There are many ways of looking at the COVID-19 epidemic, but what Tulane alums Alexandra Payne (NC ’04) and Robyn Squires (A ’03) have done with their Illuminate: Covid-19 project is to give viewers an opportunity to really see the impact of the virus, layering dense information into a visual format that is as arresting as it is informative.

Illuminate Covid-19 uses a Video-LED lightbox to present viewers with the graphically familiar shape of New York’s five boroughs. Data representing four categories (illness, mortality, poverty and race) is then translated into mappings using light intensity and color saturation. As viewers take in the lightshow, the lights do what they do best — expose. In this case, the systemic inequities embedded and demonstrated in the impact of COVID-19 on New York City.

For Payne, the purpose is five-fold, “exposing the discrepancies we saw [in the impact of COVID-19], increasing awareness, fostering dialog, bridging a data access gap, and encouraging direct action to address the structures that contribute to them.”

Illuminate Covid-19 uses data drawn from NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and the United States Census and American Communities Survey, translating the information into an immediately accessible visual display that interprets and exposes data patterns for the viewer. Squires regards the finished piece as a vessel for translation, noting “Art has the potential to evolve as the architecture of process, phasing an idea from the real to the abstract. Through this vessel we are able to communicate these layers of information in a didactic and meaningful way.”

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