Alice Rawsthorn presents Design Emergency
Summary
TLDRThe video script discusses the pivotal role of design in addressing the COVID-19 crisis, highlighting the 'Design Emergency' platform co-founded by the speaker and Paola Antonelli. It showcases how global design leaders have creatively tackled challenges from public awareness to medical treatment, with examples like the iconic SARS-CoV-2 illustration and the Afghan Dreamer robotics team's ventilator. The script emphasizes the need for thoughtful design in post-pandemic reconstruction, focusing on health care, housing, and social systems, advocating for design as a key tool for tackling broader societal issues.
Takeaways
- 🏥 The script highlights the role of design in emergencies, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, emphasizing its importance in finding solutions to global crises.
- 🌐 The launch of the 'Design Emergency' research platform by the speaker and Paola Antonelli is aimed at investigating the global design response to COVID-19 and other emergencies, showcasing the potential of design to influence public and political perceptions.
- 💡 The script acknowledges the courage, creativity, and resourcefulness of designers, architects, and engineers in addressing the challenges posed by the pandemic from the outset.
- 📊 The critical role of design in explaining and visualizing COVID-19, especially in the early stages of the pandemic, is underscored by the work of medical illustrators like Alissa Eckert and Dan Higgins.
- 🔍 The 'Spiky Blob' visualization of SARS-CoV-2 became a globally recognized image, symbolizing the pandemic and influencing public perception and response.
- 🏥 The script discusses the contributions of design to COVID-19 treatment, including the expansion of telemedical networks and the redesign of healthcare facilities by organizations like MASS Design Group.
- 🏁 The global design race for ventilators revealed the challenges of meeting medical standards and the importance of collaboration, pragmatism, and the use of standardized components.
- 🌟 The Afghan Dreamer robotics team's story exemplifies the ingenuity and determination of young designers in creating solutions under challenging circumstances.
- 📢 The importance of clear, precise, and coherent public information programs in emergencies is highlighted, with the Unite Against COVID-19 campaign from New Zealand as a successful example.
- 🤝 The script emphasizes the community spirit and volunteer networks that have been crucial in producing personal protective equipment and supporting vulnerable populations during the pandemic.
- ⚠️ The script also points out design failures, such as the poor design of PPE and the inhumane treatment of homeless individuals, as reminders of the need for better design in post-pandemic reconstruction.
- 🛠️ The speaker and Paola Antonelli aim to position design at the forefront of post-pandemic reconstruction, focusing on interviews with global design leaders who are reinventing various aspects of society to make it more fit for purpose.
Q & A
What was the primary purpose of launching the 'Design Emergency' platform?
-The 'Design Emergency' platform was launched to investigate the global design response to COVID-19 and other emergencies, with the aim of raising awareness of design's value in a global crisis and ensuring its role in the radical redesign and reconstruction of our lives post-pandemic.
Who are the founders of the 'Design Emergency' platform and what are their roles?
-The 'Design Emergency' platform was founded by Paola Antonelli, a senior curator of architecture and design at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and a friend who is not named in the transcript. They are both convinced that the crisis could change public and political perceptions of design.
What was the initial response to COVID-19 in terms of design?
-The initial design response to COVID-19 involved creating visualizations to explain what the virus was, particularly by medical illustrators at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who created the iconic 'Spiky Blob' image of SARS-CoV-2.
How did the 'Spiky Blob' image contribute to public perception of COVID-19?
-The 'Spiky Blob' image gave a face to the unknown, making the virus more tangible and understandable to the public. It was designed to convey the danger of the new infection, prompting people to take it seriously and elicit instinctive responses.
What role did the MASS Design Group play in the design response to COVID-19?
-The MASS Design Group in Boston swiftly converted some of its recently-built healthcare facilities in Rwanda and Haiti into COVID care centers, applying lessons learned from previous crises. They also advised hospitals in the US, such as Mount Sinai in New York, on facility conversions for COVID treatment.
What was the global design race for ventilators and what were its outcomes?
-The global design race for ventilators involved hundreds of designers, engineers, and manufacturers attempting to develop new ventilators quickly. The most successful attempts were modest and pragmatic, often modifying existing systems and using standardized components, rather than designing from scratch.
What is an example of a grassroots design initiative that emerged during the pandemic?
-An example of a grassroots design initiative is the Afghan Dreamer robotics team, consisting of five teenage girls who designed and built emergency ventilators using recycled components, including car parts, under challenging conditions in their home city of Herat.
How did the design of public information campaigns vary in effectiveness during the pandemic?
-Most COVID campaigns were not clear, precise, or coherent, with the UK being cited as an example. However, the Unite Against COVID-19 campaign in New Zealand, designed by the Clemenger BBDO marketing agency, was an exception, being put together quickly and constantly refined for clarity and accessibility.
