Locked inside our homes for months, one unexpected side effects to the chaos and uncertainty of the COVID pandemic was the necessity to learn how to be creative with technology. It became essential; our only means of interaction, a light in the darkness. Technology initiated new possibilities for communication, collaboration, cooperation, and the formation of new communities.
Teaching and Learning
Nurturing and maintaining human connection is indispensable to learning.
COVID-19 disrupted this, severing physical bonds between students, educators, and caregivers, and forcing us to re-evaluate how we approach education.
The Early Childhood and Primary Education Research Group within the University of Malta (ECPE) came together online, collaborating and co-researching in ways underpinned by social learning theory, a framework that places social interaction at the centre of the learning process. Meaning is constructed through communication, and the pandemic provided the urgency to rethink our ways of doing, being, and teaching. We were compelled to board technology’s fast-moving train and to embrace the rapid pace of its evolution.
The Work
Pandemic Lives is Etienne Farrell’s artistic interpretation of research carried out by the ECPE Research Group at the Faculty of Education, University of Malta, examining the impact of Covid-19 on education in Malta.
At the heart of both the academic findings and the installation is the need to communicate through technology, a necessity that became central during the pandemic. This theme is visually echoed in the installation’s references to the creation of networks and dialogues, underpinned by the Social Learning Theory, which emphasises interaction and collaboration as key components of learning.
The installation is composed of three core elements: technology, light (and darkness), and the written word. Each element reinforces the central concept of communication, mirroring the findings of the ECPE’s research and translating them into an immersive, visual, and conceptual experience. Art is a powerful means of communication across generations and cultures. It is never neutral. It uses images and objects as metaphors, creating space for critical thought, for imagining alternative solutions, and for experiencing life beyond the physical.
Technology
Set within a dim environment punctuated by faint, flickering lights attempting to send messages, the installation creates a sense of playfulness. The repurposing of everyday technologies reflects the early pandemic experience when many were forced to repurpose available technological tools that eventually enabled remote teaching, learning, and collaboration. This evolution in how we use technology reshaped our way of life, prompting a shift in how we learn, teach, live and function.
In line with this theme of reinvention, the artist upcycled and repurposed materials and technologies, such as fan motors, cake-decorating turntables, scrap metal, cardboard, screws, and bolts. Once discarded, these items have been reassembled into communicative devices, reanimated and redefined as tools for dialogue.
Light, Darkness and Shadows
The space itself plays a critical role. Light and shadow serve as media, and their interplay within a minimalist setting immerses the viewer, making them part of the installation.
Darkness amplifies the power of light, drawing attention to the written word through projected shadows. Shadows here become metaphors for “the in-betweens”; a life suspended between the pre- and post-COVID worlds. They are fragments of ourselves, traces we left behind in once-bustling public spaces, now quiet. Echoes of the lives we led, memories still drifting in empty streets, while the rest of us retreated indoors – Memento mori.
The Written Word
Words carry memory. They express ideas, form slogans, fuel movements, and archive our lived experience.
In Pandemic Lives, the written word is elevated within a world saturated by visual culture. Words and phrases selected by ECPE researchers, drawn directly from their collective research, serve as anchors within the work, highlighting the language of disruption, adaptation, and resilience. The written word becomes both documentation and artistic expression. It speaks not only of the pandemic itself, but of the human need to make sense of it.
