Watching the doomsday clock : quick-response art during the COVID-19 pandemic. An essay

Corona can be seen as a curse for the arts for the most part, but also as a blessing in some contexts. It is interesting to look in a first retrospective at the extent to which the production conditions have influenced not only the concrete production process (as well as the distribution process), but also the artwork itself. Specifically, does the aesthetic vision of a film not only deviate from the original intention due to separate production conditions, but do those conditions ultimately also influence the content and/or formal level? On a rock album, do lyrics and music change in a decisive way to reflect - again, in terms of content as well as form - that situation which led to the special production conditions (i. e., in our case, the COVID-19 pandemic)? To this end, I would first like to discuss the 2020 feature film "In The Earth" by British director Ben Wheatley, which uses an overarching allegory to address the COVID-19 pandemic and the fractured relationship between humans and culture. In this film, the pandemic plays a role not only on the level of content, but also in terms of the difficult production conditions, along with specific allusions that are incorporated into the plot.Then I would like to talk about the album "An Hour Before It's Dark" by the British band Marillion, who had to rethink their way of composing, established over decades, by jamming for months, which in turn led to an examination of the pandemic in the song lyrics, culminating in an unusual, but catchy pop song that addresses the deadly danger that can emanate from an embrace.