Pressure the Researcher, or the University as a whole, to sign the Open Covid Pledge.
The Project:
Sports-style trading cards depicting University Researchers, customized with their photo, school colors, and achievements as stats listed on the back. The cards were sent to the researchers, as well as the President or Chancellor of their University, with yarn pom poms and a hand written note asking them to sign the Open Covid Pledge.
We targeted UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) and USC (University of Southern California) because there is a long-standing sports rivalry between the two universities, which are both in the city of Los Angeles.
Invite an Indiana University researcher whose lab is working on a COVID vaccine for young children, to pledge to license his work via the Open Covid Pledge.
The Project:
A 1-page comic illustrating why one Indiana University researcher should license his lab’s work via the Open Covid Pledge. We emailed it to him with a note about how much we admire his work and a recommendation for how to print the image.
It didn’t generate a response from the researcher, but the project helped me build my image-making skills, and I learned a lot about the software I used to create it. I’d never made a visual narrative like this before!
What skills or perspectives did the collaborators bring to this?
I made this drawing mostly independently – but it was inspired directly by a comic that one of the other groups drafted to send to researchers at the Salk Institute. Theirs also started with the famous quote from Dr. Salk. I liked their idea so I made a new and expanded version, tailored for a different researcher.
The hopeful objective would be to show how just one university (or person at a university) cannot do this alone. It takes everyone to work together to solve a global problem. By sending this to the university they can see this in a fun and engaging way that will hopefully start a conversation about signing on to the Open Covid Pledge.
The Project:
A game similar to A Barrel of Monkeys.
The game pieces are the logos of different universities that alone will not reach to free the vaccine from the ‘barrel’.
I think a surprising element of this is the nostalgia of the game for some people, and hopefully just bring a smile to their face and know this is a serious issue but it can be discussed with an open mind.
What would be your next steps, building on this idea, if you had a million dollars and all the time and skills in the world?
Creating this and sending to all the universities/people we have talked to so they are all ‘linked’ together would be amazing. Sharing on social media and tagging the universities to play virtually and encouraging others to sign on as them being the missing link to freeing the vaccine.
Activists from the Free the Vaccine project stage a photo to urge the university to adopt open licensing for COVID-19 research
Objective:
We wanted to raise awareness and create public spectacle as part of a larger aim of engaging with Columbia on many fronts in trying to have them sign the Open COVID Pledge. The groups we seek to reach in building our case of support for #FreeTheVaccine includes reaching out to students, professors, researchers, alumni, community members, and anyone else who might be interested in having Columbia act as a leader in the area of making any future vaccine research accessible to not only it’s communities, but to the broader public.
The Project:
Columbia’s Alma Mater Statue Dons Surgical Mask for an Accessible COVID-19 Vaccine
NEW YORK, NY, May 19, 2020 – Alma Mater, the “nourishing mother” of Columbia University’s student body, sported an oversized surgical mask, sash, and vaccine bottle this weekend, as the Class of 2020 graduates into a world transformed. The iconic 1903 bronze statue sent her students off with a simple message: “Be Well.”
Nearby statues of “Alma’s friend’s” were also decorated with signage in support of an accessible vaccine. These images were created and then distributed to a variety of media outlets.
We also created a how-to video to encourage other folks to don friendly statues with masks of support in their locations.
We pulled together all of our different strengths as a Lab, and got good public response to the in person intervention. We also created some fantastic images that have bolstered our reaching out to folks connected with Columbia and our digital presence in general.
We staged the scene to draw attention to a growing global campaign demanding open licensing arrangements for COVID-19 research and development efforts at universities worldwide. Such arrangements would help to ensure access to life-saving innovations developed with tax-payer funds. Columbia, located in the epicenter of the global pandemic, is one of the world’s foremost research institutions investigating vaccines and therapeutics to combat the virus.
A set of instructions exists on how to make this work
Original files can be provided for exhibition
The work can be reproduced on site with instructions (provided)
What was the process/journey of creating this work?
This project was the action that really cemented the relationship the Ligers share. We came together with different skills, backgrounds, and proximal locations to Columbia to make this project happen. It was fun, collaborative, and exciting!
What would be your next steps, building on this idea, if you had a million dollars and all the time and skills in the world?
We are talking about how to expand on this action in the fall! We would surround Alma Mater with a live counter of all those who have signed on with individual support in and around the Columbia community. This would take the form of some sort of giant mechanical object, or nightly projection-mapped interventions (all of course while Alma was wearing a mask).
Solidarivir was a a tatic that integrates the strategy planned by students in Brazil to invite the top #1 university that requests biotech patents in the country. Inside it’s box, a letter to UFMG was delivered. The idea was to symbolize that more than 350 people within UFMG’s community were offering the university an opportunity to unlock its solidarity – the first line treatment for a pandemic.
