Making in the time of Coronavirus
This is a heroic moment for sharing ideas with others, for others. Makers are in a unique position to participate in the response effort to the coronavirus pandemic.
People all over the country and the world are working hard at home with the tools they have on hand, responding to calls for help from governments, hospitals, laboratories, and universities. Though I’m not a maker in the coding or nuts and bolts sense, I’ve developed a deep reverence for makers after overseeing a highly complex construction project where I worked daily with highly skilled craftsmen. Some of the most creative people I’ve interacted with work in the trades; when it came to problem-solving, they could see things I literally couldn’t see because they understood how to make things, take things apart, and put them back together.
I’ve been inspired in the last few weeks by message threads, videos and articles highlighting a range of emerging projects to help address the coronavirus pandemic. COVIDbase is a compact resource for the exchange of skills, ideas and information; a curated list of projects, news, and data related to COVID-19.
While all these maker projects look impressive to me, there is a range to their complexity. Videos of home-made ventilators are going viral (will we still be able to use this metaphor?) and there are several calls for opensource specifications, such as this one led by Johns Hopkins Emergency Medicine Resident, Julian Botta. Dozens of other opensource projects target building simpler devices and products with 3D printers — respirators, face shields and goggles — as well as making specific, crucial parts of ventilators, like valves. Other opensource projects address the weak links in the testing supply chain — like calls to build RNA reagents, of which there has, and will likely be again, a shortage. On the consumer end, there are apps in development to warn people when they’re about to touch their face. And of course, there’s also the analog contribution of sewing masks by hand.
Dale Dougherty, in Make, the magazine and movement he founded, writes that Plan C for COVID19 rests on the shoulders of independent makers, entrepreneurs and innovators. While the government (Plan A) and private companies (Plan B) are the “first-responders” in addressing the design, manufacture and deployment of critical medical supplies, people stuck in their basements can get to work developing the back-up to the back-up plans.
The maker movement may appear to be led by individuals, but it’s centered on the power of community. One of my favorite quotes is “Community is the art form of the future”. My community-building work lies more at this intersection of making and art, and I am grateful to the creative people all over the world trying to help each other through this crisis.
