This series explores changes in daily movements by people in various metro areas following the onset of the COVID-19 crisis, based on location tracking data from cell phones. In the source image, the x-axis depicts time, ranging from mid-February 2020 through the end of March. The y-axis depicts the scale of movement in comparison to historical averages for this time of year, with activity plummeting far below usual after mid-March, when the Federal government asked people to stay at home to slow the spread of the virus. The source data is structured to explore the relationship between socioeconomic status and activity patterns during the crisis, with movement in upper income areas depicted in blue and lower income areas depicted in red. 

 In creating the series, I extract a series of equal-sized fragments of the source image with proportions set in the “golden ratio” (approximately 1.62:1). The fragments are assembled intuitively to capture areas of the chart that have attractive formal qualities. The fragments are cleaned up, recolored with more vibrant tones, and enhanced in resolution from the original screen shots, with the images completed as digital files. The completed images will be produced, after the ongoing public health crisis, as dye-sublimation prints on metal.

The series is named after my daughter, Katya, who was born into the coronavirus crisis, in April 2020.

Additional information on the series is available at this link.