My trippy research wall:

I'm a product design student from Lithuania. I'm here with the exchange program and currently staying in Rotterdam. I really like this city and its vibe! Even if I can't experience it fully right now, I'm trying to do my best to stay positive and explore life in possible ways :)

So basically my day starts with a looooot of coffee and yoga just to have enough motivation and energy for the whole day as sometimes I find it kind of difficult thing.

Just breathe .
I try to spend a part of time outside in green areas or at least let more fresh air inside so that it would be easier to handle all of this period.

Did some outside and inside observations.
I found myself more sharp to the details and views around

And sun reflections everythere! Since weather is pretty nice and warm these days!

it's Benedikta here

Room for quotes:

Frank M. Snowden
How Pandemics Change History
(article for The New Yorker”)
Reflection//

It is profoundly interesting how differently pandemics been taken and handled during certain periods of history. However, it is easier to notice that society’s lack of knowledge and information about the impact of it was the main factor for the general opinion, approach and outcome
However, the environment and society’s reaction during pandemics can look chaotic and inconsistent, as it is the way around talking about pandemic itself. It has an ordered course of diffusion that is finding human-created niches to get in and spread. It made me think about the fact of how people's attitude leads to one or another action during the upheaval and what it gave for the whole society and the process of dealing with it.
Situation and tools these days give us way more possibilities to act consistently and smart, but are we actually doing what it takes to control the situation? Maybe it is easier to give yourself in panic and outrage?
If the current story of the coronavirus would have us think that our attention should be on the sneezers, offenders, or other things that raise anger and despair, I think that there is a chance to look at what the coronavirus is telling us about the larger actions that shape our lives. What might Coronavirus be telling us about some secret arrangements that have an impact on globalization, fake news, politics or cultural life? The wider view of the current situation can give us more possibilities to act after pandemic wanes. Stepping up from individually wrapped solution to more collective and effective ones. The history showed us that pandemics had a huge impact on many factors and fields of society. The thing is that people were never able to and still can not conquer it but it is important to take the right measures to control it.

reflection on :

"In times of the crisis, seemingly impossible ideas suddenly becomes possible"

fromThe Intercept article : Coronavirus capitalism-and how to beat it.

"Epidemics and solipsism are the two things that human nature can’t conquer."

"A quarantine of consumption"

Some concrete experimentations

M.L.Ukele spent months visiting more than eight thousand employees of the New York Sanitation Department and shaking their hands.
the Manifesto of Maintenance

I thought of this as an example of engaging people to socialize after isolation, what can be the way to remember and thank people that were helping and doing their jobs in registers, shops, administering the tests, staffing the hospitals and etc. What could be the performative/interactive "monument" for them?
(as I think people wouldn't want to have a physical one, as we have for wars or other events. Pandemics are not something to be prised or stuck in the people's mind, but what is the right way to remember people that were important in those times)

Mierle Laderman Ukeles
"Touch Sanitation"

Ex.3 Conversations of isolation:

08/04/2020

WdKA
2020

Arturo Escobar
"Design for the pluriverse"

"Pluriverse-flow of life"

Arturo Escobar

Li Edelkoort

Isaac Chotiner

I found this initiative really innovative and important to society.
A bit about it:
The Design Studio ds4si for Social Intervention is dedicated to changing how social justice is imagined, developed and deployed.

IN PRACTICE

they function as a creativity lab for social justice work in the public sphere. The Studio is a space where activists, artists, academics and the larger public come together to imagine new approaches to social change and new angles to address complex social issues. We also design social interventions that engage populations in imagining and designing new solutions to social problems.

Bridging the Distance: Researching Systems of Circulation and Communication

Natural communication and circulation system:::::::::

/Circulation and changes between day and night. What is the differences between times, lightning and orientation.

/Animals communicate with smell

/photosynthesis(circulation systems between plants and sun)

/water streams(rivers, seas)

/wind(natural circulation and communication system as it transfers seeds and other small natural pieces)

/parasites that spread diseases through animals

/underground water system that spreads different minerals or even pollution

/bees that produces the honey(their works is one big circulation system of picking, taking to the hives and making honey)

Digital strike in Berlin, April 24th curated by "Fridays for Future" community. Demonstration for global climate crisis.

An alternative way of demonstration.

Barbara Januszkiewicz
#Share your sticky note art

Rainbow Windows Are Connecting New Yorkers During Coronavirus Social Distancing. People all over the world have been placing rainbows in their windows as part of a project called the Rainbow Connection, which is aimed at bringing some joy, solidarity and commonality

WNYC’s National Poetry Month Challenge
Week 1: “What a Difference a Month Makes”

Communication via well-known brands. Famous brands have a better power on society as people tend to believe, notice the message they are communicating to the viewer. That's why I think it could be used as a great tool to connect with society

Stephen Lovekin has started photographing families isolating in Brooklyn, New York. Spreading messages to society

Another thing that I noticed, is the possibilities of using people's windows. I live in a room that has a structure of a rounded window gallery that allows me to use all of the 5 windows to show the message or art pieces.
Let's brighten a cross-passers day!

