Dear all, 

Posting on behalf of Stacey Camp. 

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Good afternoon,
 
A colleague and friend of mine, Dr. Dante Angelo, suggested I join this listserver as there are others discussing artwork/heritage that has sprung up in response to the COVID pandemic. I wanted to share and get feedback about a project I started while on lockdown. I am also interested in expanding this project if others feel drawn to be involved in it. 
 
I live in Michigan, one of the epicenters of the epidemic here in the US. I live in Haslett, Michigan, a suburban, solidly upper-middle- to upper-class community that borders an agricultural town and is about 6 miles from Michigan State University. Eighty-one percent of our city is white. We have a lot of open spaces, lakes, and nature preserves. There is a lot of space to social distance, and there are lots of spaces in between homes because they are big. These neighborhoods have lots of sidewalks (usually on both sides of the road), too. 
 
We went on lockdown very early in Michigan. Michigan State University, my employer, locked down and went remote on March 12th. Public schools immediately followed suit. I immediately noticed artwork going up in neighborhoods that traditionally have very carefully landscaped lawns and gardens. Pre-COVID (and during COVID) I walk about 6-8 miles a day in this community. Signs commemorating children’s graduation from high school and junior high were placed along sidewalks, chalk artwork appeared on sidewalks, teddy bears were put in windows, rainbows and paper hearts were on doors and in people’s windows, inspirational quotes written in chalk on sidewalks, and decorated rocks were placed on utility boxes and fire hydrants. 
 
Various organizations (townships, MSU extension, neighborhood HOAs and Facebook groups, churches) started to call for neighbors to put up a variety of heritage products (paper hearts, themed artwork (e.g. super heroes in windows one week, rainbows for another), decorative rocks, teddy bears) for communities to find and document all over our city (Haslett, Michigan). These organizations encouraged children to do scavenger hunts and document/photograph their discoveries.
 
I began using the open source platform of KoboToolbox to document and photograph the artwork on my walks since we are on strict lockdown and this is really the only time I’m allowed out. My kids play PokemonGo on my walks, so they would often come with me and help keep an eye out for the artwork. Children have a much better eye for these things, and noticed many pieces of what I am calling COVID heritage that I simply would not have seen without their help.
 
As for the ethics, I haven’t interviewed people, haven’t told people about the data collection beyond some scholars, and haven’t made the data public at this point. I do feel that I have to be aware of my surroundings and not draw too much attention to myself if I’m photographing the artwork, but then again I’ve been focusing on artwork that has intentionally been placed for public consumption and examination given their location (usually close to a lawn, in a window facing a sidewalk, or literally drawn on a sidewalk that people use) and the calls for specific types of artwork from a variety of local organizations. Also, no one has questioned my presence in the community due to my race (I’m a white middle-class woman who fits the demographic of this community) and people know me as a local runner/walker/jogger.
 
I feel strongly that this work needs to be documented as what I believe to be examples of what scholar Marita Sturken has called “American innocence.” Sturken has focused on uniquely American responses to 9/11 and the Oklahoma City Bombing. She argues that when faced with tragedy, Americans turn outwards towards consumerism as a way of seeking comfort and reassurance rather than turning inward to reflect upon the causes of and solutions to such violence; they cope by buying large SUVs and flags after 9/11, or hanging colored ribbons at sites of school shootings (Sturken 2016). Americans choose to “see themselves as innocent and passive victims, rather than aggressors, in relation to world politics” (Sturken 2007:7, 2015, 2016) and domestic problems. 
 
I think COVID heritage here in the US expands this work by adding additional strategies of “American innocence.” I also feel that global and additional national data, if done appropriately and ethically (which I think is an important discussion that needs to continue to be had), could shed further light on the different and similar ways people respond to trauma through heritage-making. As an American who has watched our response to COVID-19 completely fall on individual states and as someone who has witnessed radical right-wing protests 6 miles from my house that threaten the very safety of our most vulnerable communities, I find the happy faces, inspirational quotes, teddy bears, and rainbows very much in line with Sturken’s argument about American denialism in the face of tragedy. I believe this COVID heritage, at least here in the upper crust communities of America, is important to document because it speaks to my demographic’s unwillingness to fight for and acknowledge the terrible realities of African American and Latinx communities who have been hit the hardest by COVID.
 
As I am sure many of you know, most of the communities who have been hard hit by COVID-19 in Michigan are people of color who are economically and politically marginalized by the state and federal government. I have not driven to these communities to document their reactions and responses to COVID, and I do feel it would be inappropriate and unsympathetic for me to do so right now. We (my partner is a native Michigander) have already lost an extended family member in Detroit to this, and I just don’t think it would be right. It would also be going against our executive order. The community I am studying is my own community, which has remained economically stable for the most part during this pandemic. Maybe I’m wrong in this regard.
 
I appreciate others thoughts on this and the opportunity to join the discussion. Thanks for making it through this long email. If you are interested in joining the project, let me know. 
 
Best,
 
Stacey

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