One of the major changes that has come about since Covid-19 has been the use of masks and facial coverings. Masks are one of the most effective ways to curb the risk of infection. Although wearing masks is uncomfortable and less than ideal, for some it hinders their ability to effectively communicate with others. Specifically, people with hearing impairments and those who rely on reading lips and facial expressions to communicate are affected. Not, only does this affect those with impairments, but it affects others and children as well as sound can be more difficult to hear through a mask and it is more difficult to rely on facial expressions to interact.
To combat this issue, Marissa Goldstein, the founder of Rafi Nova (a handbag company), recognized this problem and sought to alleviate its strain. As the pandemic hit, less people were interested in purchasing handbags and more and more were interested in purchasing masks. As a means to help the community as well as to avail popular demand, her company shifted their work from bags to masks. She realized there was a concern regarding masks and those who have difficulty understanding without seeing facial expressions and reading lips so she created the Smile Mask. The Smile Mask is a mask similar to a regular mask, but it contains a piece of clear plastic over the mouth area allowing that portion to be protected, but also seen. As she introduced these masks as well as traditional masks to her consumers, demand for the Smile Masks increased tremendously.
For Marissa, the creative process started as a means to help the community. It also consisted of finding the best way to reallocate resources to incur minimal loss. As we talked about in lecture 3 regarding mechanisms of the creative process, she employed memory, concepts, and categories to find similarities between materials and the production of handbags and masks. In this way, she was able to reallocate her resources to produce masks with minimal waste of her supplies. Because her store also included other items besides handbags, see was not constrained by the concept of expertise, in which people are unable to reallocate resources because they can only think of an idea in a certain way.
This is absolutely incredible! I am currently learning American Sign Language with the intention of becoming a certified medical interpreter for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and I am involved in advocacy for the Deaf Community. I know how difficult it has been with everyone wearing face coverings when so much of not only spoken language but also sign language is located in the facial features and expression. It's impossible to ask questions in sign language without using the face and you can't tell what someone means if you can't see their full expression. When it comes to spoken language, even though only 30% of it can be seen on the lips, taking away that little bit that the deaf community has can be really frustrating when they already have to fit into a world that doesn't do a whole lot for them. So it is absolutely incredible the way she used her creative process and something she was already doing to start making something that was so desperately needed in the world that we live in today, and the fact that she created them with supplies she already had so she wouldn't be wasting anything is really great and good for the environment too. Its such a small thing but it can mean so much to so many people who just need one person to try and work for them rather than try and force them to follow along their life. The smallest thing can mean the most to some people, and I think this was a really creative thing that does that.
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