PANDEMIC INSIGHT INTERVIEW
Focus: Mason, Germantown, Philadelphia, PA
This past Friday, I conducted my 12th pilot ‘Pandemic Insights’ Interview for a pilot series of interviews for what I envision and plan as a larger research project investigating the 2020-2021 pandemic and lockdowns via residential memory and experience for insights on diverse aspects of social, built environment/urban, and environmental resilience.
This interview was with Mason of Blendini City: https://blendinicity.com/ .
The screenshot below includes a view of his Instagram account ➡️ https://www.instagram.com/masonfromblendini/)
Based in Germantown, Philadelphia, USA, Mason responded to one of my posts for interview subjects for my pilot. We both follow each other on Instagram but had never had a ‘live discussion’ before.
In fact, the interview started 30 minutes into our call because we were so busy speaking about Germantown (which I became increasingly interested in as he shared) history, community, and built environment, and also his art.
Every interview thus far has been extremely unique, but of course, with some common threads among some. The way Mason shared about the contradictory aspects of isolation and community connectedness during the pandemic is, for me, one of the (several) core pillars of insight that will further form through the project.
He also reflected on what I am doing with the ‘Pandemic Insights’ project as a ‘necessary postmortem’ on the experience of the events of that time.
My project is focused on insights from the pandemic, for which, of course, lockdowns are a major event, but I am also interviewing people who lived in countries that did not have lockdowns.
-Annika
Early project brief here ➡️