Curating the Contemporary: A Case for National and Local COVID‐19 Collections

Abstract

With its rapid spread, intensity, duration, global geographic reach and cross‐sectorial disruption, the impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic is so profound that it will become the focus of public exhibitions in the future. Now is the time is to collect examples of material culture associated with COVID‐19. Some of the material is generic to healthcare, but some is specific to responses to COVID‐19 in the medical and community sphere (e.g. social distancing). A substantive number of objects only exist in the digital sphere. Expanding on concepts initially developed for the collection of items associated with natural disasters and terrorist events, this paper (i) outlines the need for the establishment of local and national collections before items become too scarce and (ii) provides a sample multi‐phase collections and collections management framework.

COVID-19 Face Masks as a Long-Term Source of Microplastics in Recycled Urban Green Waste

“…As part of a project assessing the cultural heritage aspects of COVID-19 [40], the author conducted a longitudinal survey of face masks encountered on the ground in Albury, a regional community in New South Wales, most populous state [41]. Both the observations of actual face mask use [42,43] and the documentation of intentionally discarded or lost masks encountered on the ground [44] have shown that in Australia disposable surgicaltype face masks are far more common than washable and reusable fabric masks.…”

The Digital Heritage of the Battle to Contain COVID-19 in Australia and Its Implications for Heritage Studies

“…It can be posited that the event will become the focus of social history exhibitions or retrospectives in the medium-term future. Thus, now is the time to act when processes are still in place and observable, when ephemeral sites can be documented [73] and when digital and physical artifacts are still able to be collected [47]. The remainder of this paper will focus on a set of short-lived digital artefacts that were generated by private businesses in response to and as part of the initial public health measures.…”

“…As part of the research into the heritage of the COVID-19 pandemic and its management [46,47], this paper will examine the deployment of digital contact tracing registers in Australia and discuss their heritage in the context of digital and virtual heritage. It can be surmised that the digital applications and documents will, in the medium-long-term future, become a historic source akin to the present use of manuscripts and printed archival data.…”

Memories of COVID-19: The Types of Fitted Face Masks Between Public Health Advice and Personal Choice

“…Elsewhere, it had been argued that COVID-19 is global, cross-sectoral disruptor not seen since the 1918/19 influenza pandemic. As part of a project to document the tangible evidence and material culture associated with the COVID-19 pandemic for future social history exhibitions and heritage studies [18][19][20][21][22][23], the author systematically documented the Disclaimer/Publisher's Note: The statements, opinions, and data contained in all publications are solely those of the individual author(s) and contributor(s) and not of MDPI and/or the editor(s). MDPI and/or the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to people or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions, or products referred to in the content.…”