Can Design Survive in Chaos? Reconfiguring Design Education While Designing a Digital Interface for Covid-19 Data Collection in Brazil

Abstract

This article explores alternative practices in design education and project development experienced during the development of a digital interface for the COVID-19 Case Record Form. This form was prepared by the World Health Organization (WHO) to collect data from patients diagnosed with or suspected of having the disease. The project was carried out during April 1-7, 2020, by the author and a group of students from the Superior School of Industrial Design (ESDI) of the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ). The article describes the process and the product, focusing on pedagogical and methodological questions arising from the context of the emergency crisis in which the work was carried out.

Pandemic experimentalism: decentering studio art education in an ongoing global emergency

“…Form and Time was launched online within an international context of reconfiguration and experimentalism in art and design pedagogy during the crisis (Glissmann and Kimbal 2021;Kasper 2020;Martins 2021). Before the pandemic, authors Simone Jones and Judith Doyle worked with a team of faculty members from the Sculpture/Installation and Integrated Media programs to design the new course called Form and Time, with a faculty working group including instructors from Time-Based Media and Form and Structure, supported by the Faculty Curriculum and Development Centre (FCDC).…”

“…As an example, Form and Time student Gabriel George created the Candy Comb (Figure 3) using techniques from the mould-making micro-workshop released during the Form: Multiples and Repetition unit. The practice of working with materials close at hand and unpacking their material affects during the pandemic emergency was a widely adopted strategy in art and design remote teaching (Loveless 2019;Martins 2021;Glissmann and Kimbal). Assignments for each unit of Form and Time emphasized documentation, experimentation, process, DIY techniques, and fabrication using everyday materials that are accessible and "close to hand".…”

“…Students were assessed on a rubric of criticality, ideation/experimentation/observation and thoroughness of documentation. We were informed by pedagogical approaches centered on creating communities of care, emphasizing accessibility and accommodation, and letting go of enforced standards of homogeneous engagement (Martins 2021;FemTechNet 2020;OCADU FCDC 2020). The team worked intentionally toward an atmosphere of collegiality, community and peer-topeer learning and exchange of ideas, believing this to be critical to the success of the remote studio learning environment.…”

“…As Marcos Martins writes in Brazil, "Having been forced to make adaptations and improvisations to face this pandemic, we can choose not to discard them as necessary interventions in a 'different phase that will pass'" (Martins 2021, 111). A pandemic emergency informed approach will engage students in dispersed, interdisciplinary research-creation networks, through strategies that include a diversity of fabrication options, DIY and place-based knowledge and accessibility as approaches to meaning through making (Redmond 2022;Martins 2021;FemTechNet 2020) Shaped by the enforced distances of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, Form and Time now offers online, in-person and blended studio options and modalities. Accessibility is enhanced when educators use:…”

The Challenges and Initiatives of Teaching Product Design’s Course Online During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Malaysia

“…Specially in product design education, the COVID-19 pandemic has thrown the programme into disarray, especially in highly interactive, hands-on design classes (Y. . As argued by Martins (2020), a variety of stories of adaptation and non-adaptation are likely to be the focus of scholarly posts, planning sessions, online forums, and political discussion in the coming years. During the MCO, product design classes in Malaysia that were previously been conducted in maker spaces, creative design studio and fabrication laboratories has change to Online Distance Learning (ODL) as a solution for educators to share their knowledge.…”