Drawing and thinking: How to understand the virus

There is so much disinformation around about how the corona virus spreads that I thought I'd look at how drawing can help clarify things when words don't. 

Plan of a call centre that was hit by the corona virus

In the diagram, it is easy to see how people sit next to each other in this work space. Blue chairs represent those who became infected. This is what happened. 
One infected employee came to work on the 11th floor of a building. That floor had 216 employees. Over the period of a week, 84 of those people become infected (the blue chairs). Notice how one side of the office is primarily infected, while there are very few people infected on the other side. Being in an enclosed space, sharing the same air for a prolonged period increases your chances of exposure and infection. The estimates were that 94% of infections were from respiratory droplets / respiratory exposure, and roughly 6% from door handles, elevator buttons etc). Another 3 people on other floors of the building were infected, most likely from doors handles, elevator buttons or from being in an enclosed elevator with the infected person. See the full article here. It is easy to see how close contact and being in an enclosed space are by far the most important issues in the spread of the virus.

Plan of a restaurant hit by corona virus

A single asymptomatic carrier went to a restaurant. The infected person (A1: Yellow) sat at table 'A'. Airflow was from right to left. (Black arrows) Approximately 50% of the people at the infected person's table 'A' became sick over the next 7 days. 75% of the people on the adjacent downwind table 'B' became infected. And even 2 of the 7 people on the upwind table 'C' were infected (believed to happen by turbulent airflow). No one at tables E or F became infected, they were outside of the reach of the air flow of the main air conditioning. See the full article here.

One person on a bus manages to infect several others, again it looks as if a contained environment, whereby people share the same air, is the most likely place for you to become infected.

Diagrams seem to make things much clearer.

Drawing is also of course about images.

I have already put up a post about some of the ways that we can think about the virus as an image. However there are many more images now circulating through various media outlets, all of which are making an impact on our collective psyche. As an artist I'm interested in how deeply they will impact on our sub-conscious selves.

Invisible germs revealed

One of the most interesting issues has been the need to find graphic ways to reveal the invisible. In this image above taken from a government information poster, the prevalence of ultraviolet light images to 'prove' the existence of germs and how hand-washing removes them has influenced the design and construction of the image. 

Ultraviolet light images of hand washing

However I believe the blue hand and glowing green virus on the door handle taps into a much older tradition of revealing the invisible.

Kirlian photography of human in lotus position

Kirlian photography can show an 'aura' around people, its popularity is very much to do with its other worldly suggestiveness.

Blue Vishnu 

Blue representations of skin were often a way to present a figure as being other worldly, as being something normally invisible made visible. What is happening is that there is an awareness that the pandemic is a mythic event and that imagery associated with it needs to tap into deep roots if it is to deeply effect us.

Etruscan death demon

Blue Etruscan death demons already existed by the end of the fifth century BC and demons and devils in Christian iconography were often depicted as being blue or green

The Devil presenting St. Augustine with the book of Vices:  Michael Pacher

St Theobald exorcises a possessed man: C14th Church of St. Thibault: France

In the detail of a wood carving above, blue represents an aspect of demonic possession and the majority of the images of the corona virus that circulate through various media outlets are coloured blue. 

Visualisations of the corona virus

Drawing (in these cases visualisation using CAD technical drawing and PhotoShop manipulation) can deal with both how to understand the spread of the virus in a very logical and clear way, as well as being able to find imagery that helps us think about an invisible entity. It is colour though that adds the emotional and spiritual value.

See also:

Hands, hygiene and hope

Drawing the corona virus

The virus is looking at you

Drawing and spirituality

Technical drawing

Indian aesthetics