What role did volunteer networks play in the design response to COVID-19?
-Volunteer networks worldwide were invaluable in mass-producing personal protective equipment for frontline workers and providing practical help for vulnerable neighbors, such as shopping for food and collecting prescriptions. In India, self-help groups were particularly dynamic in these efforts.
What are some of the design deficiencies that have been exposed by the pandemic?
-Design deficiencies exposed by the pandemic include the poor design of PPE causing damage to healthcare workers' faces and the lack of consideration for homeless populations, such as the Las Vegas homeless shelter incident. These deficiencies highlight the need for better design in future crisis responses.
How does the 'Design Emergency' platform intend to influence post-pandemic reconstruction?
-The 'Design Emergency' platform aims to persuade more people, especially decision-makers, to see design as a powerful tool to address various challenges and to place it at the forefront of post-pandemic reconstruction by showcasing constructive design responses to COVID-19.
Outlines
🌐 Design's Role in Pandemic Response
The script discusses the pivotal role design has played in addressing emergencies, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. It highlights the establishment of the 'Design Emergency' research platform by the narrator and Paola Antonelli to study global design solutions to the pandemic. The platform's aim is to change public and political perceptions of design and ensure its integral role in post-pandemic reconstruction. The script also emphasizes the importance of design in educating the public about COVID-19 through medical illustrations, such as the iconic 'Spiky Blob' image by Alissa Eckert and Dan Higgins, which humanized the virus and prompted various societal responses.
🛠️ The Ventilator Design Challenge
This paragraph delves into the global race to design ventilators in response to COVID-19. It notes the challenges faced by various entities, including luxury car manufacturers and Elon Musk, in meeting stringent medical standards for ventilator design. The most successful efforts were those that were collaborative, pragmatic, and utilized standardized components. The script also celebrates the ingenuity of self-taught designers and medical professionals, especially the Afghan Dreamer robotics team's use of recycled materials to create emergency ventilators. Additionally, it touches on the importance of clear and effective public information campaigns, with the New Zealand government's 'Unite Against COVID-19' campaign serving as a model of clarity and unity.
🌱 Community and Design in Crisis
The final paragraph focuses on the community spirit and volunteer networks that emerged to address the pandemic, particularly the self-help groups in India that provided essential services to their communities. It also examines the shortcomings in design, such as the poorly designed PPE that caused harm to healthcare workers and the inhumane treatment of homeless individuals during the crisis. The narrator and Paola Antonelli aim to use 'Design Emergency' to showcase constructive design responses and advocate for design's central role in addressing broader societal challenges and in the reconstruction of a post-pandemic world.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Design
💡COVID-19
💡Medical Illustrators
💡Ventilators
💡Public Information Campaigns
💡Humanitarian Architects
💡Design Emergency
💡Resourcefulness
💡PPE (Personal Protective Equipment)
💡Socially-Distanced
💡Post-Pandemic Reconstruction
Highlights
Design's role in history has been crucial in dealing with emergencies, and the COVID-19 pandemic required design solutions.
The design response to the pandemic was bold, inspiring, and resourceful, serving as a demonstration of design's value in a global crisis.
Design Emergency, a research platform, was launched to investigate the global design response to COVID-19 and other emergencies.
The crisis could be a game changer for public and political perceptions of design, aiming to ensure design's role in post-pandemic reconstruction.
Design Emergency started with weekly IG Live interviews with global leaders of the COVID relief effort.
Designers, architects, and engineers displayed courage, creativity, and dedication in their response to COVID-19.
A critical role of design was explaining COVID-19, with medical illustrators visualizing the virus for public understanding.
The visualization of SARS-CoV-2 by Alissa Eckert and Dan Higgins became one of the most recognizable images of our time.
People projected their instinctive responses to COVID onto the 'Spiky Blob' image, expressing fears and diffusing terror in creative ways.
Design contributions to treating COVID-19 included telemedical networks expansion and hospital redesigns.
MASS Design Group converted healthcare facilities into COVID care centers and advised US hospitals on facility conversions.
The global design race for ventilators showcased the best and worst in designers, engineers, and manufacturers.
Successful ventilator designs were typically modest, pragmatic, and based on modifying existing systems.
Innovative ideas for ventilators came from medical professionals and self-taught designers in fragile states.
The Afghan Dreamer robotics team, consisting of teenage girls, designed and built emergency ventilators using recycled components.
Design has been crucial in informing the public about the crisis and advising on responses, with examples like New Zealand's Unite Against COVID-19 campaign.
Volunteer networks have mass-produced PPE and provided practical help for vulnerable communities, particularly in India.
