KEIDL    MELAMED    HEDIGER    SOMAINI    PANDEMIC MEDIA MEDIA CONFIGURATIONS OF FILM Pandemic Media Configurations of Film Series Editorial Board Nicholas Baer (University of Groningen) Hongwei Thorn Chen (Tulane University) Miriam de Rosa (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice) Anja Dreschke (University of Düsseldorf) Bernard Dionysius Geoghegan (King’s College London) Andrea Gyenge (University of Minnesota) Jihoon Kim (Chung Ang University) Laliv Melamed (Goethe University) Kalani Michell (UCLA) Debashree Mukherjee (Columbia University) Ara Osterweil (McGill University) Petr Szczepanik (Charles University Prague) Pandemic Media: Preliminary Notes Toward an Inventory edited by Philipp Dominik Keidl, Laliv Melamed, Vinzenz Hediger, and Antonio Somaini Bibliographical Information of the German National Library The German National Library lists this publication in the Deutsche ­Nationalb­ ibliografie­(German­National­Bibliography);­detailed­ bibliographic information is available online at http://dnb.d-nb.de. Published­in­2020­by­meson­press,­Lüneburg,­Germany­ with generous support from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft www.meson.press Design­concept:­Torsten­Köchlin,­Silke­Krieg Cover design: Mathias Bär Cover­image:­©­Antoine­d’Agata,­reprinted­with­permission­from­the­artist Editorial assistance: Fabian Wessels The­print­edition­of­this­book­is­printed­by­Lightning­Source,­ Milton­Keynes,­United­Kingdom­­ ISBN­(Print):­­ 978-3-95796-008-5­ ISBN­(PDF):­ 978-3-95796-009-2 DOI:­10.14619/0085 The PDF edition of this publication can be downloaded freely at www. meson.press. This­publication­is­licensed­under­CC­BY-SA­4.0­(Creative­Commons­ Attribution-ShareAlike­4.0­International).­To­view­a­copy­of­this­license,­visit­ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/. Contents Configurations­of­Film:­Series­Foreword 9 Pandemic­Media:­Introduction 11 Laliv Melamed and Philipp Dominik Keidl T I M E / T E M P O R A L I T Y [ 1 ] The Waiting Room: Rethinking Latency after COVID-19 25 Neta Alexander [ 2 ] Divided, Together, Apart: How Split Screen Became Our Everyday Reality 33 Malte Hagener [ 3 ] Pass This On! How to Copy the Pandemic with Alex Gerbaulet 43 Ulrike Bergermann [ 4 ] Opening the Vault: Streaming the Film Library in the Age of Pandemic Content 51 Jaap Verheul [ 5 ] Pivoting in Times of the Coronavirus 61 Felix M. Simon [ 6 ] “If You Say You Watch the Movie, You’re a Couple o’ Liars”: In Search of the Missing Audience at the Drive-In 69 Karin Fleck S P A C E / S C A L E [ 7 ] Of Drones and the Environmental Crisis in the Year of 2020 81 Teresa Castro [ 8 ] The Fever of Images: Thermography, Sensuality and Care in Pandemic Times 91 Alice Leroy [ 9 ] Videoconferencing and the Uncanny Encounter with Oneself: Self-Reflexivity as Self-Monitoring 2.0 99 Yvonne Zimmermann [ 1 0 ] Pandemic Platforms: How Convenience Shapes the Inequality of Crisis 105 Joshua Neves and Marc Steinberg [ 1 1 ] An Animated Tale of Two Pandemics 115 Juan Llamas-Rodriguez [ 1 2 ] Vulnerabilities and Resiliency in the Festival Ecosystem: Notes on Approaching Film Festivals in Pandemic Times 125 Marijke de Valck [ 1 3 ] Theme Parks in the Time of the COVID-19 Pandemic 137 Rebecca Willliams T E C H N O L O G I E S / M A T E R I A L I T I E S [ 1 4 ] Machine Vision in Pandemic Times 147 Antonio Somaini [ 1 5 ] The Car as Pandemic Media Space 157 Alexandra Schneider [ 1 6 ] “Covid-dronism”: Pandemic Visions from Above 167 Ada Ackerman [ 1 7 ] Of Liquid Images and Vital Flux 173 Bishnupriya Ghosh [ 1 8 ] Pandemic Media: On the Governmediality of Corona Apps 185 Christoph Engemann [ 1 9 ] Zoom in on the Face: The Close-Up at Work 195 Guilherme da Silva Machado [ 2 0 ] Sex with the Signifier 205 Diego Semerene [ 2 1 ] Textile-Objects and Alterity: Notes on the Pandemic Mask 213 Marie-Aude Baronian [ 2 2 ] Glass, Adhesive Tape, Boom Mic: A City in Crisis in Three Acts 221 Marek Jancovic E D U C A T I O N / I N S T R U C T I O N [ 2 3 ] Media of Trust: Visualizing the Pandemic 231 Florian Hoof [ 2 4 ] Mediating Disease: Scientific Transcriptions of COVID-19 into Animal Models 243 Benjamín Schultz-Figueroa and Sophia Gräfe [ 2 5 ] Pandemic Porn: Understanding Pornography as a Thick Concept 251 Leonie Zilch [ 2 6 ] The Time Stretched Before Us: Rethinking Young Children’s “Screen Time” 261 Meredith A. Bak [ 2 7 ] Mute Sound 271 John Mowitt [ 2 8 ] Face Off 279 Kerim Dogruel [ 2 9 ] Let’s Go to Oberhausen! Some Notes on an Online Film Festival Experience 287 Wanda Strauven A C T I V I S M / S O C I A B I L I T Y [ 3 0 ] This Is Our Night: Eurovision Again and Liveness through Archives 295 Abby S. Waysdorf [ 3 1 ] More than You Bargained for: Care, Community, and Sexual Expression through Queer Women’s Dating Apps during the COVID-19 Pandemic 305 Stefanie Duguay [ 3 2 ] “Thus isolation is a project.” Notes toward a Phenomenology of Screen-Mediated Life 315 Shane Denson [ 3 3 ] Mapping Mutations: Tracing the Travel of a Viral Image 325 Amrita Biswas [ 3 4 ] Pandemic Media: Protest Repertoires and K-pop’s Double Visions 333 Michelle Cho [ 3 5 ] How to Fight a Pandemic with Status Elevation: The Home Shopping Governance of Donald J. Trump 343 Vinzenz Hediger [ 3 6 ] A New Period In History: Decolonizing Film Archives in a Time of Pandemic Capitalism 357 Didi Cheeka [ 3 7 ] Anticipating the Colonial Apocalypse: Jeff Barnaby’s Blood Quantum 363 Kester Dyer Authors 375 Configurations of Film: Series Foreword Scalable across a variety of formats and standardized in view of global circulation,­the­moving­image­has­always­been­both­an­image­of­movement­ and­an­image­on­the­move.­Over­the­last­three­decades,­digital­production­ technologies,­communication­networks­and­distribution­platforms­have­ taken­the­scalability­and­mobility­of­film­to­a­new­level.­Beyond­the­classical­ dispositif­of­the­cinema,­new­forms­and­knowledges­of­cinema­and­film­have­ emerged,­challenging­the­established­approaches­to­the­study­of­film.­The­ conceptual­framework­of­index,­dispositif­and­canon,­which­defined­cinema­ as­photochemical­image­technology­with­a­privileged­bond­to­reality,­a­site­ of­public­projection,­and­a­set­of­works­from­auteurs­from­specific­national­ origins,­can­no­longer­account­for­the­current­multitude­of­moving­images­ and the trajectories of their global movements. The term “post-cinema con- dition,”­which­was­first­proposed­by­film­theorists­more­than­a­decade­ago­to­ describe­the­new­cultural­and­technological­order­of­moving­images,­retained­ an almost melancholic attachment to that which the cinema no longer was. Moving­beyond­such­attachments,­the­concept­of­“configurations­of­film”­aims­ to­account­for­moving­images­in­terms­of­their­operations,­forms­and­formats,­ locations­and­infrastructures,­expanding­the­field­of­cinematic­knowledges­ beyond­the­arts­and­the­aesthetic,­while­retaining­a­focus­on­film­as­privileged­ site­for­the­production­of­cultural­meaning,­for­social­action­and­for­political­ conflict. The­series­“Configurations­of­Film”­presents­pointed­interventions­in­this­field­ of debate by emerging and established international scholars associated with the DFG-funded Graduate Research Training Program (Graduiertenkolleg) “Konfigurationen­des­Films”­at­Goethe­University­Frankfurt.­The­contributions­ to­the­series­aim­to­explore­and­expand­our­understanding­of­configurations­ of­film­in­both­a­contemporary­and­historical­perspective,­combining­film­and­ media theory with media history to address key problems in the development of new analytical frameworks for the moving image on the move. Pandemic Media: Introduction Laliv Melamed and Philipp Dominik Keidl Media­have­played­a­crucial­role­during­the­eruption­of­the­COVID-19­pan- demic­and­subsequent­shutdowns­in­2020.­News­channels­and­programs­kept­ viewers­constantly­updated­about­the­spread­of­the­virus,­providing­explana- tions about how it operates and showing graphs and maps about infection rates. Broadcast media featured interviews with virologists and other health experts,­and­programmed­press­conferences­with­politicians­announcing­new­ policies­to­contain­the­crisis.­Likewise,­social­media­fed­information­about­ the­latest­developments­to­their­users­who,­in­turn,­used­the­platforms­to­ document and share their own experiences of the crisis in the form of opinion pieces,­memes,­or­humorous­advice­on­how­to­practice­social­distancing.­ Videoconferencing software enabled white-collar workers to work from home and­students­to­continue­their­education.­After­work,­the­same­technologies­ provided alternatives to all the closed leisure activities by hosting workout sessions,­wine­tastings,­book­clubs,­dance­parties,­or­just­chats­with­friends­ and­family.­Online­retailers­lured­and­catered­to­stay-at-home­consumers,­ while­television,­streaming­services,­film­festivals,­porn­websites,­and­online­ museum exhibitions provided distraction from fears and sorrows caused by disturbing updates. And although face-to-face dating was out of question for many,­dating­and­hook-up­apps­provided­the­interface­for­online­dating­and­ sex. Media also served as the foundation for managing the crisis. Special apps were used to track routes of infection and for governments to control and surveil the movement of their own citizens. Infrared detectors embedded in specialized­lenses­helped­measure­and­visualize­body­temperature,­alerting­ a potentially infected carrier. Drones were used to scan urban spaces under closure,­guard­those­who­were­locked­down,­and­deliver­goods­to­people’s­ homes.­Not­all­aspects­of­media­consumption,­however,­revolved­around­the­ accessibility­and­elasticity­afforded­by­digital­media.­With­cinemas­closed­and­ distribution­companies­building­new­on-demand­offers,­another­round­of­ debates­about­the­approaching­“death­of­cinema”­came­to­life.­VHS­collections­ were­rediscovered,­and­drive-in­theaters­became­a­popular­alternative­to­ watch movies on the big screen and among a group of strangers beyond one’s own­home,­showing­the­longevity­of­analogue­media.­In­containing­the­virus­ and­orchestrating­new­modes­of­social­behavior,­media­were­ubiquitous,­ whether functioning as an instrument of population control and mass surveil- lance,­or­as­one­of­care­and­relief. Recognizing the omnipresence of media and screens has become a common- place­notion­in­film­and­media­studies.­Yet,­as­widely­stated­and­accepted­as­ 12 Pandemic Media the­ubiquity­of­media­and­screens­now­is,­the­mediation­of­the­pandemic­and­ the­variety­of­new­media­configurations­brought­forward­by­the­pandemic­ have­opened­up­new­paths­of­investigation­for­film­and­media­studies.­As­with­ so many other aspects in life that the coronavirus and its consequences put in­jeopardy,­media­are­actively­shaping­these­changes­as­much­as­they­are­ affected­by­them.­At­a­time­when­nearly­all­of­the­world­has­been,­and­still­ is,­living­under­some­form­of­shutdown­or­increased­prevention­and­control­ measures,­media­have­become­even­more­important­for­governments,­institu- tions,­companies,­retailers,­and­regular­citizens­to­organize,­manage,­work,­ educate,­entertain,­and­communicate.­Media­afforded­processes­of­informing­ or­misinforming,­keeping­people­safe­or­unsafe,­generating­hopes­or­fears,­ leading­to­support­or­sabotage,­causing­understanding­or­incomprehension.­ The­results­are­gestures­of solidarity­or­egoism,­calls­for­changing­corrupted­ social­structures­or­gatekeeping­those­existing­disadvantageous­systems,­ utopian visions for a better future or dystopian narratives about the end of the­world.­At­the­same­time,­the­eruption­of­the­pandemic­as­a­global­bio- logical and social condition accentuated the constant proliferation and state of­media­transformation­(Parks­and­Walker­2020).­The­altered­realities­of­living­ in a pandemic and post-pandemic time respectively require media to adapt themselves­to­new­conditions­of­producing,­accessing,­consuming,­sharing,­ and­deploying­media­for­the­flow­of­information,­labor,­goods,­policies,­and­ culture. The proliferation of media and screens as a means of crisis man- agement­confronted­film­and­media­scholars­once­again­with­their­own­object­ of­research,­calling­on­them­to­track­and­analyze­how­media­emerge,­operate,­ and change under the altered condition of a global event. Pandemic Media The­pandemic­was­a­heavily­mediated­event,­if­not­a­media­event­in­itself.­ Experts­such­as­virologists,­public­health­specialists,­politicians,­and­econ- omists were recruited as spokespeople during the crisis. In these public debates,­however,­media­operations­or­their­instrumentality­were­deemed­ invisible­or­neutralized.­The­very­conditions­of­conveying­information,­forging­ expertise,­and­representing­the­virus­or­the­damage­it­inflicted­on­bodies,­ environments,­and­societies­demand­equal­attention.