ICAT Playdate — COVID Comics Cubed

Our project, “COVID Comics, Cubed,” uses AR technologies, including passthrough headsets, to explore the multifaceted role played by comics art during the COVID-19 pandemic. The exhibition combines commissioned comic art with the embodied and interactive feel of a communal arthouse game. While countless COVID-19 comics explored medical themes, our focus extends to the ways comics became tools for health literacy and even a modality of medicine itself. Our endeavor is centrally occupied with amplifying the lessons of graphic medicine and graphic public health. Our broad goal is to leverage the cutting-edge technology at our disposal to dramatize how pandemic comics facilitated self-care, combated misinformation, and fostered global solidarity. For our experience, users walk through a path of 5 physical screens, each with subtle animations and soundscapes. Then, they enter a virtual experience of three scenes using the MetaQuest 3 headset. The experience ends in a communal, hands-on comics drawing experience.