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Tomislav Medak on Zagreb's 5.5 Richter Earthquake in the Time of Coronavirus

Tomislav Medak (b. 1973) holds a degree in Philosophy and German Studies from the University of Zagreb. He is currently a doctoral student at Coventry University in the Centre for Postdigital Cultures. Medak is the author of two books: A Guidebook to Domination by Abstraction (2016) and Shitty Tech for a Shitty World (2015). He has co-authored several other books and edited volumes. Medak has organized and participated in multiple conferences and talks with themes ranging from political theory to the commons to cultural policy over the last twenty years. He is also very active in the experimental theatre group BADco. as an actor, playwright, and director.

In his post on the convergence of two rare disastrous events in Zagreb (last week’s strong earthquake and Coronavirus), Tomislav Medak paints a jarring picture of Zagreb residents huddling outside in the cold after being quite literally shaken awake and at the same time their world is crumbling around them trying to observe social distancing so as not to reap the wrath of the current invisible threat that is Coronavirus. He challenges readers to observe how disaster preparedness and government response to disasters reveals attitudes about the collective good and asks readers to use these events as a catalyst for rethinking society’s relationship to the market.

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