The goal for my groups’ unessay project was to analyze the changes on mural and wall art such as graffiti before the COVID-19 pandemic and comparing it to now in regards to political and social movements that have arisen through this pandemic. Our project was about discovering how the use of the art on Murals related to events that were occurring around the world. We as a group were interested in the change of the political messages that the murals were sending out to their communities comparing the messages from before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Our research is relevant because with studying contemporary archaeology we are looking at old things to see how we can improve the future or be better for the future. With looking at the murals from before and after the COVID-19 pandemic we see the differences from the political talks, even when the political topics change it is always in a way in which the community is evolving to become better in society or get through difficult times together. By doing this project and related research we hoped to gain more knowledge in what the meaning behind the murals was and how those meanings compared to the meanings of murals before the pandemic.
Through our research I found that several of the murals from before COVID-19 were representations that spoke out on political, social and economic issues but there were more that were associated with the community. For example, murals of the puget sound to represent many of the events of Seattle culture were painted on one of the walls downtown. During COVID-19 we see more murals that represent the events that are occurring during this time period. For example, the murals of healthcare workers with face masks on to represent the frontline workers that are risking their lives to save many other lives and the face masks to show people to be cautious and stay safe. With comparing murals from before and after the COVID-19 pandemic I learned that murals are a great example of contemporary archaeology because they are constantly changing to represent events that are happening or to teach history of a place mostly of the place where the mural is located. Archaeologists can use murals to identify what a community is like or to figure out past/current events in the community.
To create our final unessay we as a group decided to create an instagram account with pictures of several different murals that we found while doing our research. We included pictures of murals from before and after the COVID-19 pandemic to show the difference in the messages that the murals represented. Comparing the murals from before and after helped us in our research by analyzing the differences of murals and we can visibly see how times certainly change. On our instagram page you can see how contemporary archeology of murals and graffiti art is used to express situations of the time we are living in or the past times. The biggest take away from this project is that analyzing the murals with contemporary archaeology and the use of art through murals and graffiti we can discover the political events of the past and current time that we are living through, while also identifying what a community is like. These murals can pass on very important messages to the communities or even sometimes to the world when something like COVID-19 happens.
