Personal Protective Purple Daikon Equipment

Abstract

During the Spring semester 2020, I took an art class at the Rhode Island School of Design. 'Personal Protective Purple Daikon Equipment: A Handbook' was my final project for the class. Part zine, part Zoom performance experiment, part autistic meltdown, the project bears witness to my anger, isolation and fear during the lockdown. It is both a commentary on academia and the constant demand to 'make use' of every experience—to continue academic life as usual even during a pandemic that saw so many disabled people die—as well as a handbook for making one's own Personal Protective Purple Daikon Equipment (PPPDE) at home and an absurdist manifesto. As a research-creation project, the Personal Protective Purple Daikon Equipment offers a snapshot of a moment in (crip) time, that of the first state-sanctioned lockdown and of the early days of the pandemic.