Student Project Tells 'Quarantine Stories' on Campus
After the COVID-19 outbreak and AUBG's move to online classes, many students chose to return home. But for some that wasn't an option - the Skaptopara dorms would remain their home for the next few months. Students Oraz Kereibayev and Yenlik O'Neill took it upon themselves to show how life continues during a pandemic.
On Quarantine Stories, an Instagram account the two started, Kereibayev and O'Neill use videos and photos to tell the stories of people dealing with online classes, social isolation and last-minute trips home.
When Kereibayev, a student from Kazakhstan, did his first video, he wanted it fast and low-key - because of the rapidly developing situation, the content could quickly lose relevance. Then he did a second one and together with O'Neill decided to publish the project on Instagram. He would continue making videos and O'Neill would take pictures to add to the narrative.
As virtually everyone is affected by the situation, it wasn't hard to find people on campus to talk to about it. "I would mostly work with people who I know, at least to some extent, so it would be easier for me to interfere in their lives and ask questions which might be somehow emotional sometimes," Kereibayev said over Zoom.
The videos show students coping with various aspects of the situation - adjusting to online classes, lamenting the postponed commencement, trying to get home. And then there's the one showing "moments of joy," a reminder that there's still fun to be had.
Each of O'Neill's photos tells a story but together they form an even bigger narrative. They show students checking out as they prepare to return home, something O'Neill, a sophomore from Kazakhstan, would soon do herself. This expanded the project beyond life in the Skaptopara halls.
"We decided to keep working on the project remotely and try to find the topics that would be universal, in a way, so people from Blago and other places could relate to the photos," she said in a message.
As long as the COVID-19 situation continues, the two have no plans to stop with Quarantine Stories. "We will keep working on the topics that seem interesting, seem salient to us right now," Kereibayev said. "It might last for one more week, it might last for months until June, July, maybe even longer, who knows."
It is important that the project keeps going because unlike so many other things these days, life hasn't stopped. Kereibayev wants to show everyone at home that "life on campus is not over" and "that AUBG is still AUBG."
"I guess the more we work on it, the more I understand that AUBG is not about the place itself, it’s not about the buildings," he said. "It’s about people."