The mind of an artist that roams and rambles along diverse paths, finding answers to thoughts that are still up in the air, has now been quarantined. Wait, is this ingenious mind quarantined or is it still on the path of a divergent journey?
Honorable Mention | RTF Designer’s Days of Quarantine 2020
Category: Essay Writing
Participant: Shivani Singh
Profession: Student
City: Ghaziabad
The quarantine period was anticipated to be causing desolation and the very thought of detachment from the world outside brought chills down the spine to even the best of us. The fear of missing out be it from work or the mood boosters with our loved ones, each and every moment spent outside seemed more like a memory of the times that I would want to go back and cherish realizing it to be ‘one last time’ before a very long time until the next time!
This period of my life has not only blessed me with the realization of how prominent the bijou things in life which are usually taken for granted are but also the worth of each day in life, and not to deny, how unpredictable turns life can take.
Spending such prodigious time indoors after having a routine where the lion’s share of my day was spent outdoors was out-and-out a turnaround. Waking up in a hurry with a terror of getting late for class had become a perennial part of my daily drill which continued for days even after the quarantine began, you know, old habits die hard they say!
Initially, it felt like a blessing in disguise to be spending time with your family and well, what more do we designers crave for than a good night’s sleep. What began as a merrymaking very soon became a curtailment for this ‘always on the go’ mind of an artist.
Days now mostly went exploring and diving more into ourselves, finding answers within, unleashing our talents or interests which earlier had been suppressed way below by the modus operandi of our everyday lives. There was ample time to invest in what actually made us happy, what undoubtedly brought joy to our hearts. My days of quarantine had divulged the inner self and brought to sight even the itsy-bitsy passions that had been enveloped under the bustle of life. From poetry to dancing, painting to cooking, what was it that I had not tried my hand at?
Modern problems require modern solutions and hence it is due to this forged ahead technology that even while being distant, the distance didn’t manipulate our work schedules. It took a maximum of two minutes to connect to people miles and miles apart, somewhere in a different continent, in a different time zone, yet together at once, virtually. It was a completely new and different experience, brainstorming sessions turned out as a complete mess initially but as time passed, everyone got accustomed to this new methodology and here we are today, two months into the quarantine, not to brag but handling it pretty well!
All being said and done, there was one thing missing amidst all of this hustle bustle, the contentment of completion of work after pulling off an all nighter in the studio together with the entire team. That glim of happiness on each of our faces and the dance of glee, nothing can put up for that.
In fields like designwhich require constant discussion and debates, having to be together, working in studios proves to be a better methodology as not everything can be expressed and explained over the video connections. The vast thoughts and ideas cannot fit into these tiny screens of our computers and it becomes injustice to not express these design ideas the way they are meant to be.
Design basically impacts lives of people in numerous ways and anything that lacks in it, would affect people in ways unimagined. The longing for that warmth and comfort of working in the studios has reached to a point where every announcement regarding reopening of colleges makes our hearts skip a beat. Another main reason for the same is that, personally, one gets a lot to learn from others while working together, not just in terms of design but also the work protocols, routine, way of working, representation
techniques and as it has always been said, your seniors teach you the most. All of this is missing in this quarantine as we are at our homes, doing what we think is the best possible from our side.
In the future, keeping social distancing in mind and following the protocols, studios must once again be opened up for us to gather and work together. One definitely gets a driving force seeing others work, imagine being in a situation where you are almost on the verge of giving up, tired of working and your eyes hurt because of the continuous sleepless nights, what more would you want at that point of time more than a friend you could sit with and work while sipping coffee together? This is what is missing for me, personally, in this quarantine. That driving force to keep me going in times when I can not take it any further, to guide me when my mind goes clueless and blank, to help me get over failures.
Reaching a point where all architects work from home, I think would give rise to mental disbalance and breakdowns for most of us, being from a field where networking and interactions play such a crucial role, it is to be understood that architecture is not a profession that can be fulfilled by working alone in a corner of a room.
