As the pandemic upheaves the lives of an entire world, we sense yearnings for a return to “normal” — as if such thing existed. Or can exist.
We spend more time than ever in online spaces, public, visible, on webcams, tracked by algorithms. But where can we say how we truly feel about this experience? Where can we say something we might not say in public?
What is This?
This site is an experiment in gathering pandemic whispers by making use of the anonymous posting capability of the TRU Writer SPLOT.
Pandemic Whispers is an activity built within the realm of Networked Narratives, an ongoing open class since 2017 exploring networked society and writing, as well as promoting the bright art of digital alchemy. The 2021 class based at Kean University is focusing on imagining what the Post Pandemic University will be like.
Currently we have collected 58 whispers, including these randomly selected ones (view all the whispers).
Whispers are best passed on via private channels, direct messages, person to person, the old way of networking.
Inspired by Postcards…
We are inspired largely by the Post Secret project launched by Frank Warren back in 2005, where he invited anyone to mail him an anonymous postcard, with whatever secret they wanted to share:
The concept of the project was that completely anonymous people decorate a postcard and portray a secret that they had never previously revealed. No restrictions are made on the content of the secret; only that it must be completely truthful and must never have been spoken before.
We seek something similar here, via a web site where you can anonymously whisper something about your pandemic experience, using similar guidelines, that what you share (a) has never been shared and (b) is truthful.
Go Whisper!
You can see examples of what has been whispered, even listen to one at random. But what we really want is that you step up and whisper your own message.