MARCH 15 - May 10, 2022

Curated by Michael Hanson

With essays by Badly Licked Bear, Matthew Hawkins, & Michael Hanson

When Covid-19 forced human interaction on-line in March 2020, savvy culture-producers jumped into live-streaming platform Twitch. A popular pre-pandemic home for video-gamers and the people who like to watch them play, Twitch became a pandemic go-to for artists and others to meet their audiences in real time. More than a neutral venue though, Twitch and its chat streams quickly became a dynamic component of the works presented.

Curated by artist Michael Hanson, Pandemic Twitch: Programming, Performing, Participating, and Pirate TV presents projects that have bubbled on Twitch ever since the first lockdown. With the need for social interaction as their pressure cooker context, the “live” communal experiences re-invent appointment T.V. as participatory art; collage the outrageously mundane into dazzling, fragmented futures; and offer a lockdown lifesaver of roiling, rollicking fun.