Abstract
This paper addresses the issue of the configuration of a network for the digital fabrication of personal protective equipment to fight the pandemic of COVID-19. The main aim is to highlight how creative and innovative design practices, based on digital fabrication, have contributed to combat the new coronavirus in Brazil, concerning the design, production and distribution of face shields. The paper is the result of both exploratory, descriptive and qualitative research. In addition to documentary data and revisiting design literature, this work sought to understand the network formation modus operandi for digital manufacture of face shields, based on examples carried out in every region of the country. In conclusion, it argued that these social mobilization networks are based on the assumptions of the maker culture and reveal the potential for an open, distributed and resilient design to face this contemporary and future crisis.
Highlights
A few months ago, the world experienced the first devastating effects of the new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2)
Information was collected on the internet, from television reports made available by broadcasters, from online newspaper reports or news published on the websites and social networks of Brazilian digital manufacturing collectives that have produced protective equipment (PPE) to fight COVID-19
When analyzing the constitution of digital manufacturing networks to combat the spread of coronavirus in Brazil, especially from the cases of face shields production, it has become clear that they are fully structured within the principles of the maker culture and the most contemporary precepts of the field of Design and those from creative industries
Summary
A few months ago, the world experienced the first devastating effects of the new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). On January 30, 2020, the outbreak of this disease established a “Public Health Emergency of International Importance” (Pan-American Health Organization, 2020). On March 11, 2020, COVID-19 was described by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a “pandemic” (PanAmerican Health Organization, 2020). Various and profound impacts - both individual and collective, ranging from local to global and of varied natures, such as psychological, social, economic, cultural and political - have been accounted for (Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, 2020). Social isolation and the interruption of non-essential activities have been adopted throughout the world (Campos, 2020). States and cities have restricted the circulation of people, goods and merchandise, including even closing countries' borders (Sabino & Moura, 2020), imposing a new world order
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