­A­film­and­media­studies­ perspective is needed to unpack the technological and discursive formations through which media channeled the crisis. The theoretical and methodological tools­that­define­the­discipline­afford­new­insights­into­the­communication,­ circulation,­and­consumption­of­media­during­the­pandemic­by­asking:­How­do­ media render an invisible virus and its threats visible? What form and format do graphs take to inform policy makers and the public about the crisis? How and why do amateur media get distributed transnationally and win trans- national popularity? Where and in which socio-economic contexts do small Pandemic Media 13 cultural­institutions­fight­for­their­existence­while­large­online­corporations­ expand their dominance? How does the pandemic change how people practice and talk about sex when they are urged not to hook up in person? How are previous viruses and their victims remembered across media? To whom do populists address their demagogic philosophies? When do images of protests and riots revive political movements? How can we mobilize media theories to understand the new pervasiveness of objects such as masks and plastic as media? In­this­volume­we­seek­to­track­the­way­the­pandemic­affected­media­forms,­ usages,­and­locations.­Approaching­the­role­of­media­during­the­pandemic­ one can note historical links to former pandemics in how they reorganize media­settings­and­consumption­(Napper­2020)­or­order­social­narratives.1 A­different­strand­probes­pandemic­media­through­the­notion­of­contagion,­ highlighting­the­role­of­both­media­and­the­virus­as­carriers,­their­infecting­cir- culation,­and­their­transformation­of­their­hosts­(Parikka­2016;­Sampson­2012).­ The­concept­of­media­event,­an­event­formed­through­its­mediation,­is­par- ticularly apt for describing the ubiquity and instrumentality of media during the­pandemic.­Here­we­draw­on­a­major­thread­within­film­and­media­studies­ that­explores­the­interconnection­between­media­and­the­historical­event,­its­ orchestration­and­management,­the­narratives­or­genres­it­engenders,­and­ its shaping of public as well as domestic spheres. From the explosion of the Discovery­to­the­war­in­the­Balkans,­September­11,­the­Deepwater­Horizon­ oil­spill,­and­the­Arab­Spring­(Katz­and­Dayan­1994;­White­1999;­Keenan­2004;­ Schuppli­2015;­Snowdon­2014):­in­these­events,­despite­their­different­scale,­ media are not merely a vessel of information but the very conditions that shaped­their­cultural,­political,­and­economic­footprint.­Media­are­a­factor­of­ directing­global­attention,­of­visibility­and­recognition,­of­connecting­spaces,­ pacing­temporalities,­and­generating­narratives.­Thinking­of­the­various­media­ operations­that­are­characteristic­of­the­current­pandemic­moment,­media­is­ instrumental­in­synchronizing­and­cohering­the­multiplicity­of­data,­images,­ opinions,­and­happenings.­As­a­pattern,­the­media­event­frames­our­read- ing­of­media­ubiquity­and­their­forming­of­a­crisis­mode,­yet­the­radical­and­ unprecedented scale of global reaction and measures of distancing prompted new­manifestations,­termed­here­“pandemic­media.”­ Questions­of­formation,­format,­usages,­and­locations­of­media­have­been­ central­to­the­work­of­the­DFG-funded­research­collective­“Configurations­ of­Film”­based­at­the­Goethe­University­in­Frankfurt.­As­part­of­the­research­ collective’s­book­series,­this­volume­reflects­on­these­questions.­Highlighting­ media’s­adaptability,­malleability,­and­scalability,­“pandemic­media”­refers­to­ media­forms­and­formats,­content­and­narratives,­exhibition­and­distribution,­ 1­ For­example,­the­vacillation­between­utopian­and­dystopian­narratives­brought­by­ former­­pandemics,­for­example­in­Camus’s­The Plague or Boccaccio’s Decameron. 14 Pandemic Media locations­and­settings,­practices­and­uses,­as­well­as­analogies­and­metaphors­ that have made the invisible virus and its consequences perceptible. The con- cept captures media operating under pandemic conditions in sectors ranging from­leisure­to­education,­medicine,­economy,­politics,­experimental­art,­and­ popular­culture.­“Pandemic­media”­represent­a­specific­attitude­toward­media­ in a moment of transition and uncertainty at a time of a global health crisis. As a means to analyze and communicate the pandemic and its internal logic and logistics,­this­volume­captures­the­discursive­and­temporal­construction­of­ the­current­crisis­through­various­media­configurations.­These­configurations­ have­reordered­social­spaces,­rhythms,­and­temporalities­through­calls­for­ information,­synchronization,­regulation,­and­containment,­as­well­as­the­ reconfiguration­of­media­technologies­and­cultures­themselves.­ “Pandemic­media”­have­collided­and­approximated­public­and­private­and­ institutional and non-conformist spaces respectively. They have reordered the­domestic­space­as­a­sort­of­headquarters,­a­screened­space­that­had­ to cater to and regulate all everyday activities during the lockdown. While being­in­quarantine­at­home,­one­still­had­to­remain­open­to­various­trans- missions summoning each and every person to put their individuality behind the­imaginary­global­collective.­Additionally­“pandemic­media”­have­trans- formed notions of temporality by interconnecting the velocities of the crisis: the­immediacy­or­latency­of­the­authorities’­reactions,­the­real­time­tracking­of­ the­event­unfolding,­the­anticipation­of­new­measurements­to­be­expressed­in­ the graphs and charts depicting the infection rates. They produced a feeling of urgency that oscillated between an unpredictable spectacularity and the sus- taining­of­everyday­routines,­a­simultaneous­communication­of­rupture­and­ continuity.­Considering­these­media­operations,­pandemic­media­needs­to­be­ thought of in the context of a wider understanding of the way media functions under­crisis­(Doan­1990;­Chun­2011;­Parks­and­Walker­2020).­Here,­crisis­is­ not only a condition that invites certain spatio-temporal formations like the ones­mentioned­above,­but­is­itself­a­construction­mediated­and­produced­by­ media.­As­the­above­analysis­maintains,­a­pre-existing­media­convention­of­ crisis­forged­the­pandemic­as­an­event,­in­as­much­as­it­invited­new­forms­and­ conventions. Transformations of space and time intersect with manifestations of social conditions and social malfunctioning. The pandemic crystalized inequality and­injustice,­exposing­uneven­access­to­resources,­intentional­neglect­of­ infrastructures,­privatization­of­social­services­at­the­expense­of­the­“greater­ good.”­It­furthered­the­exploitation­and­exhaustion­of­laborers,­debilitation,­ poverty,­hunger,­as­well­as­racial,­colonial,­and­gendered­systemic­violence.­ The­imaginary­global­community­was­first­shattered­a­few­weeks­into­the­pan- demic­when­images­of­institutional­unresponsiveness­and­social­indifference­ toward discrimination and harassment became visible yet again. Pandemic Pandemic Media 15 media­contributed­to­these­dynamics­through­the­circulation­of­gifs,­memes,­ videos,­and­news­reports,­whose­content­either­sanctioned­and­reinforced­ systematic discrimination and oppression or bluntly exposed its brutal out- comes.­Thinking­through­and­with­pandemic­media,­a­public­health­state­of­ emergency­provoked­by­contagion­necessitates­a­reflection­on­larger­social,­ economic,­political,­and­cultural­systems­that­formed­the­crisis­and­were­ reformed by it. Pandemic Scholarship This volume highlights that this very sense of rupture and its mediation sum- mons­a­particular­form­of­writing.­Early­on­in­the­crisis,­magazines,­podcasts,­ online­lectures,­as­well­as­academic­journals,­blogs,­and­print­publications­ called for expert analysis.2 They created an urgency for scholars and public intellectuals­to­reflect­on­the­ways­the­pandemic­traverses­our­world,­contex- tualizing the spread of the virus and institutional responses according to their expertise.­As­editors­of­this­volume,­we­are­aware­that­it­is­equally­important­ to­pause­and­reflect­on­how­the­rhetoric­of­urgency­itself­shapes­the­way­we­ approach knowledge and critique. Throughout the process of bringing this collection­to­life,­we­felt­that­in­its­disastrous­totality­and­its­global­scale­the­ pandemic is threatening to absorb all forms of knowledge. Responding to the urgencies of the now might yield to popular demand while rushing the process of­analysis,­deliberation,­and­evaluation,­which­are­unwaivable­aspects­of­ scholarship. Yet­we­perceive­it­as­a­necessary­momentum­to­employ­film­and­media­studies­ as a critical tool to deliberate and even dismantle the mechanisms that are used to attend to the crisis. Spotlighting media operations exposes the very means­and­narratives­through­which­expertise­is­presented­as­such,­and­this­ volume is in dialogue with other scholarly interventions on the impact of the pandemic­from­the­field­of­film­and­media­studies­specifically,­and­the­human- ities­and­social­science­more­generally­(Baer­and­Hanich­2020;­Bronfen­2020;­ Gessmann,­Halfwassen,­and­Stekeler-Weithofer­2020;­Hennefeld­and­Cahill­ 2020;­Jones­2020;­Newiak­2020;­Volkmer­and­Werner­2020;­Walker­2020).­More- over,­it­allows­us­to­question­the­very­temporal­motors­for­scholarly­reflection.­ Do­scholars­need­to­reply­to­the­moment’s­crisis,­or­alternately,­does­informed­ reflection­necessarily­demand­distance­and­time?­As­a­matter­of­fact,­many­ of­the­questions­discussed­in­this­volume­have­occupied­the­discipline­of­film­ and media studies before. With this we assert that the foundations for the 2­ See­for­example:­Critical­Inquiry­Blog­“Posts­from­the­Pandemic”­https://criticalinquiry. uchicago.edu/posts_from_the_pandemic/,­a­special­project­of­The European Journal of Psychoanalysis https://www.journal-psychoanalysis.eu/coronavirus-and-philosophers/ The New York Review of Books ’s­Dispatches­from­the­Covid-19­Crisis­https://www.nybooks. com/topics/coronavirus/. 16 Pandemic Media pandemic­media­mechanisms­were­already­laid,­yet­the­crisis­formation­pro- vides them with a new visibility. Two objectives were particularly important to us in putting together this volume.­First,­to­probe­the­many­media­configurations­that­played­into­the­ social,­economic,­cultural,­and­political­manifestations­of­the­pandemic.­ Second,­to­collect­and­register­these­configurations­and­expressions.­Whilst­ the­pandemic­enabled­the­emergence­of­ephemeral­and­inchoate­expressions,­ an­outcome­of­a­mode­of­transition­that­the­crisis­mobilizes,­their­ephemeral- ity became evident while we were working on the volume between April and September­2020.­Between­the­process­of­reviewing­the­essays­throughout­the­ summer­and­writing­the­introduction­in­early­fall,­some­amateur­videos­have­ already­disappeared­from­the­virtual­sphere,­comments­have­been­deleted­ from­social­media,­new­technologies­designed­to­contain­the­virus­have­ evolved,­social­responses­have­shifted­from­comprehension­to­anger,­and­con- spiracy theories have questioned the validity of science and expert opinions. As­such,­this­volume­is­the­outcome­of­a­form­of­“pandemic­scholarship,”­ representing­a­certain­moment­of­change­as­much­as­it­is­aware­of­the­effects­ of the crisis on its own operations. The Inventory We­invited­the­authors­in­this­volume­to­reflect­on­a­specific­phenomenon­that­ is­part­of­pandemic­media,­drawing­on­their­specialized­interests­and­expert- ise.­The­result­is­an­inventory­of­pandemic­media,­an­indefinite­sum­of­the­ many­forms,­formats,­usages,­practices,­platforms,­functions,­and­conventions­ through­which­media­manifest­themselves­in­this­demarcated,­yet­ongoing,­ event. Time/Temporality This­section­brings­together­different­considerations­of­the­pandemic’s­ rhythms­and­temporal­distributions—past,­present,­and­future.­Neta­ Alexander explores modes of waiting as a predominant experience in an age­of­on-demand­culture,­refuting­its­myth­of­immediacy,­whereas­Malte­ Hagener highlights parallelism and synchronicity in his study of the split- screen,­a­common­image­in­the­days­of­the­pandemic­that­goes­back­to­early­ cinema.­In­contrast­to­these­either­latent­or­accelerated­tempos,­time,­as­a­ sensation­of­contemporaneousness,­informs­Ulrike­Bergermann’s­analysis­of­ a­short­film­that­was­swiftly­produced­for­the­online­edition­of­a­film­festival.­ Jaap­Verheul’s­critique­of­a­renewed­interest­in­the­film­vault­concerns­the­val- orization­of­past­cinematic­treasures­by­industry­powers;­scholarly­interests­ are­reoriented­to­address­current­affairs­in­Felix­M.­Simon’s­conception­of­ Pandemic Media 17 “pivoting”;­and­modes­of­cinema­viewing­are­adjusted­to­the­time’s­necessities­ while imbued with nostalgia in Karin Fleck’s study of the drive-in. Space/Scale Media­alter­perception­of­space­and­scale,­and­with­it­how­we­relate­to­ ourselves­and­others.­The­section­opens­with­two­essays­addressing­different­ media representations of urban spaces. Teresa Castro criticizes drone images of­empty­cities­as­an­“aestheticization­of­politics”­and­victory­of­spectacle­over­ critical­distance.