Design Emergency has tracked both successful and failed COVID design projects, highlighting the need for better design in post-pandemic reconstruction.
Paola and the platform aim to persuade decision-makers to see design as a powerful tool for addressing various challenges.
Design Emergency focuses on global design leaders who are reinventing areas like healthcare, housing, and social systems for a better future.
Transcripts
(light music)
- One of design's crucial roles throughout history
has been to help us to deal with emergencies.
When COVID-19 struck, it was clear that many of the problems
it caused would require design solutions.
And soon it became equally clear that the design response
to the pandemic was so bold, so inspiring,
and so resourceful that it would serve
as a compelling demonstration of its value
in a global crisis,
a rare good news story for the media,
and sorely needed source of hope and optimism for everyone.
So in the spring,
I launched a research platform Design Emergency
with my friend Paola Antonelli,
senior curator of architecture and design
at the Museum of Modern Art in New York
to investigate the global design response
to COVID-19 and other emergencies.
Paola and I are both convinced
that this crisis could be a game changer
for public and political perceptions of design.
And we want to raise awareness of this
in the hope of ensuring that design
will be at the forefront of the radical redesign
and reconstruction of our lives post-pandemic.
We began Design Emergency in the spring
by running weekly IG Live interviews
with designers who we believe are the global leaders
of the COVID relief effort.
We then began a second, ongoing phase in the summer
by interviewing the global design leaders
who'll reinvent our lives for the future.
So what are the most compelling COVID design projects?
Paola and I were spoiled for choice
because designers, architects, engineers,
and their collaborators have displayed
such courage, creativity, resourcefulness,
and dedication from the outset.
Now a critical role of design
has been explaining what COVID-19 is,
particularly at the beginning.
And it's important to remember
that even the world's greatest epidemiologists
couldn't answer that question
at the start of the pandemic in early 2020.
But by the end of January 2020
there was just enough information
about its genetic coding for the medical illustrators,
the scientists who specialize
in visualizing new diseases to go to work.
Two medical illustrators at the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention in Atlanta,
Alissa Eckert and Dan Higgins were charged with doing that
on the 21st of January,
the day after the CDC had activated
its emergency response center for COVID.
10 days later, they completed, signed off,
and launched a visualization of SARS-CoV-2,
the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
And as Alissa said in our Design Emergency interview,
the image gave a face to the unknown.
Medical illustrations like this one
have to be scientifically precise.
If not, they wouldn't be credible.
But their designers have some license for expression.
Alissa and Dan were told to ensure that the public
would sense the danger posed by the mysterious new infection
and take it seriously.
So they exaggerated the scariest element of SARS-CoV-2,
the spike or S-proteins that spread contagion
by attaching it to human cells.
They made them more numerous, bigger,
sharper and spikier in their illustration
in a scary shade of red.
Nicknamed "The Spiky Blob" for obvious reasons,
their image became ubiquitous worldwide within days.
It's one of the most recognizable images of our time,
the most famous medical illustration in history
that promises to become an enduring symbol of terror
akin to the mushroom cloud of the atomic bomb.
But the power of Alissa and Dan's design
was also evident in the speed with which people everywhere
projected their instinctive responses to COVID
onto it by interpreting it.
Some people expressed their fears like the police officers
in the Indian city of Chennai
who wore spiky, blob-shaped helmet, shields,
and spears made by local artists Gowtham
to them to raise the alarm about COVID-19.
Other people diffused their terror of the lethal disease
by cutesifying it in hairdos,
so-called coronavirus braids in Kenya,
as well as cupcakes, cartoons, and pinatas
which they'd smash up
to vent their fury against the pandemic.
Through Design Emergency, Paola and I also explored
design's contribution to treating COVID-19
which has taken many forms,
from the expansion of telemedical networks
like Sehat Kahani's in Pakistan
to the speedy redesign of hospitals and clinics.
In the forefront of the humanitarian architects
at MASS design group in Boston which swiftly converted
some of its recently-built healthcare facilities
in Rwanda after the Ebola crisis
and Haiti after the cholera outbreak
into COVID care centers.
MASS then applied the lessons learned from those projects
to advise Mount Sinai in New York
and other US hospitals
on converting their facilities for COVID treatment.
But one of the noisiest and most visible design responses
to COVID treatment was of course the global design race
for ventilators which brought out the best
and also sadly the worst in the hundreds of designers,
engineers, manufacturers, and entrepreneurs
who vowed to develop them,
with the showiest among them claiming
that theirs would be designed faster
and would be better than everyone else's.
But designing ventilators to meet
exacting medical standards turned out to be
much more challenging than luxury car makers,
Formula One teams, and Elon Musk had ever imagined.
