Whilst COVID-19 continues to shut down our physical movement and limits our interaction with others of our species, it has also cultivated a vast outpouring of imagination and creativity. The virus has created a cocktail consisting of unlimited personal time, access to human-scale technology and our natural curiosity. The result is a virtual petri dish in which to experiment with new ways of using the arts to re-order, process and critique a world unravelling before our eyes.

The pandemic has sparked a wave of virtual galleries, museums and music venues and in this period of turmoil and change, artists are finding ever more ingenious ways of disseminating their work, becoming cultural pathogens, colonising, hijacking and multiplying their art through social media. Finding willing (and unwilling hosts) through the viral networks of the Internet. Even artists who formerly eschewed the virtual world, and who are now deprived of a physical audience and the freedom to travel, are taking hesitant steps to test a new environment, where original ideas can flourish.

Recent criticism has accused artists of failing to provide a commentary befitting the huge problems besetting our world. But what an opportunity our confinement offers! This is the time for artists to treat the internet and social media as microorganisms in a biology experiment. COVID-19 won’t stop artists making art, but it does provide the laboratory conditions for experimentation, dialogue and distribution on a global scale, art filtered through retina and lens, made visible via glass-portal and light and heard through bony-labyrinth and cochlea.

As institutions are forced to close their physical doors, Futurecity is looking for new ideas, new spaces and changing behaviours, the list below is just a glimpse into the many ways culture has been germinating in the digital sphere and will be updated as we go along. If you know of any other initiatives, we’d love to hear from you. 

Written by Mark Davy, Founder & CEO of Futurecity