­In­turn,­Alice­Leroy­shows­that­the­appropriation­of­surveil- lance military technologies can also be used to document otherwise invisible moments of care and solidarity. The subsequent three essays engage with issues pertaining to self-isolation through the lens of platforms. According to Yvonne­Zimmermann,­videoconferencing­creates­a­relationship­of­closeness­ and­distance­of­self­and/as­other­that­opens­up­new­modes­of­self-reflexivity.­ Joshua Neves and Marc Steinberg probe how platform economies take over most­in-person­activities,­providing­customers­with­the­experience­of­con- venience at the cost of putting laborers at risk. Juan Llamas-Rodriguez’s anal- ysis­of­an­animated­short­depicting­the­different­experience­of­the­rich­and­ poor stresses the expanding rift between cosmopolitan elites and the millions that inhabit the Global South. The last two essays examine the consequences of closed media spaces for visitors and scholars. Distinguishing between film-driven­and­festival-driven­events,­Marijke­de­Valck­proposes­combining­ case study-based scholarship with large-scale data projects to theorize the changing­festival­eco-system.­Exploring­the­rupture­COVID-19­has­caused­for­ theme­park­fans­and­researchers,­Rebecca­Willliams­maintains­that­digital­ media may become more central for fans and fan scholars when the physical spaces are inaccessible. Technologies/Materialities Taken­together,­the­essays­in­this­section­manifest­a­variety­of­interfaces,­plat- forms,­modes­of­production,­views,­and­medium­through­which­the­pandemic­ was­rendered­visible,­felt,­controlled,­or­inhabited.­Offering­a­long­history­of­ machine­vision,­Antonio­Somaini­sheds­light­on­the­current­proliferation­of­ technologies­of­distance;­Alexandra­Schneider­probes­the­pandemic­media­ space­by­looking­at­a­particular­interface,­the­car’s­camera-imbedded­rear­ mirror,­and­its­measures­of­displacement;­whereas­Ada­Ackerman’s­analysis­ of drone-produced images of empty urban spaces explores the spectacle of scale­and­emptiness.­Essays­by­Bishnupriya­Ghosh,­Christoph­Engemann,­and­ Guilherme da Silva Machado address media logics of close scrutiny. Ghosh dis- sects­the­synthetic­scientific­process­of­visualizing­the­virus;­Engemann­inves- tigates­corona­tracing­apps­and­the­public­debates­they­provoke­in­Europe;­ 18 Pandemic Media and,­studying­telecommunication­technologies­in­the­workplace,­da­Silva­ Machado­situates­contemporary­production­labor­in­the­facial­close-up.­Lastly,­ traversing­our­access­to­spaces­and­bodies,­the­pandemic­has­brought­about­ new materialities. Diego Semerene argues for the erotic discharge of words on­sex­platforms,­in­lieu­of­the­affordability­of­bodies;­Marie-Aude­Baronian­ explores­the­omnipresence­of­masks,­both­as­a­material­object­and­a­medium;­ and Marek Jancovic tracks an archeology of three conspicuous objects in the urban­space:­gaffer­tape,­glass,­and­boom­microphones. Education/Instruction A­didactic­display,­a­form­of­authority­or­its­tool,­a­space­to­exercise­prudence­ or trust are linked to media instructional and educational imperatives. Florian Hoof­observes­the­different­formats­through­which­information­about­the­ virus was conveyed as a means to establish trust in a time of growing uncer- tainty;­in­Benjamín­Schultz-Figueroa­and­Sophia­Gräfe’s­essay­animals­are­ put forward as a medium through which the pandemic was introduced and studied,­either­as­a­cultural­or­scientific­signifier.­Leonie­Zilch­understands­ pandemic­porn­as­a­way­to­enhance­moralistic­values;­while­the­impact­of­ media­on­children­was­also­reconsidered­by­scholars­and­pedagogues,­as­ contended by Meredith A. Bak in her essay on children’s screen time and her­proposal­of­a­“stretchy­time.”­John­Mowitt’s­essay­thinks­through­the­ imperative,­often­made­in­teleconferencing­teaching,­“mute­your­sound.”­The­ proposition­of­canceling­sound,­signaled­by­the­icon­of­microphone­with­a­ red­strikethrough,­leads­Mowitt­beyond­the­engineered­hearing­of­the­tele- phone,­potentially­altering­our­techno-pedagogical­scene.­Essays­by­Kerim­ Dogruel and Wanda Strauven likewise meditate on the ways the pandemic redesigns pedagogic interactions. Dogruel expands on how online teaching was­perceived­differently­among­different­groups,­borrowing­from­media­and­ social­theories.­Strauven­reflects­on­a­class­excursion­to­an­online­film­festival,­ recounting how the mixing of everyday routine and the online platform leads to feelings of exhaustion. Activism/Sociability Exacerbating­and­intensifying­existing­social­conflicts,­media­was­instrumental­ in forming and keeping alive communities and realizing new activist strategies. The­first­three­essays­offer­insights­into­the­promise­of­digital­technologies­ to provide sociability while social distancing. Abby S. Waysdorf analyses fans’ use of archives to maintain their fan identity by staging online alternatives for canceled events. Stefanie Duguay investigates dating apps’ repositioning as facilitators of (self-)care while corresponding with the commercialization of health and well-being by digital technologies. Shane Denson stresses that Pandemic Media 19 the paradoxes of screen-mediated life during the pandemic are that media serve­at­once­to­connect­and­to­isolate,­carrying­the­potential­for­passive­ alienation­but­also­active­resistance.­The­next­three­essays­focus­on­how,­and­ against­what,­such­active­resistance­materializes.­Amrita­Biswas­examines­ the formation of solidarity networks in India to create awareness about the severity of the crisis for migrants across the country. Michelle Cho traces anti-racist protests by K-pop fans against the intertwined conditions of police violence­and­the­intensification­of­structural­and­environmental­racism­in­ North­America­and­Europe.­As­Vinzenz­Hediger­demonstrates,­these­protests­ are also directed at a US president whose governance is characterized by the presentational­modes­of­home­shopping­television.­The­final­two­essays­of­ this volume encourage new viewpoints and epistemologies to overcome sys- tematic­oppression.­Didi­Cheeka­calls­for­the­decolonizing­of­film­archives­in­ the­time­of­pandemic­capitalism,­and­Kester­Dyer­shows­how­long-standing­ Indigenous viewpoints have anticipated the tensions concerning systemic racism­magnified­by­the­pandemic.­ References Baer,­Nicholas,­and­Julian­Hanich,­eds.­2020.­“Coronavirus­and­Cinematic­Experience.”­In Media Res: A Media Commons Project,­June­14,­2020­to­June­20,­2020.­Accessed­October­8,­2020.­ http://mediacommons.org/imr/content/coronavirus-and-cinematic-experience. Bronfen,­Elisabeth.­2020.­Angesteckt: Zeitgemässes über Pandemie und Kultur. Basel: Echtzeit Verlag. Chun,­Wendy­Hui­Kyong.­2011.­“Crisis,­Crisis,­Crisis­or­Sovereignty­and­Networks.”­Theory, Culture and Society­28­(6):­91–112. Critical­Inquiry­Blog.­2020.­“Posts­from­the­Pandemic.”­Accessed­December­20,­2020.­https:// criticalinquiry.uchicago.edu/posts_from_the_pandemic/. Dayan,­Daniel,­and­Elihu­Katz.­1994.­Media Events: The Live Broadcasting of History.­Cambridge,­ MA: Harvard University Press. Doane,­Mary­Ann,­1990.­“Information,­Crisis,­Catastrophe.”­In­Logics of Television: Essays in Cultural Criticism,­edited­by­Patricia­Mellencamp,­222–39.­London:­BFI­and­Bloomington:­ Indiana University Press. Gessmann,­Martin,­Jens­Halfwassen,­and­Pirmin­Stekeler-Weithofer,­eds.­2020.­“Sonderheft­ Kulturzeitdämmerung:­Corona­und­die­Folgen.”­Philosophische Rundschau­67­(2).­ Hennefeld,­Maggie,­and­James­Leo­Cahill,­eds.­2020.­“Media­Pandemic.”­In Media Res: A Media Commons Project,­April­5,­2020.­Accessed­October­8,­2020.­http://mediacommons.org/imr/ content/media-pandemic. Jones,­Ashley,­ed.­2020.­­“Theme­Parks.”­In Media Res: A Media Commons Project,­September­ 21,­2020­to­September­25,­2020.­Accessed­October­8,­2020.­http://mediacommons.org/imr/ content/theme-parks. Keenan,­Thomas.­2004.­“Mobilizing­Shame.”­South Atlantic Quarterly­103­(2–3):­435–49. Napper,­Lawrence.­2020.­“‘Have­You­Had­the­New­Influenza­Yet?’:­The­Bioscope,­the­ Cinema­and­the­Epidemic­1918–19.”­At the Pictures: About Cinemagoing in the Past,­May­ 6­2020.­Accessed­September­18,­2020.­https://atthepictures.photo.blog/2020/05/06/ have-you-had-the-new-influenza-yet-the-bioscope-the-cinema-and-the-epidemic-1918-19/. Newiak,­Denis.­2020.­Alles schon mal dagewesen: Was wir aus Pandemie-Filmen für die Corona-Krise lernen können. Marburg: Schüren Verlag. 20 Pandemic Media Parikka,­Jussi.­2016.­Digital Contagions: A Media Archaeology of Computer Viruses. New York: Peter Lang. Parks,­Lisa,­and­Janet­Walker.­2020.­“Disaster­Media:­Bending­the­Curve­of­Ecological­ Disruption­and­Moving­Toward­Social­Justice.”­In­Media+Environment,­University­of­California­ Press.­Accessed­September­9,­2020.­https://mediaenviron.org/article/13474-disaster-media- bending-the-curve-of-ecological-disruption-and-moving-toward-social-justice. Sampson,­Tony­D.­2012.­Virality: Contagion Theory in the Age of Networks. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Schuppli,­Susan.­2015.­“Silk­Images:­The­Photogenic­Politics­of­Oil.­Exhibition:­Extra­City,­ Antwerp.”­Susan Schuppli. Accessed­September­18,­2020.­http://susanschuppli.com/misc/ slick-images-photogenic-politics-oil/. Snowdon,­Peter.­2014.­“The­Revolution­Will­Be­Uploaded:­Vernacular­Video­and­the­Arab­ Spring,”­Culture Unbound Journal of Current Cultural Research­6­(2):­401–29. The­European­Journal­of­Psychoanalysis.­2020.­“Coronavirus­and­philosophers.”­Accessed­ December­20,­2020.­https://www.journal-psychoanalysis.eu/coronavirus-and-philosophers/. The­New­York­Review­of­Books.­2020.­“Dispatches­from­the­Covid-19­Crisis.”­Accessed­December­ 20,­2020.­https://www.nybooks.com/topics/coronavirus/. Volkmer,­Michael,­and­Karin­Werner,­eds.­2020.­Die Corona-Gesellschaft: Analysen zur Lage und Perspektiven für die Zukunft. Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag. Walker,­Jefferson,­ed.­2020.­“The­Pandemic­and­Public­Memory.”­In Media Res: A Media Commons Project,­June­28,­2020­to­July­3,­2020.­Accessed­October­8,­2020.­http://mediacommons.org/ imr/content/ pandemic-and-public-memory/. White,­Mimi.­1999.­“Television­Liveness:­History,­Banality,­Attractions.”­Spectator­20:­38–56. T I M E / T E M P O R A L I T Y BUFFERING LATENCY DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE TEMPORALITY [ 1 ] The Waiting Room: Rethinking Latency after COVID-19 Neta Alexander Building on the recent literature on waiting and “tem- poral inequality,” this essay studies three categories of latency laid bare by the coronavirus pandemic: photogenic, infrastructural, and emotional. This triad analysis dismantles the myth that on-demand culture enables seamless, global access to information and that therefore our lives could be easily moved online. Pushing against this technological solutionism, it posits the waiting room as a timely metaphor for corona-capitalism. Absolute power is the power to place other people in total uncertainty by offering no scope to their capacity to predict… The all-powerful is he who does not wait but who makes others wait. Pierre Bourdieu Zoom’s­“waiting­room”—where­users­patiently­wait­to­join­a­meeting­or­a­ webinar—is a perfect metaphor for corona-capitalism. We anxiously wait for a job­interview­in­a­time­of­crippling­recession;­for­an­elementary­school­teacher­ 26 Pandemic Media with­no­formal­training­in­remote­teaching­to­babysit­our­child;­for­a­video­con- versation with our elderly parents who we might kill IRL. We are confronted with an uncanny degree of self-awareness as we stare at ourselves through our­webcams.­Desperately­trying­to­direct­the­mise-en-scene,­we­rearrange­ books­on­the­shelf­behind­us­to­make­our­bedroom-turned-office­look­more­ professional. The coronavirus pandemic transformed Zoom—a videoconferencing platform established­in­2011­and­initially­marketed­to­global­businesses—into­a­heaven- sent­solution­for­quarantine­anxiety.­This­“Zoomtopia,”­to­use­company­ parlance,­ignores­the­limitations­of­the­digital­infrastructure,­the­ubiquity­of­ internet­trolls,­and­the­unexpected­disruptions­that­pop­into­the­frame­in­the­ form­of­pets,­children,­or­partners.­The­company’s­ability­to­provide­seamless­ video­is­now­doubtful­as­an­exponential­influx­of­users­encounter­buffering­ issues,­frozen­screens,­and­any­other­digital­noise­once­mocked­by­Zoom­in­its­ commercial­from­2015.1 While Zoom has promoted a discourse of seamless- ness,­it­is­latency­and­waiting­that­have­come­to­define­our­pandemic­lives. Building on my previous work­on­buffering­as­producing­and­sustaining­ “perpetual­anxiety”—the­oft-denied­realization­that­we­increasingly­rely­on­ machines and infrastructures whose logic is not clear or accessible to us (Alexander­2017)—I­wish­to­explore­three­categories­of­buffering­laid­bare­ during­the­pandemic:­pathogenic,­infrastructural,­and­emotional.