The Daily Challenge

April-June 2020

During the corona-induced remote work situation in the spring of 2020, the PhD students and researchers that usually meet in the UID Research Studio all were confined to their home offices. Transitioning to holding all meetings, teaching and seminars over digital platforms led to many of us spending far too much time in front of the screen. I initatied this project with two immediate aims: To promote taking breaks and getting out to get some air and daylight during lunch, and to spark playful social interactions that would continue building a sense of togetherness. Further, a sort of meta-aim was to probe what it takes to change how and what we percieve, through providing 'lenses' for seeing our respective everyday environments in new ways.

Every morning, I posted a challenge and a picture category on our shared digital meeting platform:

1) take a walk during lunch

2) take a picture of something according to the given category 

3) post the photo on the platform, stating how far into the walk it was found

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The categories covered colours, shapes, and directions - initially building on historical form and colour theories eg. Wassily Kandinsky's Point to line to plane and other texts. Below are my own images from the project (the other participants' images might be added later, provided they give their consent). 

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