London's Museum of Home Project Documents Life Under Lockdown

Original Original article posted on Dezeen by Natasha Levy.

London's Museum of the Home has launched a UK-wide project that calls for members of the public to submit photos and personal accounts of their living experience during the coronavirus pandemic.

Stay Home invites people to share up to five images of their lockdown living quarters, and asks them to answer seven questions about how the health crisis has altered their mental, physical and emotional attitudes towards home.

Submitted images so far capture the quotidian routines of lockdown, including people enjoying meals with loved ones via video calls, children painting rainbow posters to show appreciation for the NHS, and messy bedrooms and kitchen tables that have been turned into impromptu desks for working from home.

Some photos show cheery scenes, like a young girl feeding her pet chicken, while others nod to darker moments of the pandemic – one image shows a handwritten "no-entry" sign that's been put up in front of a basement, possibly warning of an infected family member.

The project was initially tested out by the Museum of the Home's staff – who are said to have found the process "cathartic" – before launching officially on the BBC's Culture in Quarantine platform.