­Informed­ by the recent interest in the history and regimes of waiting as an antidote to business­models­that­hail­speed­and­instant­gratification­(Tawil-Souri­2017;­ Farman­2018;­Janeja­and­Bandak­2018),­this­triad­analysis­demonstrates­why­ the study of latency regains a new urgency in a post-COVID world. The Buffering Pathogen Buffering,­as­I­argued­elsewhere,­is­a­digital­specter:­it­is­a­moment­of­lag­and­ disconnect­whose­length­is­unknown­(Alexander­2017).­As­such,­it­opens­up­a­ liminal­space­of­activity­and­passivity,­where­users­are­unsure­how­to­react.­ Since­digital­technology­is­based­on­black­box­design,­proprietary­algorithms,­ and­opaque­infrastructure,­internet­users­tend­to­blame­themselves­for­any­ encounter­with­technical­friction.­In­the­case­of­buffering,­this­can­take­the­ form­of­frantically­restarting­the­router,­shouting­at­your­flatmate­to­stop­ “stealing­bandwidth,”­or­upgrading­your­device­or­data­package.­­­ 1­ Available­on­YouTube,­the­commercial­tellingly­features­a­conference­meeting­of­four­ suited­executives­and­one­woman,­all­of­whom­are­white,­as­they­encounter­a­series­of­ technological glitches while trying to use non-Zoom video services. See https://www. youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=JMOOG7rWTPg&feature=emb_logo. The Waiting Room 27 The ways in which the unknown length of the encounter produces anxiety and­helplessness,­alongside­the­tendency­to­recast­structural­failure­as­a­ personal­failure,­make­buffering­a­productive­metaphor­for­the­study­of­the­ coronavirus,­the­pathogen­causing­COVID-19. This pathogen is not only con- tagious­and­hard­to­detect,­it­also­manifests­itself­differently­in­every­human­ body:­asymptomatic­patients­might­never­know­they­contracted­the­virus,­ while­“long­haulers”­suffer­from­a­wide­range­of­debilitating­symptoms­for­ weeks­or­even­months­(Yong­2020).­ Reporting­on­the­differences­between­SARS­and­the­new­coronavirus,­The New York Times explains­that,­“SARS­Classic­settled­quickly­into­human­lung­cells,­ causing­a­person­to­cough­but­also­announcing­its­presence.­In­contrast,­its­ successor­tends­to­colonize­first­the­nose­and­throat,­sometimes­causing­few­ initial­symptoms…­The­virus­replicates­quietly,­and­quietly­spreads”­(Burdick 2020).­Combined­with­the­relatively­high­percentage­of­asymptomatic­carriers,­ this pattern enabled the global spread of the coronavirus. This­pathogenic­buffering—an­inherent­delay­between­exposure­and­traceable­ symptoms—turned­public­health­policy­into­a­frustrating,­costly­game­of­ waiting:­“sheltering­in­place”­or­strictly­imposed­lockdowns­can­only­show­ results­after­two­or­three­weeks;­“super-spreaders”­could­only­be­detected­a­ week­or­so­after­the­initial­encounter.­In­the­US,­the­UK,­and­many­other­coun- tries,­this­pattern­of­delay­was­worsened­by­a­belated­response­to­the­out- break.­Despite­early­warning­from­China,­where­the­pandemic­first­broke,­the­ Trump­administration­failed­to­order­and­manufacture­ventilators,­protective­ gear,­or­testing­kits. The­pandemic­necessitates­waiting:­for­new­guidelines,­for­testing,­for­ “reopening.”­Much­like­buffering,­whose­ubiquity­and­unknown­length­ are­being­denied­by­using­graphic­tools­like­a­colorful­spinning­wheel,­the­ deadliness of the virus was quickly reframed as data visualizations. These “flattening­the­curve”­graphics­played­a­crucial­role­in­convincing­millions­to­ stay­at­home.­Anxiety­inducing­as­they­may­be,­they­also­allay­our­fear­by­ transforming uncertainty into two familiar narratives: linear progression from “bad”­to­“good,”­and­a­three-act­structure­consisting­of­outbreak,­peak,­and­ decline. We thus anticipate and deploy traditional narrative structures whereas the pandemic’s­progress­has­a­different,­prolonged­structure.­The­virus­(at­least­ in­the­early­stages)­was­seen­as­a­sudden,­unexplained­break­from­reality,­ forcing­millions­to­ask­when­can­they­finally­“return­to­normal.”­It­was­quickly­ recast­as­a­digression,­a­once-in-a-century­event­that,­once­resolved,­will­leave­ no­trace.­Flocking­to­streaming­services,­millions­were­re-watching­Hollywood­ pandemic­films­such­as­12 Monkeys (1995) or Contagion (2011).­In­lieu­of­happy­ endings,­viewers­found­solace­in­these­familiar­detective­stories,­where­the­ 28 Pandemic Media protagonists expose the chain of events leading to the deadly outbreaks. When­uncertainty­reigns,­causality­is­an­antidote.­­­­­ Both­on-demand­culture­and­data­visualization­helped­belittle­the­ongoing,­ devastating­toll­of­COVID-19.­New­quarantine-based­podcasts,­columns,­and­ lifestyle­sections­sprouted­tips­for­gardening,­sourdough­bread­baking,­home­ schooling,­or­exercising­(“your­books­could­be­your­yoga­blocks!”­announces­a­ suspiciously­joyful­instructor­in­a­fitness­app).­ Waiting,­however,­is­never­equally­dispersed.­In­her­study­of­“temporal­ine- quality,”­Helga­Tawil-Souri­(2017)­alerts­us­to­the­ways­in­which­waiting­under­ conditions­of­uncertainty­can­invoke­anxiety,­depression,­and­a­paralyzing­ notion of precarity—the kind of emotional states needed to support existing systems­of­power­and­prevent­acts­of­resistance.­This­uncertainty,­which­ buffering­and­COVID-19­have­in­common,­replaces­political­rage­with­a­con- stant­state­of­alertness.­If­we’re­unsure­when­a­technology,­or­a­human­body,­ might­collapse,­we­must­protect­ourselves­by­endlessly­upgrading­both.­A­ more­expensive­data­package,­a­daily­capsule­of­vitamin­C—we­are­eager­to­ solve problems caused by a series of structural failures by changing our own behavior. Infrastructural Latency We might think about the anxiety-inducing pandemic time as the antithesis of­on-demand­culture­and­its­allure­of­instant­gratification.­But­my­goal­is­to­ show that there is more in common between these temporalities than we might imagine. While­we­were­asked­to­divide­the­world­into­“home”­and­“non-home,”­creating­ “isolation­bubbles”­and­recasting­the­public­sphere­as­potentially­deadly,­our­ tech-driven society has increasingly shifted online. The demand for remote work ignores the struggle of those who either have fallen sick or had to care for their loved ones. It also downplays the extent of the digital divide: limited access­to­high-speed­internet;­lack­of­digital­literacy;­and­inability­to­pay­for­ data­packages­or­premium­services,­to­name­but­few­examples.­­­­­­­­ Much­like­it­exposed­the­fragility­of­the­American­health­system,­the­ coronavirus­has­put­the­idea­of­seamless­internet­to­the­test.­In­March­2020,­ the European Union Commissioner Thierry Breton requested that streaming platforms­change­their­default­setting­to­“standard­definition”­in­order­to­trim­ bitrates.­In­response,­both­YouTube­and­Netflix­announced­that­they­would­ automatically adjust their systems to use less network capacity by switching from­high­definition­to­standard­definition.2 2 In­March­2020,­Netflix­issued­a­statement­saying:­“Following­the­discussions­between­ commissioner Thierry Breton and Reed Hastings—and given the extraordinary The Waiting Room 29 Outsourcing­this­responsibility­to­tech­conglomerates,­however,­was­not­ sufficient.­In­the­US,­rural­towns­suffered­from­lack­of­broadband­that,­amid­ the­spread­of­the­virus,­limited­their­ability­to­remain­informed.­Even­tech­ workers­in­urban­centers­experienced­more­buffering:­“As­people­have­ hunkered­down­to­contain­the­spread­of­the­coronavirus,­average­internet­ speeds all over the world have slowed. Some broadband providers are feeling crushed­by­the­heavy­traffic.­And­dated­internet­equipment­can­create­a­bot- tleneck­for­our­speeds,”­reported­The New York Times­(Chen­2020).­With­the­ shift­to­telehealth­services,­buffering­and­disconnections­exacerbate­feelings­ of­isolation­and,­worse­still,­might­delay­medical­treatment­when­patients­are­ unable­to­effectively­communicate­with­their­remote­providers. Even­with­access­to­high-speed­internet,­the­fantasy­of­online­life­denies­ the­extent­to­which­the­digital­ecosystem­relies­on­Big­Tech­and­its­five­ mammoths:­Apple,­Google,­Amazon,­Facebook,­and­Microsoft.­While­I­cannot­ provide­an­analysis­of­net­neutrality­in­such­a­short­essay,­it­is­crucial­to­ remember that all of these companies monetize slowness in a plethora of ways by asking their designers to incorporate waiting into their gadgets and applications.­As­Jason­Farman­(2018)­demonstrates,­“false­latency”­is­a­prev- alent business model used by tech companies to establish trust or maximize profits.­This­commodification­of­waiting­is­part­of,­for­example,­Apple’s­annual­ launch­of­the­latest­version­of­its­iPhone,­or­Facebook’s­decision­to­slow­down­ a­“security­check”­feature­to­convince­users­that­it­is­thorough­and­therefore­ trustworthy.­False­latency­is­therefore­a­feature,­rather­than­a­bug,­of­the­ digital infrastructure. Emotional Buffering Pathogenic­and­infrastructural­latency­laid­the­ground­for­emotional­buffering.­ While­essential­workers­such­as­nurses­and­doctors­suffered­from­burnout,­ those­working­from­home­encountered­“zoom­fatigue.”­In­an­interview­with­ BBC,­Gianpiero­Petriglieri­explained­that­being­on­a­video­call­requires­more­ focus than a face-to-face chat: “Video chats mean we need to work harder to process­non-verbal­cues­like­facial­expressions,­the­tone­and­pitch­of­the­voice,­ and­body­language;­paying­more­attention­to­these­consumes­a­lot­of­energy.­ Our­minds­are­together­when­our­bodies­feel­we’re­not.­That­dissonance,­ which­causes­people­to­have­conflicting­feelings,­is­exhausting”­( Jiang­2020). Technical desynchronization between video and audio breeds a deeper sense of psychological and cognitive desynchronization. While the world became challenges­raised­by­the­coronavirus—Netflix­has­decided­to­begin­reducing­bit­rates­ across­all­our­streams­in­Europe­for­30­days.­We­estimate­that­this­will­reduce­Netflix­ traffic­on­European­networks­by­around­25%­while­also­ensuring­a­good­quality­service­ for­our­members”­(Bannerman­2020).­ 30 Pandemic Media unprecedentedly­synchronized—fighting­a­similar­health­crisis­with­a­limited­ set­of­tools—class­and­racial­disparities­created­entirely­different­realities­for­ those­asked­to­shelter­in­place­or­report­to­their­“essential­work”­(while­others­ escaped to their vacation houses). Zoom­fatigue­might­be­mitigated­by­taking­breaks,­limiting­our­screen­time,­ and­switching­to­phone­conversations.­These­tips,­however,­ignore­the­other­ manifestations­of­emotional­buffering­during­the­lockdown.­First,­it­took­days,­ weeks,­or­months­to­come­to­terms­with­the­severity­and­scale­of­the­global­ crisis.­China­detected­its­first­COVID-19­case­in­December­2019. Yet,­Americans­ were­shocked­to­discover­they­were­asked­to­“shelter­in­place”­once­the­ virus­hit­the­coasts­in­early­March.­Second,­natural­processes­of­grieving­and­ healing have been put on hold as a result of travel bans and social distancing. While­thousands­died­in­isolation­units,­funerals­and­memorials­were­either­ postponed­or­took­place­on­zoom.­Third,­the­frustration­and­rage­induced­by­ delay in testing and ventilator manufacturing in the US and the racial dis- parities­shaping­the­toll­of­the­virus­in­different­communities­were­mostly­ denied­by­its­administration­(and,­eventually,­fed­the­Black­Lives­Matter­pro- tests that erupted across the world). These­different­forms­of­buffering­birthed­a­reality­in­which­white-collar­ workers­cannot­idly­wait­for­improvement­(or­vaccine);­instead,­they­were­ asked­to­remain­on­their­toes,­ready­to­spring­into­action­once­a­colleague­ appears­on­Zoom’s­screen­or­the­economy­can­“reopen.”­This­perpetual­ waiting room requires workers or workers-to-be to become not only alert but evermore­“flexible,”­as­became­clear­once­colleges­started­preaching­to­their­ faculty­about­the­need­for­“hybrid­teaching.” Much­like­a­patient­awaiting­a­doctor,­corona-capitalism­has­forced­us­to­ maintain­a­high­level­of­alert­for­an­unknown­length­of­time.­If,­and­when,­we­ fail,­this­structural­failure­will­be­quickly­recast­as­a­personal­one.­To­resist­ this,­we­must­study­how­the­nascent­“pandemic­time”­shapes­our­ability­to­ grieve amidst the aftershocks of the coronavirus. The pathogen itself presents us­with­the­challenge­of­a­gap­between­exposure­and­sickness,­yet­it­is­also­ crucial to understand the infrastructural and emotional latencies it exposes. References Alexander,­Neta.­2017.­“Rage­against­the­Machine:­Buffering,­Noise,­and­Perpetual­Anxiety­in­the­ Age­of­Connected­Viewing.”­Cinema Journal­56:­1–24. Bannerman,­Natalie.­2020.­“Netflix­and­YouTube­downgrade­due­to­COVID-19.”­Capacity,­ March­20.­Accessed­June­15,­2020.­https://www.capacitymedia.com/Articles/3825139/ netflix-and-youtube-downgrade-due-to-covid-19. Bourdieu,­Pierre.­2000.­Pascalian Meditations.­Translated­by­Richard­Nice.­Stanford,­CA:­Stanford­ University Press. The Waiting Room 31 Burdick,­Alan,­2020.­“Monster­or­Machine?­A­Profile­of­the­Coronavirus­at­6­Months.”