Covid-19 Publication

The article I chose looks at how digital technology shaped people’s movement during the COVID-19 pandemic in China. The government created a health code app that assigned people a color code to show whether they could travel or enter public spaces like subways, malls, or trains. While the app was meant to control the spread of the virus, it often produced errors or “bugs” that changed how people experienced daily life and their sense of place. For example, a glitch could wrongly restrict someone’s movement, showing how digital systems have power over how individuals navigate physical spaces. This connects to Cities & Memory because both projects explore how digital platforms shape our relationship with environments. The health code app changed how people moved through cities, while Cities & Memory reimagines how people hear, record, and share places. In both cases, digital tools alter not just how spaces function, but also how they are experienced and remembered.