The Making Of Decode The Change: Hello! X Rashid Rana

The making of ‘Decode the Change’ was a task that required intelligence, precision and leadership to execute. One of Pakistan’s most well-known visual and New Media artists, Rashid Rana was the perfect person to plan and lead the conversation and collaboration. The theme was the impact of the coronavirus on life which has changed for everyone on this globe, including Pakistan. This activity would also provide Rashid Rana the content to design our first digital cover for the APRIL 2020 magazine — our 8th anniversary cover.

Checking into the ZOOM, the trending video chatting app, Rashid Rana and HELLO! hosted an online interactive session titled ‘Decode the Change’. Eighteen of Pakistan’s top personalities participated in the ZOOM get-together and became part of an important conversation which was largely visual and thus became an artistic endeavour by the artist himself. The session was held on Saturday, 18 April  from 4pm to 4.40 pm, and consisted of meaningful, yet playful activities, with a Q&A segment that required no major preparations from the participants. 

Divided into segments, the content and to-do activities for the session were planned in advance.  Before logging into the ZOOM session, each participant was given visual cues to help them through. They also downloaded YES and NO labels on their phones for the YES/NO segment. Because of this, each participant was actively involved simultaneously! Below are the guidelines and cues sent by Rashid Rana’s team to all the participants.

Activity No: 1: Yes and NO 

Each participant displayed their answer on their phones

Activity No: 2 — Opinion / Head tilt —Left or Right

Activity No: 3 — Numbers

Activity No: 4 —Show a book, object and an image

Activity No: 5: Final round | Express your views