­The New York Times,­June­2.­Accessed­June­10,­2020.­https://nyti.ms/2zWusqV.­ Chen,­Brian­X.­­2020.­“Everything­You­Need­to­Know­About­Slow­Internet­Speeds.”­The New York Times,­May­20.­Accessed­June­10,­2020.­https://nyti.ms/3fPcDZZ.­ Farman,­Jason.­2018.­Delayed Response: The Art of Waiting from the Ancient to the Instant World. New­Haven,­CT:­Yale­University­Press. Janeja,­Manpreet­K.,­and­Andreas­Bandak,­eds.­2018.­Ethnographies of Waiting. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing. Jiang,­Manyu.­2020.­“The­Reason­Zoom­Calls­Drain­your­Energy.”­BBC,­April­22.­Accessed­ December­20,­2020.­https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200421-why-zoom-video-chats- are-so-exhausting. Tawil-Souri,­Helga.­2017.­“Checkpoint­Time.”­Qui Parle: Critical Humanities and Social Sciences­26­ (2):­388–422. Yong,­Ed.­2020.­“COVID-19­Can­Last­for­Several­Months,”­June­4.­The Atlantic. Accessed December­20,­2020.­https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/06/covid-19- coronavirus-longterm-symptoms-months/612679/. SPLIT SCREEN VIDEOCONFERENCING SOUND MODULARITY [ 2 ] Divided, Together, Apart: How Split Screen Became Our Everyday Reality Malte Hagener The article looks at the history of the use of split screen in the cinema in order to provide a historical perspective to the proliferation of videoconferencing software during the COVID-19 pandemic. It argues that the specific configuration of the videoconference owes much to larger transformation of the media ecology—towards modularity, flexibility, relationality, and real-time feedback. Zoom,­Jitsi,­Google­Meet,­WebEx,­Skype,­Microsoft­Teams,­BigBlueButton,­ FaceTime,­DFNconf—the­videoconferencing­tools­that­we­have­learnt­to­use­ in­the­times­of­the­COVID-19­pandemic­are­numerous,­and­their­cluster-like­ appearance­is­often­seen­as­proof­of­their­novelty.­But­as­film­history­and­ media­archaeology­has­taught­us­incessantly,­such­ideas­of­innovation­and­ newness have to be taken with a grain of salt. This is also the case when we think­about­the­videoconference,­which­usually­comes­in­the­graphical­con- figuration­of­the­co-presence­of­talking­heads­in­one­larger­frame.­Film—and­ other­(audio-)visual­media—have­a­long­history­of­imagining,­depicting,­ negotiating,­and­presenting­this­dispositif,­which­has­been­given­a­lot­of­ names:­video­call,­image­telephony,­visual­telegraph.1 Casting a glance back 1­ For­this­rich­prehistory­see­Uricchio­2004. 34 Pandemic Media at­ways­in­which­films­have­depicted­this­configuration,­I­am­concerned­in­this­ essay with what we can learn from the cinema as an institution in which the social imaginary of this technology is presented. Archaeology of the Divided and Mobile Screen Images­that­show­other­images­within­a­depicted­space,­frames­that­con- tain­other­frames­are­nothing­new.­Yet­again,­if­we­follow­art­historian­Victor­ Stoichita­(1997)­we­have­a­lead­that­helps­us­understand­the­situation­we­are­ facing. Stoichita has argued that the tableau is a relatively recent invention that­came­about­in­the­seventeenth­century;­before­that,­the­image­was­ bound­to­liturgical­situations­and­to­specific,­fixed­sites­of­exhibition­such­as­ churches.­When­the­painting­became­autonomous­and­mobile,­the­image­ itself­reacted­with­a­discourse­about­this­process­which­reflexively­contributed­ to­a­cultural­and­social­self-positioning.­The­image,­so­to­speak,­actively­con- tributed to a theorization of its own function and ontology. With­moving­images,­we­might­be­seeing­a­similar­development­at­the­ moment.­For­the­longest­time,­they­were­to­be­seen­in­specific­spaces­ and­circumstances­like­the­cinema­hall­or­they­were­connected­to­specific­ devices­like­the­television­set,­which­used­to­be­a­large­and­immobile­piece­ of furniture.2­With­the­mobilization­of­the­computer,­with­the­proliferation­of­ hand-held­devices­such­as­the­smart­phone­and­the­tablet,­with­the­ubiquity­ of­screens­and­terminals­in­public­space,­with­the­anticipation­of­holograms­ and­data­glasses,­we­live­in­a­different­environment­characterized­by­images­ that­behave­very­differently­from­the­static­arrangements­that­Stoichita­was­ dealing with. The image has become autonomous and it has proliferated in ways that were unthinkable in the twentieth century. Split Screen in the Cinema The­use­of­split­screen­in­the­cinema­is­more­than­a­mere­technical­gimmick;­ it often shows how new technological developments have shaped our lives. Split screens in the cinema have typically been used to illustrate mediality— the­transmission­of­signals­over­time­and­space.­Consequently,­the­device­ has been employed to present media innovations that were new at the time. The­telephone­conversation,­the­live­transmission­of­images­on­television,­ and later the decentralized direct transfer of data through digital networks were key domains for the use of split screen. The cinema—with its aesthetic means­like­mise-en-scène,­editing,­and­sound­design—reflects­the­world­we­ inhabit,­which­is­by­now­thoroughly­saturated­with­media.­The­split­screen­has­ 2­ On­the­intersection­of­interior­design­and­the­television­apparatus­see­McCarthy­2001­ and­Spigel­2008. Divided, Together, Apart 35 a­specific­graphical­composition­that­predestines­it­for­the­display­of­mediality.­ It­shows­two­(or­more)­spaces­that­are­visibly­distinct,­yet­presented­in­direct­ proximity­within­the­image.­It­therefore­mirrors­the­paradoxical­configuration­ so typical of media: (spatial or temporal) distance is overcome through technological­means,­resulting­in­visual­and/or­aural­closeness­with­the­sup- pression of other sense perceptions. In­the­early­years­of­the­cinematograph,­all­of­cinema­was­a­special­effect,­ so synthetic images like the split screen were much more common than they­would­later­become.­The­assumption­that­a­film­image­would­show­a­ seamless and navigable space in which human characters took physically possible­actions­was­not­yet­the­undisputed­standard,­as­it­would­become­ in­the­classical­paradigm.­In­early­cinema,­therefore,­films­would­blend­ imaginary with real places and form complex arrangements of overlapping and­morphing­spaces.­A­good­case­to­study­the­effects­of­normalization­is­ Lois­Weber’s­film­Suspense­(US­1913),­based­on­the­same­source­material­as­ D.W.­Griffith’s­The Loney Villa­(US­1910),­a­melodramatic­story­of­a­housewife­ and­her­toddler­trapped­in­their­house,­while­a­burglar­stalks­the­premises­ and the husband listens in via the telephone. Whereas Weber uses a split screen­to­present­the­situation­(fig.­1),­Griffith­opts­for­his­signature­parallel­ editing.­Tom­Gunning­has­shown­how­Griffith­builds­more­tension­through­ the simultaneously retarding and accelerating movement of parallel editing (Gunning­1991).­While­one­might­think­that­the­presentation­of­simultaneous­ actions­in­one­frame­at­the­same­time­is­more­economical,­it­is­in­fact­the­ concentration­on­specific­aspect,­as­well­as­the­acceleration­possible­through­ editing that proved to provide the model for decades to come. The split screen became­an­exception­that­was­mainly­used­as­an­“invisible­effect,”­as­in­A Stolen Life­(US­1948,­Curtis­Bernhardt)­or­The Parent Trap (US­1961,­David­Swift)­ in­which­the­main­actress­plays­a­double­role,­masked­by­lines­that­are­made­ invisible through décor and lighting. [Figure­1]­Suspense­(US­1913,­Lois­Weber) 36 Pandemic Media In­the­classical­paradigm,­the­split­screen­went­underground,­only­to­reemerge­ at­the­tail­end­of­classicism­in­comedies­and­thrillers.­A­number­of­films­from­ the­late­1950s­onwards­show­a­great­innovative­energy­and­a­joy­in­trying­out­ new­techniques­and­technologies.­At­the­same­time,­they­invite­the­audience­ not­just­to­mourn­the­situation­or­passively­lean­back,­but­they­demon- strate­ways­to­become­creative­with­new­media­configurations.­In­the­late­ classical­period,­there­are­films­that­suggest­that­the­split­screen­is­something­ temporary that needs to be overcome and left behind in favor of a shared physical and haptic space. The comedy Pillow Talk (US­1959,­Michael­Gordon)­ starts­off­with­many­scenes­using­the­device,­but­as­the­film­goes­on—and­the­ couple played by Doris Day and Rock Hudson increasingly occupies the same physical­space—the­split­screen­is­used­progressively­less.­The­last­30­minutes­ of­the­film­show­the­two­protagonists­constantly­in­the­same­room,­making­ the­technique­superfluous.­In­fact,­one­scene­shows­an­imaginary­touch­ across the split screen in a kind of literalization of the dividing line between the­two­images—as­the­feet­are­in­visual­proximity,­they­appear­to­be­touching­ each­other­and­react­accordingly­(fig.­2),­whereas­in­fact­this­haptic­contact­is­ but­an­epiphenomenon­of­the­visual­configuration. This­joke­works­on­a­double­level:­on­the­one­hand,­the­graphical­composition­ plays­with­the­fact­that­we­see­the­two­spaces­as­adjacent­on­the­screen,­even­ though we know they cannot be so close that their feet could really touch. Our perceptual­and­epistemological­registers­process­differently­and­they­remain­ in­tension.­On­the­other­hand,­it­evokes­the­knowledge­of­the­spectator­that­ censorship practices did not allow a tame Hollywood mainstream comedy to­show­the­two­(as­of­yet,­unmarried)­protagonists­without­clothes­in­the­ same­bathtub­(Hagener­2008).­The­mind­can­process­this­structural­ambiguity­ between­proximity­and­distance,­between­absence­and­presence­that­is­the­ hallmark of mediality. [Figure­2]­Pillow Talk­(US­1959,­Michael­Gordon) Divided, Together, Apart 37 Modular Aesthetics If­the­split­screen­discussed­so­far­has­been­bound­up­with­the­fixed-site­image­ (in­the­cinema,­on­the­television­set),­development­since­the­late­twentieth­ century has put the moving image in motion. Whereas before it was either the­spectators­that­moved­(as­tourists,­passengers,­attraction­visitors)­or­the­ images­that­showed­movement­(see­Friedberg­1993),­now­both­have­been­put­ into motion. Following Stoichita we could claim that today’s multiplied frames within­frames­contribute­to­a­discourse­that­reflects­on­the­proliferation,­mini- aturization,­mobilization,­and­modularization­of­visuality. For­roughly­20­to­30­years­then,­we­have­come­to­understand­images­as­ flexible.­We­are­no­longer­an­external­observer­of­images­that­are­watched­ from a distance as in Renaissance one-point perspective. What is typical of our­situation­is­that­the­image­is­no­longer­absolutely­fixed­and­stable­in­its­ aesthetic­composition,­in­its­use­and­context,­or­even­in­its­manners­of­circula- tion.­Images­are­stable­neither­in­their­form­nor­in­their­location;­someone­ else­might­have­produced­an­image,­but­still­we­can­interact­with­it­in­real­ time,­modify­it­and­pass­it­along.­Mike­Figgis’s­Timecode­(US­1999)­was­one­of­ the­first­films­to­address­the­simultaneity­and­complex­layering­of­actions­ in real time. Today’s images are modular: we can use the text chat while in a videoconference,­open­additional­windows­and­show­them­to­others­when­we­ share­our­screen,­we­can­enter­text­or­transform­sound­into­text.­Children­are­ now used to the fact that images are potentially scalable in every dimension (such­as­in­Google­Maps);­the­split­screen­presents­a­symbolic­dimension­of­ this modular and interactive nature of images as something we can act on and with. The closest thing that the current aesthetics of videoconferencing resem- bles­is­indeed­the­quintessential­post-9/11­TV­series,­24­(US­2001–2010,­Fox),­ in which Kiefer Sutherland plays the secret (or renegade) agent Jack Bauer who singlehandedly saves our civilization (or rather: the US of A) over and over­again.­Indeed,­if­we­abstract­from­the­reactionary­politics­of­the­series,­ the show turns into a family melodrama of paranoid dimensions in which literally­everyone­can­betray­anyone­else.­The­hysterical­storylines­find­their­ visual expression in complex split screen arrangements in which everything is­connected­with­everything­else—by­media,­by­emotion,­or­by­dependency­ (fig.­3).­In­fact,­many­of­the­acts­of­empathy­and­love,­of­hatred­and­betrayal­ cannot be disentangled from the media arrangements in which they happen. In­this­way,­the­extensions­of­man—to­use­a­famous­phrase­from­Marshall­ McLuhan—are­body­and­language­as­much­as­databases­and­mobile­phones,­ gestures and voices as much as networks and infrastructures. As much as we use­these­technologies,­they­also­shape­us­and­our­lives. 38 Pandemic Media Figure­3:­24­(US­2001–10,­Fox),­season­3,­episode­17 Our monitors and displays are mostly mobile and they are connected to cameras­and­other­tracking­devices,­therefore­what­we­see­continually­ changes:­things­enter­the­frame­and­leave­it­again.­Sometimes,­the­members­ of­a­videoconference­walk­through­their­flats­and­perform­mundane­tasks,­ we­see­other­members­of­the­household­or­we­spot­their­pets.