Love Letters

Challenge

The Covid-19 Pandemic and the isolation felt by the global lock-down

Outcome

Reframing. Separation = Love. A site with the intention to reframe the feeling of isolation as a act of love.

Role

Full Stack Developer & Designer, and... all the rest of the things.

Screenshot:

Overview

During any challenging situation, I find it helpful to reframe the problem to see if there is a way I can help, simply by re-examining the situation. The global lock-down presented a unique situation where almost everyone on the planet was experiencing some fraction of what they were used to, only being able to leave isolation for essential functions, for fear of crippling the public health systems in place. This lead to parks, monuments, museums, roads, bars and anywhere else where groups of people might gather, emptying by a significant factor.

For many, this emptiness reflected the loneliness they themselves felt. However, we (Adam Lehman and myself) sought to reframe this situation. The idea is that people all over the world are practicing social distancing, and by doing so they are writing "love letters" to everyone else, especially our essential workers. By not going to bars or parks and staying home, we are showing our community that we care, and that is something we should feel proud of.

The site took the form of a map populated by markers that, when clicked, would show images of otherwise popular destinations in that area. These powerful images would be accompanied by audio recordings taken at that spot. The effect being a world wide collaborative collage of the "love letters" we were writing to each other.

Addendum

Additionally, since I built this site for non-technical users, I also deployed a custom CMS that would allow them to upload images and audio, as well as customize pages and posts.

Technology used:

• KeystoneJS - CMS
• React
• React Router
• Mapbox - Custom Mapping
• React GL - Mapping
• Node/Express Server
• Digital Ocean Droplet