Postcards from Isolation

The project Postcards form Isolation, founded by London-based digital design studio sabato.studio, is a collection of collaborative & interactive experiences that represent the shifts in our lives caused by the recent COVID-19 pandemic. The origins of the project lie in a reflection on the deeper social, cultural, and economic impact of being in isolation. The initiators studied how the context of being isolated these days corresponds to the uniqueness of geographical islands—spaces that enforce a different connection to the land and its resources, and ones that shape human identity like no continent does. Right now we may evolve into islands of our own, driven by similar powers. What can we learn from that? How can we visualize our feelings about this shift for others to remember?

“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main” English poet John Donne wrote these verses while ill at home back in 1623. Fast-forward to 2020 and we envy his confidence in such a statement. The consequences of lockdown policies during the worldwide COVID-19 outbreak are hard to guess. Are we shifting towards becoming islands? Or, now more than ever, we’ll stick to our past lands? It’s not in our interest to predict the future, trying to outline what we currently see as a blurred picture. What we want to do, instead, is look outside our windows and, mostly, inside ourselves to understand what’s shifting.
Excerpt from the Postcards From Isolation Manifesto

The first launch of “Postcards” involved the work of designers, researchers and developers from around the world who were asked to portray shifts in their lives that are most important to them. The existing release includes a chosen number of experiments but the project is continuously evolving. The creators are inviting anyone to submit ideas to them through the website. They ask for all ideas to be already supported by design and development efforts so they can go through the selection process to be added to the project. Prospective contributors can join the team behind the project alongside a growing community of 50+ on Slack.

Postcards from Isolation

Design: sabato.studio
Research & Manifesto: Jacopo Botticelli and Anna Wojnarowska
Development: Lorenzo Migliorero