­The­off- screen­space,­the­hors-champ,­what­normally­stays­outside­and­invisible­ enters the frame more frequently. At the same time some people seem to­be­meticulously­planning­how­they­stage­their­surroundings;­the­most­ frequent­example­during­the­COVID-19­pandemic­was­the­use­of­background­ photographs­in­programs­like­Zoom,­which­many­people­used­as­acts­of­self- expression­or­ironic­commentary.­In­this­way,­the­videoconferences­during­the­ lockdowns­and­stay-at-home­orders­intensified­a­trend­in­social­media:­the­ private­becomes­increasingly­public,­but­often­in­a­staged­and­curtailed­form.­ Videoconferences allow the constant controlling gaze at the self—if the hair is right,­at­what­angle­the­chin­looks­best,­what­is­visible­in­the­background.­This­ trend from social media of the careful visual management of the self is put into constant display through video calls. Videoconferences are often rather audioconferences with an addition of images;­we­are­asked­to­turn­the­video­off,­when­the­connection­becomes­ unstable­and­we­turn­our­microphones­off,­when­we­are­not­speaking— sounds are actually the central element of videoconferences and they are characterized­by­feedback­effects­and­acoustic­interferences.­Do­we­hear­a­ voice­or­just­noise?­Often,­we­cannot­clearly­identify­sounds,­an­effect­which­ can­be­puzzling­or­even­uncanny.­The­cinema,­by­contrast,­usually­carefully­ orchestrates­attention:­image­and­sound­work­together,­reinforce­each­other­ and­collaborate­in­complex­ways­in­order­to­make­the­image­audible,­the­ sound­visible­(Chion­2004).­Coherent­sound­guides­our­attention,­but­in­case­ Divided, Together, Apart 39 of­breakdown­we­revert­to­the­chat,­the­image­where­we­gesticulate­or­even­ write words on a slip of paper and present them to the camera. One thing we can learn from the historical examples of split screen is how important sound is in understanding multiple images. In a three-dimen- sional­room,­we­can­locate­the­origin­of­a­sound;­in­a­two-dimensional­ image­we­need­something­visual­to­cue­us­to­the­source.­Often,­videocon- ference software includes tools that foreground the speaker by showing the­video­prominently­or­illuminating­the­frame—sometimes­wrongly­so,­if­ one particular space is noisy. The conventionalized reaction is the muting of the microphones of the listeners. Speaking in a conversation becomes less a­spontaneous­reaction­to­something­that­has­been­said,­than­a­carefully­ orchestrated intervention that needs to be planned and performed. The spontaneity of real interactions is turned into a scripted situation. To return once more to Timecode:­the­film­in­its­initial­release­had­a­carefully­orches- trated soundtrack which constantly cues the viewer to notice important narrative­details­that­might­otherwise­go­unnoticed.­The­DVD­of­the­film­ allows­the­option­to­remix­the­four­different­soundtracks­of­the­continuous­ 90-minute­camera­takes.­And­after­the­release­of­the­film,­Figgis­toured­inter- national­film­festivals­at­which­he­would­present­“live­remixes”­of­the­sound- track like a DJ. If­we­survey­the­rich­history­of­the­split­screen,­we­realize­that­we­can—and­ should—deal creatively and productively with situations of novelty and con- straint.­There­are­countless­possibilities­in­the­affordances­and­limitations­of­ videoconferences: from absurd theater and romantic comedies all the way to thrillers­and­horror­films­where­participants­of­a­call­vanish­one­by­one.­A­new­ form­might­be­the­desktop­documentary,­which­found­early­incarnations­in­ Noah­(CA­2013,­Walter­Woodman/Patrick­Cederberg)­and­Transformers Premake (US­2014,­Kevin­B.­Lee).­Film­is­part­of­a­media­ecosystem­in­which­we­can­ hardly­distinguish­in­any­clear­way­between­cinema,­television,­streaming,­and­ videoconferences.­These­forms­continually­mix­and­mingle,­often­merge­and­ morph in unexpected ways. Conclusion Looking back at the longue durée­of­media­history,­the­purported­novelty­of­ the videoconference gives way to a more nuanced and complicated picture. Many of the observations that are currently being made in relation to video- conferences—about­the­interaction­between­different­frames,­about­the­role­ of­sound,­about­privacy­and­the­performance­of­the­self—can­already­be­ found in connection with the split screen. Beyond the concrete functionality of­videoconferences,­these­images­demonstrate­how­mediated­visuality­has­ transformed­into­a­domain­in­which­images­are­characterized­by­modularity,­ 40 Pandemic Media relationality,­flexibility,­and­real-time­interactivity.­In­this­respect,­the­trans- formations­of­media­from­fixed­and­stable­dispositifs­to­more­flexible­and­ open­configurations­find­an­exemplary­case­in­the­development­from­split­ screen­to­the­videoconference.­Not­only­in­this­respect,­film­history­still­offers­ a rich and dense history that can be mined in relation to our current media environments. References Chion,­Michel.­2004.­Audiovision: Sound on Screen. New York: Columbia University Press. Gunning,­Tom.­1991.­“Heard­over­the­Phone:­The LoneLy ViLLa and the De Lorde Tradition of the Terrors­of­Technology.”­Screen­32­(2):­184–96. Friedberg,­Anne.­1993.­Window Shopping: Cinema and the Postmodern. Berkeley: University of California Press. Hagener,­Malte.­2008.­“Geteilte­Bilder,­getrennte­Betten:­Zur­Verwendung­von­Splitscreen­in­US- amerikanischen­sex­comedies,­1955–1965.”­In­Die Erotik des Blicks: Studien zur Filmästhetik und Unterhaltungskultur,­edited­by­Werner­Faulstich,­Nadine­Dablé,­Malte­Hagener,­and­Kathrin­ Rothemund,­25–37.­Paderborn:­Wilhelm­Fink. McCarthy,­Anna.­2001.­Ambient Television: Visual Culture and Public Space.­Durham,­NC:­Duke­ University Press. Spigel,­Lynn.­2001.­TV by Design: Modern Art and the Rise of Network Television. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Stoichita,­Victor.­1997.­The Self-Aware Image: An Insight into Early Modern Meta-Painting. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Uricchio,­William.­2004.­“Storage,­Simultaneity­and­the­Media­Technologies­of­Modernity.”­In­ Allegories of Communication: Intermedial Concerns from Cinema to the Digital,­edited­by­John­ Fullerton­and­Jan­Olsson,­123–38.­Rome:­John­Libbey. WRITING INVISIBILITY TOUCH QUEER CINEMA CODE CONTAGION [ 3 ] Pass This On! How to Copy the Pandemic with Alex Gerbaulet Ulrike Bergermann In May 2020, filmmaker Alex Gerbaulet delivered a short film to a festival asking if one could and should make films in pandemic times. The answer assembles a very special use of various media, and a very special choice of quotes, conceiving visuals for a contagion through being touched. “If­anyone­speaks,­it­gets­light”­(Freud­2001­[1905],­223).­The­famous­quote­of­a­ child passed on by Sigmund Freud renders the double meaning of the German word both in terms of the opposite of darkness (like in German “hell”)­and­of­ weight­(like­in­“hard­times,”­or­“times­of­a­pandemic”).­As­long­as­there­is­light,­ we­are­alive,­and­talking­is­even­able­to­replace­the­light.­This­holds­true­both­ for­cinematic­projection,­for­digital­screens,­and­for­writing­and­reading­words.­ Coming­together­in­a­dark­place,­though,­is­one­of­the­attractions­and­unique­ experiences­a­film­festival­used­to­offer.­Lars­Henrik­Gass,­director­of­the­66th­ International­Short­Film­Festival­Oberhausen­2020,1 has warned convincingly 1­ The­festival­took­place­online­between­the­13th­and­18th­of­May­2020,­showing­350­ films;­instead­of­the­expected­1,000­tickets,­2,500­were­sold­in­60­countries,­and­more­ than­1,000­special­visitors­from­70­countries­joined­online­too.­The­symbolic­price­of­ 9.99­Euros­came­with­a­wink­to­the­streaming­portal’s­fees,­raising­23,000­Euros­as­a­ donation­to­the­social­foundation­of­VG­Bild,­the­association­for­the­rights­of­creators­ of­visual­art.­About­half­of­the­audience­from­the­previous­year­was­considered­“lost,”­ and­new­audiences­“came”­(overseas­viewers,­schools,­self-organized­groups,­etc.)­ 44 Pandemic Media that­the­praise­of­the­“real­experience,”­along­with­a­(digital)­media­pessimism­ and­a­bit­of­elitism,­lacks­complexity­in­addressing­the­multi-layered­task­of­ transferring a festival into an online format.2 Referring to Walter Benjamin’s concept­of­film­and­the­public,­where­dispersion,­not­melting­gives­way­to­a­ radical­collective­experience,­and­to­Deleuze’s­attack­on­bourgeois­cinema,­ Gass­rejected­a­call­for­“false­proximity”­(2020). Gass­passed­the­question­“Can­and­should­we­make­films­now?”­on­to­the­ filmmakers­he­had­been­cooperating­with,­and­asked­them­for­contributions­ made in less than one hour’s time.3­Filmmaker Brenda Lien let us know that the­fee­offered­was­100­euros.­“The­eleven­contributions,”­said­Gass,­“were­ ‘rewarded­with­the­fee­usually­paid­in­Germany­for­a­psychotherapeutic­ setting,’”­observed­film­critic­Philipp­Stadelmaier:­“In­times­of­COVID-19,­the­ festival­becomes­the­patient,­who­lets­himself­be­cured­by­filmmakers­he­ needs­to­continue­existing”­(2020).­The­transmission­chain­of­talking cures and filming cures does not break.4­What­is­the­talking­mode­of­German­filmmaker­ Alex Gerbaulet? Her­short­film,­like­the­others,­does­not­have­a­title­of­its­own;­there­are­ no­opening­or­end­credits,­just­an­announcement­at­the­festival’s­website,­ giving­its­own­question­in­quotation­marks­like­a­film­title:­“Can­and­should­ we­make­films­now?”­(https://vimeo.com/422485870).­Gerbaulet’s­answer­of­ two­minutes­and­ten­seconds­is­quick­and­bare,­featuring­white­letters­on­a­ black­setting,­no­sound.­Immediately,­we­fenter­into­the­beginning­of­a­story,­ while we read: “A / picture. / Two girls lay on the bed. / Eyes closed. / Holding hands.­/­Fingers­folded­into­each­other.­/­Their­fingertips­/­tap­/­messages­/­on­ the­back­/­of­each­other’s­hands.­/­Speaking­/­of­/­everything.”­The­words­blink­ like­tapping­on­the­eyes.­The­scene­can­unfold­in­the­mind,­and­it­represents­ people­not­seeing­images­themselves,­but­talking­in­the­tactile­mode­about­ See www.kurzfilmtage.de/en­and­Gass­2020.­See­also­New­York­film­curator­Jared­ Rapfogel’s report on the labor around and the great success of the festival as well as­the­“bittersweet”­viewing­experience,­and­some­beautiful­film­reviews­of­Vika­ Kirchenbauer’s­or­Thirza­Cuthand’s­contributions,­among­others­(Rapfogel­2020). 2 Gass gives a sensible and nuanced elaboration on the temporal and fragile nature of online­festival­formats,­responsibilities­towards­the­filmmakers,­the­festival­staff,­and­ the­audience,­as­well­as­on­collective­learning­and­doing,­or­on­possibilities­(democra- tizing­access)­and­pitfalls­(commercialization,­lack­of­live­events,­etc.)­(the­climate­crisis­ applies­to­both­sides).­He­criticizes­the­media­pessimism­in­Bachmann­et­al.­2020,­Heide­ Schlüpmann­2020,­and­others. 3­ Contributers­to­this­short­film­slot­included­Korpys/Löffler,­Jens­Pecho,­Franz­Müller,­ Andreas­Reihse/Zaza­Rusadze,­Max­Linz­with­his­film­class­at­the­University­of­the­Arts­ Berlin­UdK,­Jovana­Reisinger,­Kerstin­Honeit,­Kristina­Kilian,­Dietrich­Brüggemann,­ Brenda­Lien,­and­Alex­Gerbaulet­(see­http://www.alexgerbaulet.de). 4­ Other­critics­would­have­preferred­a­halting­of­the­transmission,­like­Jonas­Nestroy,­who­ perceived­all­films­as­subjected­to­the­theme­of­COVID-19,­but­at­the­same­time­wanted­ to­get­away­from­the­never-ending­contamination­of­politics­and­the­art­of­film­(Nestroy­ 2020). Pass This On! 45 “everything.”­Gerbaulet­questions­the­making­of­images­as­well­as­of­sound.5 Maybe­this­is­a­hint­to­the­invisibility­of­the­pandemic,­to­a­lack­of­imagery­ regarding­the­virus­or­the­act­of­contagion.­No­pictorial­metaphors,­no­graphic­ abstractions­of­a­virus,­no­charts­of­dissemination­transfers­are­given­as­a­ supplement.­Can­and­should­we­make­films­now?­Or­just­tap­on­each­other’s­ hands?­But­what­if­we­got­infected?­For­Gerbaulet,­“feeling­contagious­is­a­ fundamental­queer­experience.”6 “A­/­code­/­that­/­gets­/­under­/­the­/­skin.­/­Contamination­/­means­/­pollution,­ /­but­also­contact.­/­Pollution­through­contact,”­the­film­continues.­The­queer­ twist gives the formal experiment a special spin. Reminiscent of vampire stories’­homoerotic­streak,­its­lesbian­Carmillas,­Catherine­Deneuve­eating­ Susan Sarandon in Tony Scott’s lesbian vampire classic The Hunger­(UK­1983),­ or Keanu Reeves getting weak from the bite of Gary Oldman’s brides in Dracula (USA­1992),­this­contagion­is­imagined­as­one­between­two­girls­lying­on­a­bed.­ Relations­between­the­COVID-19­and­the­HIV­pandemics­may­be­scarce,­as­the­ first­is­not­transmitted­sexually­or­through­shared­use­of­needles,­did­not­start­ with­gay­men,­etc.,­but­topics­like­invisibility,­globality,­or­the­contested­research for a cure come to mind. The code gets under the skin and infects somebody (while­being­touched­in­cinema­remains­a­metaphor);­since­the­HIV­pandemic,­ the­association­between­contagion­and­contamination­or­pollution­is,­as­they­ say,­virulent.