In the empty bleachers, our collective disaster imagination plays out in real life. We’re collecting photos and videos of what that looks like.
Photo: Sarah Stier/Getty Images
So much of our idea of what a pandemic or a global crisis looks like is informed not by history, but by culture and entertainment. Black-and-white photos of Spanish flu wards are not-so-relatable; all the nurses still wore those pointy paper hats, for one. But post-apocalyptic movies — with their images of stadiums and urban centers devoid of human life — resonate for how they flip the familiar iconography we’re so used to seeing. Now, as epidemiologists tell us that the most effective thing we can do to slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic is keep large, nonessential gatherings of people to an absolute minimum, cultural institutions ranging from Coachella, to the NBA, to daytime TV have either postponed, canceled, or will continue airing without an audience. In the empty bleachers, our collective disaster imagination plays out in real life. We’re collecting photos and videos of what that looks like.
The scene on Broadway following Andrew Cuomo’s mandatory closing of all theaters and ban of gatherings over 500 people.
Photo: Erik Pendzich/Shutterstock
People try to buy tickets at TKTS in Times Square as New York’s governor ordered all Broadway theaters to shut their doors in the face of ongoing coronavirus concerns on March 12, 2020.
Photo: Erik Pendzich/Shutterstock
The scene outside the famed Metropolitan Museum of Art steps.
Photo: Erik Pendzich/Shutterstock
Audience seats are empty during a live interview at Build studios on March 12, 2020 in New York City.
Photo: Getty Images
A general view inside the empty arena before the start of the quarterfinals of the Big East Basketball Tournament at Madison Square Garden on March 12, 2020 in New York City.
Photo: Sarah Stier/Getty Images
The Barclays Center.
Photo: Mike Lawrie/Getty Images
A worker disinfects seats prior to the start of the second round of the 2020 Atlantic 10 men’s basketball tournament at Barclays Center on March 12, 2020 in Brooklyn.
Photo: Mike Lawrie/Getty Images
Signage as a result of Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) threats during “Studio 54: Night Magic†Opening Night at the Brooklyn Museum on March 11, 2020 in Brooklyn, New York.
Photo: Cindy Ord/Getty Images
A few visitors walk through an exhibit of American art on Tuesday, March 10th at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, which closed indefinitely on Thursday.
Photo: Seth Wenig/AP/Shutterstock