Tellingly, the most successful attempts
have been modest and pragmatic,
typically collaborations of specialists
from different fields who have modified existing systems
rather than designing new ones from scratch,
have used standardized components wherever possible,
and have shared information with other designers.
Many of the smartest ideas
didn't come from professional designers at all
but from medical professionals
based on their practical experience
and from self-taught designers in fragile states in Africa,
South Asia, and Latin America where there have been
chronic shortages of ventilators throughout the crisis.
My favorite example is that of the five teenage girls
in Afghanistan aged 14 to 17,
all star tech students
and members of the Afghan Dreamer robotics team
who spent months designing and building
emergency ventilators in Herat, their home city.
They used recycled components
including Toyota Corolla car parts.
They worked under intense pressure of lockdown,
supply shortages, and their family's fears for their safety
amid spiraling infections and renewed Taliban violence.
Eventually they not only quelled
the early political criticism of their project
but secured government support
and benefited throughout from the generosity of designers
in other countries who shared their learning,
their design templates and their contacts with them.
Another critically important role for design
has been informing us about the crisis
and advising us on how to respond to it.
Ideally, public information programs
addressing a major emergency like this one
should be as clear, precise, and coherent as possible.
Sadly, most COVID campaigns have been the opposite
as the UK lamentably demonstrates.
But there's one glowing exception, Unite Against COVID-19,
commissioned by the New Zealand government
and designed by the Clemenger BBDO marketing agency
in Wellington, it was put together at speed, just six days,
and has been constantly refined ever since.
Every element, fonts, pictograms, colors,
and graphics are legible, accessible, and friendly
without ever detracting from the tragedy of the situation.
The visual consistency of the black,
white, and yellow palette
and hazard tape diagonal stripes
makes the campaign instantly recognizable.
It also reinforces the theme of unity,
that New Zealanders are all in this together
and can end it together.
The pictograms always depict useful activities,
suggesting subtly that if everyone does their bit,
New Zealand can crack COVID-19.
As the creative director Mark Dalton said
if you're trying to help people,
the last thing you want to say is don't do this.
The same community spirit is evident
in many of my own favorite design responses to COVID.
The networks of volunteers that have emerged worldwide
and have been invaluable in mass-producing
personal protective equipment
for frontline health and social care workers
and in providing practical help for vulnerable neighbors.
Shopping for food, collecting prescriptions,
and walking restless dogs.
Nowhere have these groups been more dynamic than in India
where tens of millions of women
belonging to the national network of self-help groups,
SHGs as they're known,
leapt into action at the start of the pandemic
to help their local communities.
They delivered safety briefings, they made masks.
They provided food and medical supplies to their neighbors
and cooked meals to the destitute.
They even set up a floating supermarket
that took essential supplies to remote rural communities
in Kerala by river.
But Design Emergency has also tracked
the COVID design projects that haven't worked
and the ominous aspects of design that are either exposed
or been exposed by the human and economic turmoil
caused by the pandemic.
Take the inexplicable cruelty of compelling the occupants
of a Las Vegas homeless shelter to spend the night
on hastily-drawn, socially-distanced rectangles
in a casino parking lot
when the shelter had to close due to COVID infections.
And take the design flaws of the PPE
worn by nurses from various countries
who posted selfies on social media
of the damage it caused to their faces
from wearing poorly-designed masks and shields
during lengthy critical care shifts.
Indeed some of the PPE used in the UK
is so poorly designed that hospitals burn it
at the end of each day
because it would take too long
and be far too costly to clean it.
These design deficiencies are timely reminders
of the urgent need to ensure that our lives
will be radically redesigned to make them fit for purpose
when the pandemic is over.
We all knew that they weren't fit for purpose before
with a deepening climate emergency and refugee crisis,
systemic racism and other forms of inequality,
intolerance and injustice, and many other daunting problems.
Paola and I hope that by sharing
constructive design responses to COVID on Design Emergency,
we can persuade more people,
decision-makers especially, to see design as we do.
As a powerful tool to address social, political,
economic, ecological, and technological challenges
and to place it at the forefront
of post-pandemic reconstruction.
To that end, since the summer
we focused our IG Live interviews
on the people who we believe are the global design leaders
who will reinvent our world
to make it fit for purpose in the future.
We've interviewed incredible designers
who are radically reinventing everything from health care,
housing, justice and social systems, to space travel,
disaster relief, artificial intelligence, voting procedures,
and our relationship to nature.
Design isn't a panacea for any of those challenges,
but it is one of our most powerful tools
with which to tackle them if,
and it's a big if,
it's deployed intelligently, sensitively,
and responsibly as we hope
Design Emergency is demonstrating.
(upbeat music)
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