NYUAD Community Participatory Covid Archive, 2021-2022, inclusive

My submission is a hydroalcoholic solution given by the Hassan II University in Casablanca (Morocco) to its visitors and employees at the beginning of the pandemic in Morocco (March-August 2020).

Three items:

1- Ticket given while I was waiting to remove my tracker watch at the SEHA centre in Mina Zayed the 20 August 2021.

2- Five "Encouragement" cards given by the campus dining/restaurant to help me endure my quarantine between the 14th and 20th August 2021.

3- "Encouragement" card given by the Student Health Centre to help students and staff manage their stress before doing their COVID-19 PCR test. Date: between January and May 2021.

Drawing [submitted by Georgia Harris, daughter of one faculty and one staff member].

I'm a visiting student from NYU Shanghai campus and studied here in fall 2021. During my stay here, I collected the daily stickers and stuck them in a pile.

[anonymous donation of assumed children's drawings]

While campus operations continued to remain fully remote during the academic year 2020-2021, the Library circulated loaned materials in a contactless system where materials were paged and patrons could pick them via a marked brown bag on carts outside the Library.

Receipts for two separate PCR tests that were conducted in Dubai in preparation for re-entering Abu Dhabi. The invoice shows that each individual rapid test cost 250 AED.

In May 2020 the Ministry of Health and the National Emergency Crisis and Disaster Management Authority released a ruling that young children and adults over 60 would not be allowed to enter malls, supermarkets, or shops in the UAE to help limit the spread of Covid-19. Any adult who looked to be over the age of 60 was stopped at the entrance by security guards, ID'd, and upon proof that they were under 60 was given a wristband labeled "Below 60 Years Old" to wear on condition of entering. This wristband was given to Vice Chancellor Westermann's spouse, Charlie Pardoe, during an excursion to Yas Mall, just a few months ahead of his 60th birthday.

Made for Vice Chancellor Westermann by the child of NYUAD staff member Tina Wadhwa and NYUAD faculty member Kartik Sreenivasan during campus Halloween physically distanced celebrations.

Beginning in September 2020, amid an increase of coronavirus cases in the UAE, the Abu Dhabi airport began fitting arrived passengers with a Covid-19 tracking device that they had to wear during a 14-day home quarantine. Although she was not able to save the tracking device, VC Westermann saved the bag and sticker she received the tracker in from the Department of Health.

In January 2021, just a month after approving the Sinopharm vaccine, the UAE launched a voluntary vaccine campaign, making the vaccine free and available at all clinics and private health centers. Vice Chancellor Westermann announced on January 19, 2021 that she had decided to get the Sinopharm vaccine as a safety measure, and during the week of January 25-28, 2021, in collaboration with the Abu Dhabi Department of Health, NYUAD sponsored a free COVID-19 Sinopharm vaccination drive on campus from 9am-7pm every day.

Participants were given an "I Got Vaccinated" sticker upon receiving their first shot. A follow up second vaccination shot was then required three weeks after receiving the first dose.

An envelope of stickers was specifically set aside for Westermann on behalf of the Office of External Relations. The stickers were designed and printed using the NYUAD Covid brand.

D i s t a n c e d

The prolonged social distancing measures have transformed people's routines and relationships. Today we are distanced from our loved ones, from normality, from coherence. Depicting activities characteristic of this period of confinement, my work explores how these activities and social relationships have changed, adapting to the current conditions. My images show the passing of time during the long-lasting quarantine, and the human seek for connectedness and companion, now exacerbated by social distancing.

Most relationships have become long-distance as a consequence of the imposed distancing, and my goal is to represent them as anchors facing uncertainty. This series is a reminder of the social nature of humans and of the importance of relationships as sources of support, because no matter how different our days are or how far apart we are, we are all going through this tough period in our own ways and feel the need for human contact. Distanced is a meditation on how technology shortens distances, allowing for a "company" that is the only source of constancy and normality in a world that changes at the minute.

