Aftermathematics

Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next.

—Arundhati Roy

We began this project in the early spring of 2020 as the first cases of COVID-19 began to appear in the UK.

With everyday life put on hold, it appeared that the pandemic had given us an opportunity to reimagine – and to remake – our entire society. We started, logically enough, with A is for Aftermath. That word, which originally referred to the fresh shoots that grow after a harvest, seemed a perfect launchpad for thinking about the pandemic – and spawned the name for the entire series.

Aftermathematics is part of our contribution to keeping this portal open, to keep asking the questions that we should never stop asking. Why do we live like this and what sort of lives would we rather lead? Who makes the decisions that control our movements? Is there a price on human life? What would happen if we stopped making this world and made others instead?