All in This Together

The exhibition All in This Together shows how science is used to understand and combat the COVID-19 pandemic, and how our individual actions affect our community. This 1,200 sq ft gallery opened in April 2021. It is organized into three sections: The Makings of a Pandemic, Slow the Spread, and Join the Fight. Two artifacts are also on display: panels from the COVID-19 Memorial Quilt created by L.A.-area teen Madeline Fugate, and the Virgin Orbit bridge ventilator.

Working with a small team at the California Science Center and graphic designer Leslie V. Carlson, I helped develop the exhibit content and also served as the AV producer and integrator. For a deeper dive into how we created this exhibit, listen to this episode of the Ever Wonder? podcast.

For the COVID-19 memorial section of the exhibit, I programmed a Python script for a wall-mounted ticker, which updates hourly with the total number of COVID-19 deaths for the United States and Los Angeles county. The source code is available on Github.

I also produced two bilingual videos. “The Air You Share” shows how masks can block tiny respiratory droplets that come from your mouth and nose while breathing. “Virgin Orbit bridge ventilator” shows how engineers at Virgin Orbit designed a machine to squeeze a bag to pump air into a patient’s lungs, made from simple, easy-to-find parts.