In this series I capture scenes of virtual conversations taking place during quarantine, emphasizing on the interlocutor's activities while they make each other "company". Very dissonant activities coexist in one same moment, a video call, reflecting how, despite our different ways to cope with isolation, we hold on to relationships as sources of normality in a convoluted world. I explore the themes of isolation, routine, monotony, and relationships, while attempting to make a universal statement of their importance in this prolonged isolation period. The passing of time is also represented in these portraits through the accumulation of objects in space. This alludes to the duration of the separation and adds to the importance of the virtual company. My images put different lifestyles and activities into conversation, highlighting the sense of irony in how their natures contrast and in where and how they take place. What looks like a fancy dinner consists of canned food, studying happens in bed, one person shaves while the other exercises. Daily routines lost coherence and consistency, but company remains as the motivation to keep moving forward.

The cropping of the images removes identity from the subjects, bringing focus to the depicted activities and the contrast between them. My intention is for the viewer to picture themselves in the situation, what is more easily achieved when faces and hence identities are excluded. The cropping and the expressionless lips combine to transmit a sense of monotony, routine, and boredom of this long-lasting isolation. Distanced is particularly dear to me as I used my boyfriend and myself as the models, therefore it is truly based on my feelings during this quarantine. I recreated our interactions to represent how the need for human contact defies social distancing. My purpose is to look back at these images one day to remember how my life was like during the pandemic and what was it that kept me afloat.

1 (photo): NYUAD campus, Jan 21, 2020, my J-term class 'Culture, Context, and Psychology'. The episodic memory about being on campus without masks.

2 (photo): flight from Abu Dhabi to Shanghai, Jan 24, 2020, the most empty flight I had seen, mostly because people have cancelled travel plans to China amidst the outbreak. I slept very well on these empty seats. The cushion cover says 'Happy New Year' in Chinese. I got a bag of oranges (traditional food for the new year) but I didn't eat them because I did not want to take off my mask. I felt bad for wasting food.

3 (photo): same as above. An airport staff using a handheld temperature camera to spot people with fevers.

4 (photo): last glimpse of the sunrise from my London dorm window, the day of departing London, March 12, 2021.

5 (photo): Ticket to Dear Evan Hansen on March 17. This is a musical that I have always wanted to see, but I had to give the ticket way since I was departing early.

6 (photo): 7-Hour Layover at Hong Kong International Airport, March 13, 2021. I tried to get some food without taking my mask off for an extended period of time. Photo was taken by my London roommate.

7 (photo): this is a photo sent by one of my classmates in London, who was also travelling to her home in China. She saw a fully protected individual (likely another Chinese student travelling home after the closure of campuses) at the airport and sent this photo to me.

8 (text, pasted in the box below): March 13-15. This is a journal I kept during my 'evacuation from London. It details all of the steps I took from leaving Heathrow to landing in China and being moved to a temporary quarantine station.

After landing, most passengers (including my roommate) was allowed to travel freely to their homes, where they needed to perform 14 days of self-isolation. However, it was detected that I had a mild fever of 37.4 degrees celcius, so I was taken to a temporary quarantine place on an ambulance! This process was so tedious because it involved a lot of waiting in rooms with no AC, blood tests, travel history interviews, and CT scans. Everyone who was in this temporary station was treated as a suspect case unless we were officially cleared after an expert meeting -- the experts/doctors were working 24/7 and in full protective gears! My journal ends with item 18, which says I have been waiting for six hours in a temporary building waiting for my expert meeting results. I had not been eating or drinking or sleeping (I have decided not to do so because taking off my mask would be unwise), and the birds had come out singing. After that, I was cleared and taken to the in-patient department for isolation (for medical purposes), and I finally got to sleep and relax. Naturally, I had forgotten to make further updates to my journey because I knew I had arrived safely.

9 (video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhgpjCazYMs after deciding to do a go-local semester at NYUSH, Shanghai International Channel invited me to participate in a series of mini-documentaries about re-routed international students living under COVID.

10 (Chinese news article, published on Dec 26, 2020): https://web.shobserver.com/wxShare/html/325881.htm After my go-local semester, I was interviewed by Jiefang Daily on my experience with this programme.

This nostalgic DIY convenience-store-paper-bag mask was made on April 9 2020, just when people started to wear mask on campus. Notwithstanding the boring surgical masks that everyone else was wearing, I made something that has more of a personality to it. Another mask was worn underneath for safety purposes. I took a stroll across the Dining Hall and needless to say people were delighted.

[poetry and digital photos]

Capturing NYUAD A Poem about NYUAD A Poem about HOPE, I was able to make it during March of 2020 when we were all in lockdown A Poem about Kindness and living for the moment

*My Poems are extra special because the background images of each poem are also photos I took...

