Oral History Review
COVID Collective Healing: Review of the “Talk to the Future” Performance
On February 17, 2023, the ongoing Zip Code Memory Project held a one-day event at the Museum of the City of New York. The event was consisting of a performance “Talk to the future,” a premiere of the documentary “Together, Not Alone,” and a panel discussion led by the organizers about the three years of Covid.
Stepping into the atrium of the museum, the visitors could soon be captured by a huge transparent plastic bubble, which encompasses an isolated space. On each side, and from the bottom to the top, the surface of this space is covered with handwritten text collages. It is easy to read the extensive highlighted bold texts, such as “fear” and “care,” from a distance. And when people walk closer, they can read the small texts of self-reflection in paragraphs. In the center of this space, a pair of chairs are placed face to face, and the artist María José Contreras Lorenzini is sitting on one of the chairs, waiting for visitors to enter the space.
All of these elements constitute an oral history durational participatory performance. As the event organizer introduces, the entire installation is an imagined timse capsule, and all the visitors are invited to contribute to this collective space by sharing their COVID memories with the artist. This performance is an oral history project that collects people’s responses to the question: “What should future generations know about Covid?” The artist will listen carefully to participants, record the conversation, and then inscribes the highlighted transcript verbatim on the time capsule to embody these collective memories.
Figure 1. Zip Code Memory Project - "Talk to the Future"
Figure 2. Memories preserved within the text collagesThis is a listening performance that consists of a process of building trust and soliciting meaningful messages from participants. The process starts even before the participants enter the space. Many visitors were willing to take the invitation and prepared to talk to the artist. While waiting, visitors can observe an ongoing listening performance between the previous participant and the artist. María José sits facing and leaning toward the narrator, and she listens most of the time. Her performativity of listening not only builds bonding between her and the narrator but also co-shapes the safety and trust of the space with the narrator, opening up a space to talk to the next narrators. Besides, there is also no professional recording equipment observed in the space that could potentially intimidate narrators to share memory. All in all, witnessing the interaction between the narrator and the artist as well as their interaction with the space will allow the participants to trust this space to be a safe place for sharing COVID memories.
Participants can also walk around the time capsule to read the texts, feel the emotions, and connect to the memories preserved within the text collages. For example, I could sense the universal pain when I read “EVERYBODY LOST SOMETHING,” and I could also imagine the individual story behind the text when reading the line “People should know that China is not to blame.” While taking in the existing collective memories, the visitors can also notice that every single word said could possibly be permanently archived with this time capsule, and this awareness is very important for this listening performance. Within this context, participants can get rid of the internal noise and really think about what important memories or strong messages they want to preserve in this time capsule for the future generation to understand the COVID pandemic.
Participants can also walk around the time capsule to read the texts, feel the emotions, and connect to the memories preserved within the text collages. For example, I could sense the universal pain when I read “EVERYBODY LOST SOMETHING,” and I could also imagine the individual story behind the text when reading the line “People should know that China is not to blame.” While taking in the existing collective memories, the visitors can also notice that every single word said could possibly be permanently archived with this time capsule, and this awareness is very important for this listening performance. Within this context, participants can get rid of the internal noise and really think about what important memories or strong messages they want to preserve in this time capsule for the future generation to understand the COVID pandemic.
When I finally stepped into the capsule, María José warmly welcomed me to be part of the space and guide me through the consent for recording before the conversation. Sitting in the center of the time capsule, I was surrounded by people’s traumatic yet hopeful memories. I started my prepared answer by saying that “What I’ve learned in the last three years is that nothing is granted…” I shared the story of my experience as an international student stuck in the states as well as many others’ untoward struggles during the journeys back home because of the travel restrictions. Traveling around the world freely or even entering my home country as a citizen is what I thought as a matter of course, but this is not the case during COVID. “Nothing is granted” is the message that I really want this time capsule to help me preserve and hope my future self can still remember. I didn’t know which part of my words will be inscribed on the time capsule, but I was ensured that my memory will be part of the collective memory stored in this space and sent to the future.
What I found remarkable about this oral history performance was the reciprocity. The participants can revisit the space later and be surprised by how the artist chooses to mediate their original narratives to the public after the listening performance. After visiting other museum exhibits, I went back to the time capsule. Though I didn't intentionally look for it, I caught a glimpse of the phrase "Nothing is granted" inscribed verbatim on the time capsule. I am aware that it originates from my interview transcript, but it is now mediated and presented in a new hearing environment. Since it is a part of the collective time capsule, it no longer solely represents my personal message because everyone else may associate this phrase with their own COVID experiences. With the presence of this collective time capsule, my memory can not only connect me with people our age but also serve as a conduit to communicate with an audience from future generations.
What I found remarkable about this oral history performance was the reciprocity. The participants can revisit the space later and be surprised by how the artist chooses to mediate their original narratives to the public after the listening performance. After visiting other museum exhibits, I went back to the time capsule. Though I didn't intentionally look for it, I caught a glimpse of the phrase "Nothing is granted" inscribed verbatim on the time capsule. I am aware that it originates from my interview transcript, but it is now mediated and presented in a new hearing environment. Since it is a part of the collective time capsule, it no longer solely represents my personal message because everyone else may associate this phrase with their own COVID experiences. With the presence of this collective time capsule, my memory can not only connect me with people our age but also serve as a conduit to communicate with an audience from future generations.
Figure 3. The capsule, the space
Photo credit: Desiree Rios
I don’t know if there are any good memories shared in this capsule, but I assume people entering this space for self-disclosure of the trauma. For me, this feeling of someone being willing to listen and I’m contributing to the collective memories of this era would make me feel encouraged to reconnect to the community and heal. Although there is no actual audio presented during this oral history performance, I can still immerse myself in a collective memory cloud that stands for supportive power to heal and a safe place to contribute memories back.
This process of creating collective memories of COVID is a vital therapy to heal the pandemic trauma and get people mentally prepared for tomorrow. As of now, María José has spent more than 80 hours inside the time capsule collecting hundreds of recordings of the participants. And this listening performance has several more stops on its tour in the New York City communities, continuing to offer community healing through listening as well as to enrich the time capsule left for future generations. Besides this performance, the documentary “Together, Not Alone” also shows many clips of María José directing art-based workshops, such as body mapping and city mapping, around the idea of embodied memories and how to collectively create spaces to process those difficult memories with others. Other community workers of the Zip Code Memory Project have also made efforts to look for locally based ways to preserve the anguish endured by individuals and the tragic losses brought on by the Coronavirus pandemic. Their practices show that collective memories are essential for healing people from a protracted period of isolation and leaving messages for the future. Inviting people to a connected place to collect collective memories of COVID and reciprocally give back mutual care is the top mission during the post-pandemic era.