Introduction

The breakout of the COVID-19 pandemic changes how people live, interact and bond because people and the nations are unprecedentedly isolated. Simon recognizes those obstacles that emerged from the lockdown, such as love, patience, reflection, and care, and writes a poem to discuss them.

My exhibit will focus on Simon Armitage's poem, Lockdown, which describes people's living conditions during the lockdown in Eyam, a British town, under the current COVID-19 pandemic, referring to the outbreak of bubonic plague in Eyam in the 17 century and the Indian epic Meghadūta. I will first present this poem's content and author and analyze its implications in my exhibit. I will also provide historical, social and technological context for this poem, including the context of COVID-19 and the bubonic plague in Eyam in the 17 century. Finally, I will present some insights about text technologies, the transmission of knowledge from this poem, and how my digital exhibit could help us reflect on them. In addition, I will also present how this poem resonates with other artworks about our current crisis, COVID-19, with the focus on this poem's themes. 

Some useful resources are also provided for further research and understanding of the COVID-19 and people's responses to this pandemic at the exhibit's end.