Memories from COVID-19 A practice-led research about the effects of the lockdown through the perspective of a Chinese student

This article presents a practice-led design project that asks how the effects of the lockdown can be articulated through illustration and poetry to narrate a personal story using an autoethnographic approach to retail high levels of dignity and originality? The research project aims to create a visual narrative, advanced through illustrations and poetry, that reflects the researcher’s experience of lockdowns imposed by COVID-19. The narrative adopts the form of an illustrated storybook to tell the story of the researcher herself, who faced restrictive experiences while being locked down in China during a homeland visit. As a result, the researcher was unable to return to New Zealand due to travel restrictions. During the time the researcher had to wait in China to be able to return to complete her study in New Zealand, the lockdown produced feelings of isolation, distancing, anxiety and other emotions. This design project is aimed to express these feelings, responding to their pressures using creatively illustrations and poems, created in a way to articulate the psychological pressures one can go through during this unprecedented time. The illustrations and poems encapsulate an artistic response to a historical moment, drawn into being through poetic writing and imagery. The project is a historical document of an era where all that is certain becomes uncertain. Illustrations are used through an autoethnographic approach to give voice to personal experiences through design. The research contributes to the exploration of poetic writing and illustration to document, understand and express a moment of crisis in human history.