Shanghai Covid-19 Lockdown Log

Shanghai Covid-19 Lockdown Log

Medium

Unity, Xbox controller
AI-generated 3D models
Original sound design
Interactive exploration

Description

Shanghai Covid-19 Lockdown Log is a cross-media artwork that integrates traditional print with new media technology, documenting the social landscape and information environment during the Shanghai lockdown. The core of the work is a 270×390 cm newspaper, featuring both the real-time scenes outside the artist’s window and curated text, images, and comments collected from social media during the lockdown. These materials portray a static snapshot of daily life while also capturing the fluidity and diversity of online discourse.

Technically, the work embeds augmented reality (AR) technology into the printed medium. Using image recognition and tracking, viewers can scan the newspaper with a designated app to reveal hidden layers of video, audio, and interactive content. These AR elements include censored news clips, interviews, and short videos, exposing realities beyond the printed surface.

Shanghai Covid-19 Lockdown Log captures the tension and resilience of life under Shanghai’s strict lockdown. Presented as a large-format printed newspaper augmented with AR, the work combines personal window-side footage with online fragments—images, texts, and censored news—collected during the pandemic. Viewers can scan the print to unlock hidden videos, audio, and interactive layers, blurring the line between physical and digital storytelling.

From my window,
I watched the sky shift and white magnolias bloom,
The only signs of passing days.
The screen stayed closed, sealing me in.
My gaze lingered until focus dissolved:
Was it a window, or a screen? Real, or imagined?

Newspapers chronicled the daily COVID-19 case counts in Shanghai during the lockdown, alongside the obscured social realities — shortages of medical resources, chaotic conditions in temporary hospitals, unequal distribution of supplies, and soaring prices. People turned to short videos to seek help and voice their concerns, yet among them were those spreading false information. Videos deemed to “disrupt social order” quietly vanished, replaced by entertainment news and celebrity gossip dominating the trending lists, veiling the deeper truths and unheard voices.

Lin Feng

Visual Artist with cross-disciplinary experience in interactive arts, graphic design, and exhibition curation.

Lin Feng

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