Artist | Student | Curator: Contemporary Design and COVID-19

How has the work of designers, so central to everyday life and society at large, been impacted by COVID-19? Museum of Modern Art curator Paola Antonelli and design critic Alice Rawthorn’s recently launched project Design and Emergency investigates design as “one of our most powerful tools in the COVID-19 crisis…to prepare for the radical changes it will introduce to our lives in the future.” MIT Media Lab student Alexis Hope has engaged in long-standing research focused on the persistent crisis of maternal and infant health in the US, which has been intensified by the pandemic. In this conversation led by curator Michelle Millar Fisher, participants explore how the work of designers near and far has risen to meet this moment of crisis and the nature of “emergency” itself.

Participants

Speakers
Paola Antonelli, senior curator, Architecture and Design and director, Research and Development, Museum of Modern Art
Alexis Hope, designer and researcher at MIT Media Lab / MIT Center for Civic Media
Michelle Millar Fisher, Ronald C. and Anita L. Wornick Curator of Contemporary Decorative Arts

Moderator
Dalia Habib Linssen, head of Academic Engagement