It all started when we understood that Covid19 was a real-world threat and that all our countries would sooner or later impose social distancing and lockdowns. That is when the penny dropped: no conferences, no outings, no traveling, no visiting with loved ones, no life as we know it for a while. Facing the unknown and not being able to plan anything felt terrible, scary, and altogether unfair. Our hearts sank, and then something rebelled… how to survive and get stronger to make it to the other end?
During a long chat between the two of us (one in London, UK, and the other one in Medellin, Colombia) a simple idea emerged: if we wanted to be mindful during the Corona lockdown, if we wanted to learn something from such weird times, we needed to use our digital technology in a different way. We needed to turn it inward as a lens to see things differently, as a way to grab moments of our lives and transform them into simple stories that we will remember, rather than focusing outwards on the fear that was taking over the globe.
This is when the idea of the Corona Haikus took shape. We had both indulged in the pleasure of doing visual haikus on our Instagram accounts. The simplicity of the three photos accompanied by a short text format had proven to be a source of pleasure and creativity for both of us. Three photos allow for the dimension of time: a beginning, a middle, and an end.
They allow for a narrative arch in poetic form. They offer the possibility of creating meaning with very little effort. Why not extend this format to a wider community? Why not use it to feel connected and learn from each other on a global scale?
So we launched the Corona Haikus Project on the 28th of March 2020.
It is a space to document our lives during Coronavirus lockdown, share it with others, get inspired by other people’s insights and discoveries, and ultimately learn something from the whole experience. It can be an invitation to look at what we gain, distract us from what we lose, but also to simply notice what is going on inside us and re-discover our private habitat and family/personal dynamics. Paying attention to the details of daily life, the small gestures that are not usually considered historical archives.
At the moment, it is a simple open Facebook group with nearly 900 members which has allowed the project to easily reach a diverse community of contributors from all the world who share their compositions, get in touch with one another and connect people who would otherwise never would have crossed paths.
The Corona Haikus Project is a place to reflect on what we have learned once the lockdowns are lifted. So, as a project, it has a second and third phase.
We are building a website where a selection of Corona Haikus will be archived and presented as a “gallery/browsing experience.” The visual haikus selection is being done by the community itself. Having a website will allow us to escape from the Facebook legal and interface tyranny, and also to offer access to a wider community to what, we believe, is a beautiful, collaborative, social, and poetic endeavour.
Phase three would be to make the Corona Haikus available to everybody in order to organise pop-up exhibitions in public spaces and encourage debate about the rebuilding of the post-Corona world. It could also be about creating online curated exhibitions and debates.
We welcome suggestions and ideas on how to expand the project and bring it to more diverse communities. The only restriction is that initiatives need to be strictly not-for-profit.
Come, join us @ Corona Haikus, observe, be inspired, and share!
Sandra Tabares Duque & Sandra Gaudenzi
Immerse is an initiative of the MIT Open DocLab and The Fledgling Fund, and it receives funding from Just Films | Ford Foundation and the MacArthur Foundation. IFP is our fiscal sponsor. Learn more here. We are committed to exploring and showcasing media projects that push the boundaries of media and tackle issues of social justice — and rely on friends like you to sustain ourselves and grow. Join us by making a gift today.