Creatives in the time of Corona

What happens when a young information designer looks beyond her world of e-learning, online platforms and easy digital accessibility? What happens when she recognizes her privilege but more importantly, identifies the glaring gap in education accessibility that is not being addressed in the current pandemic situation? Vedika Lall a design graduate from Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology, had all the reasons to enjoy her gap year from the comforts of her home while preparing for a masters abroad next year. But the pandemic situation had her questioning the systems around her, and looking beyond the immediate solutions of online learning that were recommended for school children all over. How would children without access to gadgets, devices and internet connection avail education? She reached out to a few NGOs in her hometown Patna, only to discover that while the organizations were managing to provide essentials for survival, providing education was not something t...

Sneha Ravishankar is a textile designer and an educator and would cringe on reading this as she does not like to be slotted and defined by terminologies. But Sneha is a warm, open, empathetic human being who is making each moment of the lockdown count – by doing what she can in her capacity – not just as a designer, but as a decent human being. At the beginning of the lockdown, she began working on the donation drive for the migrant workers, and making sure people around her were feeling alright. But as days advanced and the situation started getting grimmer, she began receiving many phone calls from students of the design colleges where she teaches. She realized that there was a need to pro-actively reach out to more people – just to talk, to make sure they were coping. Hence, she started offering online weaving classes – her fees, she said, “feed a needy family, or feed some stray animals on the road for a week” And thus began, an exciting, moving and motivating journey ...

Centre for Human Habitat and Alternative Technology – CHHAT  has been always active in designing emergent structures for emergency needs, focused specifically on providing for the under-represented strata of the Indian society. This has also earned them the coveted Buckminster Fuller award for socially responsible design. With their background in architecture, engineering and education, Chhat has always been agile and proactive in offering their expertise whenever the need emerged. With this medical emergency and a man-made disaster in the form of COVID-19, the team found themselves overwhelmed as, although they had designed and prepared for natural disasters, they had never anticipated a calamity of this form. They were looking at it, trying to see where designers could fit it, especially young architects who can build with their own hands. It required them to quickly re-configure themselves – all spread across various cities in the country. They processed all the ...

Design has always been about problem solving, and about well-being. This holds true even in the times of a pandemic. Hence, when the world stood still, except for front-line workers who continue to fight, screen, salvage and heal – some designers and engineers have stepped up to support these front liners, through the capacity of design. World over, the maker movement has woken up to the need of the hour. Open source files for the 3D printing of face vizors and shields for medical professionals are available. Surat based firm D3LAB that finds itself at the confluence of technology, art and architecture took up the manufacturing of these face vizors as an altruistic endeavour – to donate as many face shields as possible to hospitals and medical staff across Surat. Adapting the basic open source file for 3D printing, they experimented in materials and other technologies like laser cutting to afford them maximum efficiency for production of large numbers is a short time period....