This makes me feel Connected Empowered Heard at an Individual but Shared scale
“Dear New York…”
"An online experience captures New Yorkers’ feelings about the impact of Covid-19 on life in the city."
Designer Giorgia Lupi with Talia Cotton, Phil Cox, Ting Fang Cheng and Sarah Kay Miller created “Dear New York…”, an online experience that allows people to leave notes on digital mobile sticky notes that are arranged on background images of the city. The note prompts that can be chosen are “I missed you for…” and “I hope you will become…”, and people have an option to customize their response, add their name, and state how long they’ve lived in New York. To change the image backdrop as well as the selection of notes, there is a “Walk a Block” link. Selecting “See All” allows all of the notes to be viewed at once. The goal of the project is to document the thoughts and feelings of New Yorkers during the pandemic. In addition the project aims to capture “the often random, unplanned occurrences” that were characteristic of the city before the pandemic. As people contribute to the online archive of reflections, they are able to feel a sense of unity with other city residents.
Contributer notes
What is surprising, refreshing, most interesting?
What I find refreshing about this project is its ability to create meaning through a rather simple, straightforward approach.
Key Insights? What can we learn from this?
One insight is that there is diversity in the sentiments expressed, some are serious, others jokes, some positive and celebratory while others are negative and critical. Its inevitable that this kind of project will result in a variety of types of responses. However giving people the opportunity to express themselves freely allows for a sense of authentic representation of the diverse array of respondents. Another is that the background images are useful in providing context, and create a sense of familiarity. The images, taken by the team themselves, add a personal touch that is significant in distinguishing the project as being about New York, as opposed to another city, which further enforces the goal of the project to capture the New York experience.