Plague Season was Hyphae’s (then Jigsaw Foresight’s) playful provocation to examine what we’ve learned in the five years since Covid-19 lockdowns radically changed the way we all lived. Plague Season served several purposes: it allowed us to cast back to where we’d been at the time of a great plague and think about how far we’ve come – and how far we haven’t. It allowed us to imagine forward and think about what might happen if we faced similarly all-encompassing, world-altering shocks in future. Through a series of participatory workshops, we discussed what future plagues might come upon us, how they might combine in usual and outlandish ways, and what we might use to hold on to our essential humanity through such strange speculative scenarios. The most interactive, multimedia element arising from Plague Season are the speculative futures “plague sounds” in the media player at plagueseason.com, derived from the participatory workshops. The work also features a speculative fiction short story, a facilitator’s guide to running your own participatory Plague Season workshops, and an online whiteboard template (on Miro) for sparking Plague Season interactive experiences.
Plague Season: Plagues Past and Future