Many analogs and projects that people are doing right now in the world also showed that words have huge power. It gives a more understandable message, that is an easier way to connect with the viewer.
Another interesting thing is poems that I saw people creating during this period of time. It's about how their daily life looks like, what is changed, what remains the same. I thought of writing my own short poems to put on the windows so that people can read it and get to know me more. I think it could be a good way of communication and solidarity improvement in the local area. I want to encourage people to do the same while leaving them a short messages in mail boxes, stick a notes near door window or even asking to use their windows to stick a sticker with my short isolation poems. It could become more visible in the local area as it could be spread in a shape of a sticker in more public spaces.

I want to spread a more positive message that can reduce stress and fear about the current situation. Ways and tools for estriction is very common in the public spaces. I notice that in the center area of Rotterdam or at least in the places that I cross by every day, there are a lot of non-permitted areas to touch, sit or have some interaction with. It usually has this warning red-white stripe around it. My idea is to use a more playful pattern for that or even message to make restrictions more like a part of public art and cheer people up at the same time. Why it can not be fun?
The biggest concentration of these wrapped items are in the center area(in terraces of bars, cafes, galleries). That are places which were used to be really alive, full of young, creative people(especially Witte de With street. It is the center of my local area too, which is crossed by people every day. I think it would be important to do that in exactly this space because owners of the bars and cafes could be interested in keeping the art aura alive in the street as it is already full of it.

First of all, my daily routes

what do I see?

Undergrounds actions and public actions

A lot of water circulation and possible communication around the city

Parks, street, houses, reconstructions, showcases, cafe-teraces, mail-bboxes, windows,

what are the ways out from my own place?

Underground actions//

Pluses:::

Minuses:::

Public actions

Unseen actions could be seen as a potential way to spread information or message that requires more confidential tools and ways. It means that even activity could be seen as illegal and have an undesirable impact on a certain group of people. Sometimes "wrong" even in the eyes of the law or rules doesn't mean that it's bad. If it can contain ethical reasons, an activity could be seen as more important than the country's policies or the law. That is why underground communities and activities are needed, sometime it could be the way to act for the sake of society and not the government. Another benefit of underground communication is that it allows concentrating receiver's attention to the information and not a transmitter of it, which could be needed to make the right reaction to the given message. Anonymous actions could have the bigger power towards society as it makes the idea of it more powerful. Thinking about physical benefits, underground systems could be helpful during emergency situations, while the digital connection is gone or not reliable.

Minuses of underground communication come at the point that it is not very fast and fresh information. It requires way more time to be delivered and communicated. That means that with the pace of today's life it could be outdated.
In certain situations of delivering the message, uncertainty about instigators and authors could be seen as unreliable information as well as message. Another point to it, underground actions are usually related to rebellious, militant movement due to the history of underground activities during wars and etc. that can have an impact on people's approach to it these days too. It could have dual meaning according to person's approach, it could be either fear or courage

Pluses:::

Public action has a lot of positive and beneficial sides. It is a great way to deliver the message and to be seen as it is transparent compared to underground action at certain times. Also, it has a better delivery side and reaches the viewer quicker. It is a better way to communicate about global and nowadays problems as it leaves no space for hiding. Transparency makes people be more trustful and take message seriously. Public action are better to be seen and easier to reach a wider audience.

Wrap around stripes with quotes or illustrations

Neighbors(easy to reach the view)

5 windows gallery

Mailbox

Car parking

Down below street, bench and bikes

F. Dostoevsky explores relations between modernity and its discontents at an important historical conjuncture: the novella’s unnamed, unpleasant hero rails against capitalist industry, imperialist architecture and an emerging social scientific understanding of human behaviour premised on predictability and knowability.

underground elements, underground agents, underground movements, underground actions, underground communication

Book for more "underground"

At our current political and ecological conjuncture, the literal underground is very much the subject of contest – extraction, pollution, depletion, cultivation, sovereignty, equity. Suggesting the need for creative new ways of engaging in activism, reading, writing and education in these networks of depth: underground arts, humanities, ecocriticism, justice. Panels, papers, performances, discussions, readings and roundtables that address this constellation is part of underground.

Public action can not always be seen as the best way to connect or deliver the message. That is why underground movements are existing. When due to protection or danger issues public action can not be made, unseen communication could be a better solution. Trying to deliver message that is seen as illegal or breaks the laws are meant to be quench and ended up quicker when underground communication is harder to track and end up. Public action requires more transparency and straightforwardness.

Minuses:::

Lygia Pape, "Divisor", 1968

Example

Value of objects depends on the times we live in

The excess of toilet paper that people got due to pandemic panic could be a symbol and reflection of the isolation period.
Sticky notes that I use every day to capture daily life phrases and ideas I replace with toilet paper pieces.
I made the performance of making an instant mask that contains daily messages of myself. I used the paper-mache technique that I applied on my face to create mask showing that value and purpose depend on the times that we live in.

Masks made from my own notes

starting collect gallery

Instagram page for better circulation