The Project:
A box that was covered with paper and painted to resemble a generic drug package according to Brazilian specifications. Solidarivir is the name of the drug. The dosage is 19mg. Where we would see “oral use” on an official generic package, we see “uso colaborativo” – which means “collaborative use”. Where we would see “generic drug”, we see “acesso garantido”, which means “access guaranteed”. Where we would see the name of the manufacturer, we see “UFMG” – the name of the university solidarivir was given to as an invitation. We can see solidarivir is locked with a padlock made of paper and glitter. In order to open solidarivir’s box, you need to damage the padlock. Solidarivir comes with a big key made of paper, where you can see “UFMG” and 350 signatures. These signatures represent more than 350 people who signed a letter to UFMG inviting the university to sign the share its knowledge widely to end the pandemic. The letter was delivered inside solidarivir’s box.
Solidarivir’s simbology was really interesting. Its pictures helped us publishing a text about the initiative in the local news. It was also published in Le Monde Diplomatique Brasil to illustrate a text about the role of public universities in ending the pandemic.
I sent the infographic to CureVac, a German biotechnology company that works on a COVID-19 vaccine. I additionally sent it to Dietmar Hopp, their main investor. The infographic gives 5 reasons why CureVac should sign the Open COVID Pledge.
Since Dietmar Hopp loves soccer (he is a big supporter of a German soccer team), I added that at the end, basically saying that signing the Open COVID Pledge would get him closer to “normal life” and watching/playing soccer again.
Dietmar Hopp has his own foundation and seems to be quite active with philanthropic actions. After the take over allegations of CureVac by the US he also mentioned that they aim for a fair access to their potential vaccine, which rendered CureVac and Dietmar Hopp as a potential target.
Two things – firstly it provides a strong physical and visual way to create a movement of appreciation, that is easy to share, easy to participate in, and ethical in its design (both environmentally and for social distancing / shielding).
Secondly, it is a positive and celebratory way to get the attention of scientists and researchers, building awareness at multiple levels of an institution about the Open Covid Pledge (not just the TTO offices, but the scientists who might be more sympathetic). This helps put more pressure on the institutions as we build supporters.
The Project:
In appreciation of those researching treatments, diagnostics and vaccines for Covid-19, we dedicated plants to Covid Research Champions. Anyone could join in with a plant dedication, and as long as they tagged us on twitter or insta, we made sure the scientist was aware of it.
If there was a flaw, it was that there were perhaps too many steps to be simple – we were open about which researchers to target, perhaps we should have focused more on just one or two and bombarded them with flowers and dedications.
A set of instructions exists on how to make this work
An original object can be provided for exhibition
Original files can be provided for exhibition
The work can be reproduced on site with instructions (provided)
Nice responses from scientists thanking us for the dedications
Positive engagement from colleagues outside our team within Free the Vaccine, and friends with their kids, who did their own dedications.
What would be your next steps, building on this idea, if you had a million dollars and all the time and skills in the world?
More targeted on individuals, more sharing to get a real movement going on. More planting!
The objective was to introduce a researcher developing a vaccine in Switzerland to the Open COVID Pledge. We wanted to send a letter versus an email, as we feel it’s more personal, but thought it important to put a creative spin on the humble letter.
The Project:
Bored of sending standard letters that don’t necessarily get read? Try something new and send a singing card! We designed the card ourselves, plus recorded our message and inserted it into the card. You may have seen musical birthday cards before — well, now you can send your own musical access to medicines card!
It’s super easy and creative! We feel it’s more engaging for researchers, and it’s just not that hard or expensive to make. We feel that makes it an accessible and effective action.
A set of instructions exists on how to make this work
Original files can be provided for exhibition
Reflections from Sofia Weiss Goitiandia
What would be your next steps, building on this idea, if you had a million dollars and all the time and skills in the world?
If I had all the time and money, I’d really like to scale up the action. Get graphic designers on board, and formalise the fabrication process to make the cards look really professional. Then send them to everyone! In that way, I’d hope we’d make them an iconic tool for contacting researchers / other stakeholders in access projects. And of course it would be great if all the researchers kept the cards and then decorated their desks with them.
If someone else were going to make/use/do something like this, what advice would you give them?
Making the card is really easy and relatively cheap, you just need an EZSound module (most common options are 30” or 60”) that you can buy online for around 10 EUR and record your message. The louder the better! Most of the devices record a looped message, so be aware that can be overwhelming! But perhaps that’s the intention. (If you check out the interview video with us, we talk about how that was our intention and the effect of a looped message!) Pay attention to how to assemble the card, the mechanism needs to be activated while one opens it; it is actually easier doing it rather than trying to explain it. We suggest testing a couple of times to understand the right position of the recorder before glueing it to the card. The easiest way is to get a musical card first (the one you can find for birthday wishes for example) and disassemble it, so you’ll see how it is. Good luck!