I am submitting a hybrid of a 1-second-video compilation and the typical 'day in a life' vlog. All video clips were taken by me in the past 3 years (ie. from 2018-present), at home in Bulacan, Philippines when I studied remotely last semester, as well as on-campus and in other places in the UAE. It includes videos of my family and friends.

First RTC Steering Committee Zoom Meeting May 27, 2020

Participants (in zoom screen order) Jessica Sederquist Theodore Lee Martin Klimke Lily Burns-Hernandez Sehamuddin Galadari Carol Brandt Fabio Piano Peter Christensen Mariet Westermann Kyle Farley

A screenshot of the green pass used in the UAE to access public and private facilities, travel between Emirates, and to verify vaccination status.

To imagine a world in perpetual lockdown was not an option for me. I wanted people to have the option to connect other than the online space. The development of the various Covid vaccines provided some of the best options to work toward a healthier population. This vaccine trial was a step to getting things reopened. My biggest concern is that a worldwide pandemic will be forgotten in just a few years when there is so much more to be learned from it.

These are screenshots/group pictures of a session at the 3rd annual Fall internal Model Arab League Conference at NYU Abu Dhabi, held on November 20-21, for the very first time on Zoom. Poster advertising the remote event on social media. This conference is an opportunity for NYUAD students to gather together and discuss topics of regional and international importance, typically held on campus every Fall, was moved to Zoom during COVID-19, with delegates dialing in from the UK, Greece, Poland, Abu Dhabi, and beyond.

Every week for four weeks, five 'Shared Stories' journals were scattered around campus. Each journal had a different prompt, making 20 prompts in total. In order to take part in the project, students and community members had to find the journal somewhere on campus, open it up, and scan the QR code in the journal. Each week, clues were given as to where the journals are. The QR code led to a Google Form detailing instructions and additional information about the project, as well as the prompt pertaining to that journal. Participants could then choose to submit a response anonymously or with their name. Once a response was submitted, we checked the response for safety and published it onto the Website on the corresponding page with the prompt. The Website allows for all to see all prompts that we have had and read all responses that have been approved. For each prompt, one response was chosen to win a prize.

Duration: 4 weeks; 1 week at a time

Project mission: In recent times, we have found it increasingly harder to connect with one another and to take time to reflect. With the 'Shared Stories' project, we hope to bring the NYUAD community together by sharing some stories and experiences that have shaped us and made us who we are, individually and collectively, today. The project also served as an incentive to encourage community members to be more active and to search for the journals around campus.

Project website: https://sites.google.com/nyu.edu/wellness-journaling-project/home

A poem written about the Pandemic (more specifically lock down) through the eyes of a child.

I have a daughter who is too little to understand the pandemic and how our lives were turned upside down. During lock down my husband had I had every emotion taking hold from anxiety / stress / worry etc but we also hugely valued the family time we were having. We did however notice that our daughter was blissfully unaware of what was happening and was just delighted to be spending so much time with mummy and daddy and playing on the balcony etc.

Text on PCR testing from a K-12 school in Abu Dhabi

The text message details the complex world of PCR testing that NYUAD faculty of school age children were dealing with 18 months into the pandemic. As the rules on vaccinations and testing change regularly, this is a glimpse at the coordination it requires to manage our personal lives while working at NYUAD.

Two years into the pandemic, I finally got Covid, after leaving the UAE and traveling to Spain for a spring holiday during the end of April/beginning of May, 2022. It felt like a really bad flu, I was shivering with a fever for days and couldn't stop coughing. I learned I had Covid because I was tested upon arrival at the airport. After months and months of only knowing the "green" or the "grey" colors of the Al Hosn app, I finally saw the "red," indicating I tested positive. These screenshots show me at red and then at green, and include the explanation and instructions about what I was to do after testing positive, including the procedure of quarantining. I quarantined at home for 10 days, testing myself with at-home Covid tests until I no longer was positive. I then went for an official test at the local testing center at Galleria Mall, which led to me going back to the green. I appreciated the efforts of the UAE government to create a mechanism to efficiently track Covid cases and provide a way for the population to move through the experience of contracting the virus in an honest and responsible way. While some may have found it to be an inconvenience, I appreciated it and was happy to follow protocols, which were created to help keep our communities as safe as possible.