Visual AIDS Research Fellow Helena Shaskevich examines how artist Michael Tidmus experimented with early digital media during the AIDS crisis, focusing on the pioneering HyperCard project The AIDS Stack (1987). Shaskevich considers how Tidmus used emerging computer networks to circulate information and imagine new forms of community, connection, and care.

Guest editor Theo Gordon presents a portfolio of writings from the ‘Art, Visual Culture & HIV/AIDS: Local, Regional and Transnational Perspectives’ in the History of Art Department at the University of York that featured artists, curators, academics, graphic designers, activists, writers and others with long-term investments in these issues working in diverse international contexts.

Siân Cook examines locally produced AIDS ephemera—including leaflets, t-shirts, pins, and packets—to trace situated histories of making in the UK and consider how locally embedded cultural work connects to broader social movements. Part of a guest-edited portfolio by Theo Gordon.

This post is part of ‘Art, Visual Culture & HIV/AIDS: Local, Regional & Transnational Perspectives’ a guest-edited portfolio by Theo Gordon that collects writings from the ‘Art, Visual Culture & HIV/AIDS: Local, Regional and Transnational Perspectives’ conference hosted by the History of Art Department at the University of York in June of 2025. Read more about the portfolio here.