­In­just­one­step­between­textual­“shots,”­the­line­“under­the­skin”­ mutated­from­love­to­illness,­like­in­Neneh­Cherry’s­song­I’ve Got You Under My Skin.­In­1990,­this­music­video­superimposed­the­song­text­in­typeface­near­ the­singer­and­denounced,­in­a­rap­about­HIV­and­AIDS,­a­society­without­ empathy,­stigmatizing­contagion­as­a­marker­of­a­“false­love.”7 Alex Gerbaulet invites us to join the chain of proliferation. The white letters on­black­background­remain­the­same­in­size­and­position,8 shown in mostly constant­speed—with­the­exception­of­one­line,­which­not­only­points­to­the­ acoustic­side­of­language,­but­is­a­gesture­out­of­the­screen­or­monitor:­“Hello,­ 5­ Brigitta­Kuster’s­short­film­Erase them! The image as it is falling apart into looks­(D­2012,­ 8:50­min.)­also­gives­only­the­written­words­of­the­demands­of­refugees­occupying­a­ church in Vienna white on black (while we hear their voices) in order to protect the protestors—and to problematize visuality as a policing method of European border management;­Kuster­inserts­still­images­with­printed­hands­on­walls­as­a­reference­to­ Marguerite­Duras’s­film­Les mains négatifs—leaving­human­traces­and­leaving­finger- prints as highly ambivalent operations of touch. 6­ Personal­message,­June­30,­2020. 7­ Remakes­or­quotes­from­older­media­also­could­be­considered­as­a­passing­on­of­ something­contagious,­like­the­song­entitled­I’ve Got You Under My Skin,­recorded­by­Cole­ Porter­in­1936,­then­taken­up­by­Ella­Fitzgerald­and­Frank­Sinatra. 8 Florian Krautkrämer lists various examples of Schriftfilm­in­experimental­films­and­their­ various­functions­of­letters,­words,­and­textual­images,­especially­Michael­Snow’s­So Is This­(Canada­1983,­45­min.),­showing­words­white-on-black,­which­add­up­to­sentences­ and­encompass­multiple­media­reflective­elements.­See­Krautkrämer­2013,­229–71,­esp.­ 244f.;­see­Scheffer­et­al.­2014. 46 Pandemic Media hello,­hello,­how­low?”­highlights­one­word­after­the­other­in­pink­instead­of­ white,­like­on­a­karaoke­machine­playing­Nirvana’s­Smells Like Teen Spirit,­the­ famous­anthem­of­19919—a­request­to­sing­the­words­out­loud,­echoing­the­ call. What kind of contagion would that be—would we be touched by the arbi- trary­code,­the­written­words,­in­a­queer­manner,­at­a­time­of­social­distancing,­ while we cannot gather in dark halls like the cinema auditorium or concert halls­to­dive­into­moving­images­or­sound­together?­Touched,­if­the­story­was­ transmitted­digitally­into­single­computers­and­households,­read­and­sung­ aloud? Close up.­The­following­words­address­different­elements­of­the­medium­ film,­including­the­depiction­of­a­scene,­stage­directions­for­the­camera­man,­ and­filmic­materialities.­The­film­reads:­“Close­up.­/­Skin.­/­A­scratch­/­on­/­the­ cell­/­u­/­loit.­/­Self­/­inflammable­/­light.­/­Translated­/­into­/­ones­and­zeros.­ /­Lightning.­/­A­close­up­face.­/­The­eyelids­flutter.­/­Red.­/­Red.­/­White.”­Even­ after­digitization­(from­celluloid­film­to­digital­numbers),­and­with­a­tongue- in-cheek allusion to the importance of the acoustic to combine the letters to make­sense,­it­is­all­about­the­visual,­about­light.­Because­the­lines­“Red.­/­Red.­ /­White.”­depict­an­opening­of­the­eyes­from­the­perspective­of­the­person­ who conceives the light through closed eyelids (maybe it’s blood vessels) as red­first,­then­as­white­light­after­opening­the­eyes.­“This­/­is­/­a­scene­/­from­ /­a­film­/­life­/­dream­/­film/­life­/­dream,”­chants­the­next­line,­rhythmically­ switching­from­closing­to­opening,­from­light­to­dark,­and­in­between­stages­ of­consciousness­like­being­awake,­asleep,­or­immersed­in­a­film.­And­then,­at­ the­very­end­at­min.­2:05,­a­radical­change­of­the­film­mode­happens.­For­less­ than­one­second­each,­three­pictures­are­inserted,­at­first­a­part­of­a­black- and-white­photograph,­enlarged,­grainy,­probably­showing­a­person­seeing­ through­a­looking­glass;­then­a­photograph­of­a­person­in­a­rumpled­bed­ (the­site­of­dreaming/sleeping/dreaming)­hugging­a­pillow,­without­the­head­ being­seen;­and­finally­a­printed­graphic­representation­of­a­person­with­a­gas­ mask and a bottle carrying a nuclear radiation label. The speed and rhythm of­the­images­echo­the­speed­and­rhythm­of­the­last­three­words,­“film­/­life­/­ dream,”­so­that­we­are­tempted­to­read­the­images­in­correspondence­to­the­ script­(like:­the­first­being­a­film­still­blown­up,­like­in­Michelangelo­Antonioni’s­ sequence of black-and-white photos of a hidden deadly threat in Blow up10;­ the­second­a­photorealistic­picture,­life;­the­third,­the­most­“unrealistic,”­styl- ized,­but­colored­dream picture). As has been said about the video recorder’s impact­on­film­analysis­and­film­studies,­it­is­now­also­groundbreaking­for­film­ 9­ This­song­also­contains­the­motifs­of­light­and­contagion:­“With­the­lights­out,­It ’s­less­ dangerous­/­Here­we­are­now,­entertain­us­/­I­feel­stupid­and­contagious­/­Here­we­are­ now,­entertain­us.” 10 ... or James Stewart ’s looking glass in Hitchcock’s Rear Window,­another­icon­of­immo- bilized­watching­and­possible­unseen­death,­1954...­the­split­of­a­second­opens­up­ multiple­concatenations­through­one­flash­of­a­picture. Pass This On! 47 reception­in­a­digital­manner­that­we­are­able­to­rewind,­to­halt,­and­to­play­ again,­so­that­these­tiny­bits­and­pieces­can­be­contemplated.­ The­sudden­change­of­media­formats­conjures­up­another­famous­one,­ which­was­in­Gerbaulet’s­mind­from­the­very­beginning:­The­opening­words,­ “a­/­picture,”­already­alluded­to­Chris­Marker’s­La Jetée (F­1962),­because­its­ protagonist was capable of time travel only because he had a picture of the desired woman in his mind.11 In between the series of hundreds of black-and- white photographs that make up La Jetée,­for­three­seconds­we­see­a­sequence­ where­the­beloved­woman,­sleeping,­looking­like­(in)­a­photograph,­opens­her­ eyes­and­looks­into­the­camera,­into­the­eyes­of­the­viewer,­thus­proving­the­ image­to­be­always­potentially­moving,­the­linchpin­for­Marker’s­philosophy­ of­love­and­time­in­1962.­La Jetée did not display writing on or between the photographs­(the­film­calls­itself­a­“photo-roman,”­a­photo-novel),­narrating­ with­a­voice-over­the­story­of­a­future­loop­in­time,­where­a­dreaming­time­ traveler is sent back before World War III in order to call for help in the future afterwards.­But­Gerbaulet’s­short­film­and­La Jetée do have some motifs in common: no moving images try to catch what is invisible (neither a world war nor­a­pandemic);­the­love­of­a­woman­is­a­focal­point;­the­stories­hint­at­the­ relations­of­the­individual­and­the­collective,­maybe­to­humanity­and­survival,­ and­to­filmmaking­as­such.12 Marker’s­film­oftentimes­has­been­read­as­a­parable­of­cinema.­Reinhold­ Görling­reminded­us­that­the­time­traveler­is­the­cinemagoer,­that­the­ researchers­in­the­film­act­like­cameramen,­and­that­like­in­cinema,­the­ protagonist­has­no­attachment­in­time.­Language­is­always­image,­Görling­ continues­with­regard­to­Marker,­insofar­as­there­is­no­meaning­attached­ to­words­without­memories­(Görling­2014,­99)—and­this­holds­true­for­ Gerbaulet’s­film­as­well.­But­Marker’s­film­insert­stages­awakening­and­ animation­(like­in­the­history­of­film,­where­“Bio-Skope”­is­translated­as­“living­ pictures”),­while­the­inserts­in­a­time­of­pandemic­show­images­of­sleep­and­ life-threats. The old media analogues between light and animation and life give­way­to­those­between­the­digital­code,­video­platforms,­and­the­pan- demic.­The­virus­has­no­life­of­its­own,­but­copies­its­code­into­living­beings­in­ order­to­reproduce,­so­that­the­host’s­cells­are­programmed­to­pass­on­a­code­ that­was­not­theirs.­In­order­to­reproduce,­this­being­does­not­need­two­sexes.­ 11­ Gerbaulet,­personal­communication,­June­30,­2020. 12 Chris Marker called La Jetée a remake of Hitchcock’s Vertigo;­and­he­had­been­an­assis- tant in Resnais’s Nuit et brouillard­(1955),­which­combined­archival­footage­of­Nazi­ concentration­camps­with­color­film...­all­of­which­opens­up­new­paths­of­transfers­(like­ one­picture­passing­on­“contagions”­along­a­line­of­transmissions).­Marker­stated­that­ he would have discovered the Cinéma vérité more or less unconsciously when strolling through­Paris­on­a­day­off­from­shooting­a­picture­about­the­colonial­war­in­Algeria­(a­ suppressed,­traumatic­memory)­and­intuitively­photographing­what­came­to­be­the­ story of La Jetée.­Lipton­2008;­see­also­Harbord­2009.­The­film­is­a­daydream­of­the­ filmmaker. 48 Pandemic Media The­first­century­of­homosexuality­in­the­movies­has­been­called­“a­century­ of sinema”­(Griffiths­2006,­1).­There­is­quite­a­history­of­interlocking­queer­love­ and­death,­or­of­“Lethal­Lesbians:­The­Cinematic­Inscription­of­Murderous­ Desire,”­as­B.­Ruby­Rich­put­it­(2013,­103).­A­bit­later,­in­most­cases,­the­New­ Queer­Cinema­of­the­1980s­and­1990s­was­also­HIV/AIDS­cinema.­And­more­ recently,­the­concept­of­trans­cinema­has­also­been­related­to­light­and­life.­ Reflecting­not­only­on­the­picturing­of­(maybe­queer)­bodies,­but­even­more­so­ on­the­film­modality­of­visualization,­Eliza­Steinbock­refers­to­the­animation­of­ images and the blackness in between as a connection of life and death: Our­attachment­to­the­(non)human­life­of­a­film—neither­dead­nor­alive,­ both­dead­and­alive,­confounding­all­either/or­–isms—ruptures­the­proper­ hierarchies­of­intimacy.­Film’s­shimmering­pulses,­flickering­from­dark­ to­image­to­dark,­death­to­life­to­death,­bring­us­to­the­affective­core­of­ ontological­enquiry.­If­film­operates­as­an­apparatus­for­the­animation­of­ the­body,­cinema­itself­seems­inversely­to­be­animated­by­the­morphing­ qualities­of­bodies.­For­trans­subjectivities,­film’s­challenge­to­bodily­ autonomy­and­affective­sovereignty­has­special­valence.­The­ability­to­ animate and become reanimated lies at the heart of transition narratives that­follow­a­trajectory­of­dying­and­being­reborn...­(2019,­15) Interestingly,­the­topic­of­“light”­changes­from­the­“shining,”­“reflecting,”­or­ “projecting”­characteristics­formerly­addressed­in­film­writing­to­“shimmering­ pulses.”­This­is­not­about­the­full­image,­a­bright­or­colorful­screen,­but­about­ the­effects­of­difference,­a­gentle­staccato,­reminiscent­of­the­rhythm­of­ fingers­tapping­a­code,­favoring­the­tactile­senses­of­finger­and­eye,­(con- tagious) proximity over (safer) distance. Queer and trans cinema share these figures­with­film­festivals­in­pandemic­times.­We,­the­audience­of­the­film­ festival,­might­not­be­in­the­cinematic­cave­together,­but­we­connect­through­ shimmers,­and­maybe­touchscreens.­This­does­not­make­cis­people­trans.­Not­ “everything­non-normative”­is­queer,­and­not­every­“transition”­equals­a­trans­ life.­But­who­knows,­if­your­vampire­is­not­waiting­around­the­corner.­Read:­ Black.­White.­Black­(fig.­1). Pass This On! 49 [Figure 1] Filmstill (Source: Alex Gerbaulet, untitled, 2020) References Bachmann, Alejandro, Sebastian Höglinger, and Peter Schernhuber. 2020. “Die Zukunft passiert nicht, sie müsste gedacht werden.” Critic.de, June 30. Accessed August 20, 2020. https://www. critic.de/special/die-zukunft-passiert-nicht-sie-muesste-gedacht-werden-4403/. Brunow, Dagmar, and Simon Dickel, eds. 2018. Queer Cinema. Mainz: Ventil. Freud, Sigmund. 2001 [1905]. “Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality.” In The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud: Vol. VII, 123–246. London: Vintage. Gass, Lars Henrik. 2020. “Da bin ich lieber allein im Kino.” Artechock.de, July 2. Accessed August 20, 2020. https://www.artechock.de/film/text/artikel/2020/07_02_virtuellefestival_debatte_ gass.html. Görling, Reinhold. 2014. “La Jetée (Marker).” In Szenen der Gewalt. Folter und Film von Rosselini bis Bigelow, edited by Reinhold Görling, 95–112. Bielefeld: transcript. Griffiths, Robin. 2006. British Queer Cinema. London: Routledge. Harbord, Janet. 2009. Chris Marker: La Jetée. London: After All. Krautkrämer, Florian. 2013. Schrift im Film. Münster: Lit. Lipton, Catherine. 2008. Chris Marker: Memories of the Future. London: Reaction Books. Nestroy, Jonas. 2020. “Architektur der Unsicherheit.” Critic.de, May 19. Accessed June 22, 2020. https://www.critic.de/special/architektur-der-unsicherheit-kurzfilmtage-oberhausen- 2020-4400/. Rapfogel, Jared. 2020. “The International Short Film Festival Oberhausen 2020 And the Shortcomings and Benefits of a Virtual Film Festival.” Cineaste Magazine 45 (4). Accessed August 20, 2020. https://cineaste.com/fall2020/oberhausen-international- short-film-festival-2020. Rich, B. Ruby. 2013. New Queer Cinema: The Director’s Cut. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Scheffer, Bernd, and Christine Stenzer, Peter Weibel, Soenke Zehle, eds. 2014. Schriftfilme. Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz. Schlüpmann, Heide. 2020. “Neue Geschäftigkeit?” Kinothek Asta Nielsen. Accessed August 20, 2020. http://www.kinothek-asta-nielsen.de/textheide/. Stadelmaier, Philipp. 