyebrows and cutting their own hair; home schooling; and writing isolation poetry.
every evening at exactly 7pm pst a carcophany rises slowly across the neighborhood and falls across all of vancouver and the lower mainland as pots are banged, people shout, cheer, clap, whistle, blow horns and shake bells for five minutes. vancouverites are grateful for all the essential workers, bus drivers, grocery shelf stockers, and medical people who are just changing shift at the hospitals. gratitude fills the hole in our hearts and creates the community we are all missing, through sound and music!
this is what emergency workers hear coming off a long 12hr. shift this evening ...
march 27, 2020 | 7pm nightly thank you to essential workers
oz factor | no. 5 | #apocochoco #communication #community #creativity
oz factor is an ongoing blog and photo project for the duration of the covid19 pandemic.
semantic drift
herbert marshall mcluhan (1911 - 1980), was a canadian philosopher, who coined the term, the medium is the massage, and the term, global village. in his writings, the gutenburg galaxy (1962) and later his famous, "medium is the massage" (1967), mcluhan discusses the gravitational effect on cognition of letters, text and print, along with technology driving social organization and social interaction.
i find memes really interesting as they are quick viral glimpses at the collective consciousness of society. often referencing media and the culture itself, they can be described as single panel graphics, pairing text to image in order to convey irony or commentary. the image then becomes recycled over and over again, much like a mutation over the world wide web, with different commentary or mutation until the virus dies.
meme (/miːm/ MEEM)
idea, behavior, or style that spreads by means of imitation from person to person within a culture —often with the aim of conveying a particular phenomenon, theme, or meaning represented
by the meme. ~ wiki
looking through my memes folder, meaning is changing quickly to both words and images, due to a rapid shift in context. if you really think about it, a virus is changing a virus, and covid 19 is creating semantic change on the fly!
oz factor | no. 6 #marshallmcluhan #message #meaning
oz factor is an ongoing blog and photo project for the duration of the covid19 pandemic.
not with a six foot pole, not with a 10 foot pole
have you ever wondered where the common saying, "i wouldn't touch that with a ten foot pole" came from? there are various explanations including a reference to the length of barge poles to burial practice in new orleans. while the WHO and the CDC talk about aerosol spray distances from human coughs, the 2 metre required social distancing is approximately 6 feet or the depth of a human grave. many people are talking about the similarities between covid-19 and the spanish flu of 1918. to this date globally there are over 2 million covid-19 cases and 135,000 deaths.
"To avoid something at all costs; to refuse to associate with something; signifies a strong aversion. (idiomatic) To be unable (perhaps figuratively) to approach something or someone." ~ wiki
in a post #metoo world, social distancing now takes on yet another meaning. our public interactions are being analysed, and the very idea of personal versus public spaces are being rigidly defined for us. prolonged social distancing and isolation can be a slippery slope to a totalitarian state to those vigilant to encroachment of civil and human rights by government. at the same time, social distancing can be viewed as a personal and social responsibility in not adversely effecting the health of others during a pandemic with a contagen 4x stronger than the regular flu! how long will isolation last? good question, and one worth keeping your eye on while we are navigating social behavior and consent. the dilemna comes down to not knowing enough information about the virus itself, even for the medical experts. not enough is known about asymptomatic carriers of the virus and why some contract it a second time. this all leaves me wondering if handshaking as a social custom will suddenly disappear in my lifetime!
45% of respondants to a poll asking people what they most looked forward to after the pandemic said to hug their family and friends.
humans are social beings. the idea of social distancing is very difficult and very much effected by social privelege. how can someone self isolated when you don't have a home? social and community interaction is vital to many who experience extreme isolation normally, including the elderly, physically and mentally challenged, and the homeless. particular attention will have to be paid to the vulnerable through this pandemic and after, but also the frontline care workers and essential workers. now and into the future there will be a rise in ptsd and anxiety disorders, with so many being traumatized. human touch, personal space, better care for society's vulnerable and exercising your right to community will be even more crucial in healing through the coming years.
oz factor | no. 7 #notwithasixfootpole #socialdistancing #trauma
oz factor is an ongoing blog and photo project for the duration of the covid19 pandemic.