2020. “Laptop statt Leinwand.” Süddeutsche Zeitung, May 17. Accessed August 20, 2020. https://www.sueddeutsche.de/kultur/kurzfilmtage-oberhausen- laptop-statt-leinwand-1.4910473. Steinbock, Eliza. 2019. Shimmering Images: Trans Cinema, Embodiment, and the Aesthetics of Change. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. FILM LIBRARY HOME VIDEO STREAMING VAULT GATEKEEPER PANDEMIC CONTENT [ 4 ] Opening the Vault: Streaming the Film Library in the Age of Pandemic Content Jaap Verheul “Opening the Vault” examines the renewed currency of the film library—or a catalog of existing con- tent—during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the production of new motion pictures came to a halt, and subscription-based streaming services such as Netflix, Disney+, and Mubi unleashed a copyright war to obtain the licensing of film titles which they sub- sequently reissued on their home video platforms. In the process, these non-theatrical distributors and exhibitors augmented the value of their vaults while solidifying their position as principal gatekeepers of the circulation of moving images. This chapter reorients the study of global screen cultures away from the production of new content or its exhibition in theatrical screening spaces and toward an under- standing of the film library as a significant site of our engagement with pandemic media. 52 Pandemic Media For inside him there are spirits, or at least little genii, which have seen to it that for a collector— and I mean a real collector, a collector as he ought to be—ownership is the most intimate relationship that one can have to objects. Not that they come alive in him; it is he who lives in them. Walter Benjamin (1968, 67)—“Unpacking My Library: A Talk about Book Collecting” The­film­library­shapes­the­lives­and­afterlives­of­motion­pictures,­and­has­ been­doing­so­since­the­genesis­of­moving­image­culture.­Between­1896­and­ 1923,­manufacturers­in­the­United­States,­Europe,­and­the­United­Kingdom­ designed more than twenty portable projectors for non-theatrical screening venues­such­as­homes,­schools,­social­clubs,­churches,­and­railway­stations. By­1906,­the­Ikonograph­emulated­the­quality­and­design­of­professional­ projectors­in­theatrical­exhibition­spaces,­and­its­New­York-based­man- ufacturer­began­to­buy­the­rights­to­films­from­producers­while­subsequently­ cutting­the­35mm­stock­in­half­(i.e.­17.5mm)­in­order­to­bring­down­the­costs.­ Indeed,­non-theatrical­exhibition­remained­a­privilege­for­the­happy­few­who­ could­afford­to­buy­the­projector­and­the­reels,­both­of­which­exceeded­the­ cost­of­admission­to­a­nickelodeon­show.­By­the­end­of­the­decade,­most­man- ufacturers had lost faith in the commercial viability of a commercial market for non-theatrical­film­screenings­(Singer­1988,­37–42). A­significant­shift­occurred­in­1912,­when­multiple­manufacturers­entered­the­ home cinema market while developing new projectors that were on par with the quality and single-reel-length of features shown in theaters. Four factors contributed to this revival. First,­the­base­for­home­cinema­consumption­ had been expanded by professionalization of commercial exhibition into a full-fledged­industry.­This­transition­coincided,­second,­with­a­predilection­ for vertical integration as two leading production companies entered the market­for­home­projection.­In­1912,­Pathé­developed­its­first­home­cinema­ projector,­Pathé­Kok,­which­ran­on­a­unique,­non-flammable­28mm­film­stock.­ At­the­same­time,­Edison­released­its­Home­Projecting­Kinetoscope­in­the­ United­States,­introducing­a­22mm­substandard­gauge­film­to­the­non-the- atrical screening market. A key asset of both systems was their innovative distribution­system,­which­made­it­easier­and­cheaper­to­circulate­films­ from­their­catalogs.­Edison,­for­example,­established­a­distribution-by-mail­ exchange­service­that­circulated­the­Kinetoscope­films­in­a­metal­container,­ which­the­consumer­could­return­by­mail­in­exchange­for­another­film­in­the­ same category (Singer­1988,­42–46). Third,­business­buyers­like­motion­picture­ exhibitors—then­referred­to­as­“exchanges”—began­to­cement­their­position­ Opening the Vault 53 as­gatekeepers,­entering­into­agreements­with­amateur­exhibitors­who­rented­ their­titles.­This­practice­was­facilitated,­fourth,­by­the­regulation­of­patents­ and­the­formation­of­a­national­distributor,­the­General­Film­Company­(GFC),­ which­introduced­a­pricing­system­based­on­a­film’s­release­date­and­flat­ rental­fees.­This­legislative­framework­necessitated­the­standardization­of­film­ distribution­and­exhibition,­which­in­turn­enhanced­the­value­of­film­negatives­ (Hoyt­2014,­23–24). It­is­at­this­point­that­the­film­library­began­to­consolidate­its­position­as­a­ gatekeeper­of­the­circulation­of­moving­images.­Eric­Hoyt­(2014,­11)­identifies­ four­developments­which­contributed­to­this­evolution­between­1903­and­ 1915:­the­introduction­of­copyright­laws,­a­star­system,­feature­films,­and­dis- tribution­and­exhibition­infrastructures.­By­1917,­the­profits­of­film­distributors­ surpassed­those­of­producers­while­pirated­prints­circulated­widely,­thereby­ undermining­the­value­of­film­collections.­Studios­and­manufacturers­such­as­ the­Triangle­Film­Corporation­accordingly­began­to­institutionalize­their­film­ libraries.­The­appeal­of­these­vaults­broadened­after­1923,­when­small-gauge­ film­collections­were­introduced­in­France­and­the­United­States.­The­French­ 9.5mm­small-gauge­system­called­“Pathé-Baby”­fared­well­in­Europe­and­ Latin­America­in­the­1920s,­aided­by­its­cheaper,­smaller­9.5mm­film­stock­on­ the­one­hand,­and­Pathé’s­extensive­film­library­on­the­other.­Charles­Pathé­ actively­pursued­the­inclusion­of­well-known­films­in­his­“filmathèques,”­which­ were­available­for­sale­or­on­a­rental­basis,­and­ranged­from­silent­shorts­to­ animated features such as Félix the Cat­(1925–36),­popular­comedies­with­movie­ stars­like­Max­Linder­and­Charlie­Chaplin,­and­European­classics­such­as­Fritz­ Lang’s Metropolis (1927)­(Schneider­2007). In­the­United­States,­meanwhile,­the­introduction­of­the­16mm­gauge­in­1923­ reduced the cost of previous formats while enhancing the portability of both the­reels­and­the­projector.­The­16mm­gauge­emanated­from­an­agreement­ between­three­pioneers­in­the­motion­picture­industry,­who­had­established­ their­reputation­as­the­manufacturers­of­cameras,­projectors,­and­film­stock:­ Bell­and­Howell,­Victor-Animatograph,­and­Eastman­Kodak.­This­consortium­ designed the new gauge as an American response to Pathé’s sway over the non-theatrical­screening­market,­tapping­into­the­international­distribution­ and rental system which Kodak had established for its photography outlets. By­the­1930s,­the­cartel­had­institutionalized­their­film­libraries:­Bell­and­ Howell’s­Filmo­Library­and­Kodak’s­Kodascope­Library,­supplemented­by­ Pathé’s­Pathéscope­Library­and­a­range­of­smaller­agencies,­created­a­network­ of­film­circulation­and­exchange­via­stand-alone­rental­agencies­and­distri- bution­in­department­stores,­drug­stores,­camera­shops,­and­mail-order­sys- tems. Their catalogs were comprised of entries produced by companies that had­gone­out­of­business,­or­new­features­that­had­already­gone­through­their­ first­release­window.­Meanwhile,­Hollywood­studios­such­as­Universal—which,­ 54 Pandemic Media unlike­the­vertically-integrated­majors,­did­not­own­a­significant­distribution­ network—firmly­embraced­these­small-gauge­film­collections­in­order­to­solid- ify­their­position­on­the­market­for­home­movie­entertainment.­As­a­result,­ by­the­1930s,­Haidee­Wasson­(2007,­21)­has­demonstrated,­“the­commercial­ film­library­was­the­imagined­and­material­stage­on­which­the­cinematic­world­ came­together­and­was­stored,­reorganized,­and­redistributed­along­specific­ logics­to­newly­atomized­film­audiences.”­ While it is tempting to understand these shifts exclusively in terms of innovations­in­technology­or­infrastructure,­Hoyt­reminds­us­that­the­film­ library­also­flourished­in­the­wake­of­the­emergence­and­growth­of­specific­ markets,­such­as­business­buyers­like­motion­picture­exhibitors­and,­later,­ television stations. It is not so much that these intermediaries tapped into a cinephile­sensitivity­for­older­films;­rather,­the­exploitation­of­the­film­library­ signified­a­conservative­business­strategy­that­enabled­these­distributors­and­ exhibitors­to­reissue­older­films­at­a­fraction­of­the­cost­of­a­new­film,­while­ these features were also predictable in their marketability because of their proven­star­power,­popularity,­and­artistic­merit.­In­other­words,­Hoyt­(2014,­ 6)­argues,­“What­constitutes­a­library­use­depends­on­the­subject’s­position­in­ the­marketplace.­A­studio­that­owns­a­library­considers­different­uses­than­an­ exhibitor­that­is­considering­buying­(or,­more­accurately,­renting)­films­from­a­ library.”­In­the­early­1930s,­for­example,­the­film­library­gained­in­value­as­stu- dios­began­to­produce­derivatives—such­as­remakes,­shorts,­and­cartoons— of­their­copyrighted­originals,­but­by­the­late­1940s­they­had­turned­to­their­ vaults­to­distribute­reissues­at­a­relatively­low­cost­but­high­profit­margin. It is at this moment that the vault emerges as a principal gatekeeper of moving image­culture,­enabling­manufacturers,­production­companies,­and­movie­ studios­to­augment­the­value­of­their­libraries.­In­the­1930s,­Warner­Bros.­ systematically­began­to­survey­its­existing­collection­of­silent­films­in­order­ to­identify­those­titles­with­limited­reissue­value,­and­to­extract­stock­footage­ from­those­films­which­it­could­monetize­in­the­future.­The­surplus­of­remain- ing silent footage was intentionally destroyed. Copyright anxiety was a key driver­for­doing­so,­as­Warner­annihilated­the­silent­films­it­completely­owned­ while­saving­the­films­from­independent­producers­to­which­it­was­no­longer­ entitled.­Copyright­in­the­age­of­film­(and­later,­video)­carefully­coordinated­ the­relationship­between­public­interest­and­private­property,­safeguarding­ the owner’s right to exploit the work while granting the public access to these commodities­(Hilderbrand­2009,­80).­The­standardization­of­sound­film­in­the­ 1930s­encouraged­Warner­in­its­pursuit­of­such­planned­obsolescence­(Hediger­ 2005,­138).­As­with­television­in­the­1950s,­VHS­in­the­1980s,­DVD­in­the­1990s,­ Blu-ray­in­the­2000s,­and­Video­on­Demand­in­the­2010s,­such­an­economy­ of­scarcity­allowed­content­producers,­as­Caetlin­Benson-Allott­(2013,­7)­ contends,­“to­increase­profits­by­multiplying­exhibition­platforms”­while­ Opening the Vault 55 animating them “to develop and cater to new media platforms even while ven- erating­older­technologies.”­Akin­to­the­first­decades­of­moving­image­culture,­ however,­film­studios,­movie­theaters,­and­streaming­platforms­remain­at­the­ service of the production of desirable new content in order to maintain if not augment the market value of their existing collections and staying competitive by doing so. Reminiscent of the block booking practices in the age of vertical integration,­digital­content­producers­still­acquire­most­of­their­revenue­from­ the sales of packages (mostly for television) and thus require fresh commod- ities­in­order­to­stimulate­those­sales­(Hoyt­2014,­12–13,­196). What,­then,­happens­to­content­when­it­is­stored­in­a­vault­in­the­midst­of­a­ pandemic? At a time when the production of new motion pictures has come to a­halt,­we­might­contend,­firstly,­that­a­film­library­increases­in­market­value­ and,­secondly,­that­this­added­value­cements­the­position­of­the­gatekeeper­ who circulates this archived content between producers and audiences. For content­producers­such­as­movie­studios,­the­film­library­has­historically­been­ comprised­of­a­catalog­of­films­that­have­already­gone­through­their­first­cycle­ of­distribution­and­exhibition,­usually­as­an­exclusive­release­in­theaters­or­on­ home­video,­video­on­demand,­pay­television,­or­syndicated­television—or,­ increasingly,­a­combination­of­two­or­more­of­these­release­windows.­For­the­ users­of­this­content,­meanwhile,­the­film­library­traditionally­operates­as­a­ personal archive which remodels the audience into a collector who is at liberty to­curate­their­own­catalog.­At­both­ends­of­this­“flow”­(Williams­2003,­77–120),­ home video­platforms­are­increasingly­adjusting­their­film­libraries­to­the­ operative­logic­of­the­vault,­transforming­streaming­services­into­gatekeepers­ who­regulate­the­relationship­between­producers,­texts,­and­users. The Corona crisis brought these shifts to the fore. For movie studios whose distribution­network­does­not­yet­include­a­home­video­platform,­such­as­ Warner­Bros.,­Universal,­or­Paramount,­the­pandemic­restores­their­control­ over the circulation of vaulted content to levels unseen since the heyday of vertical­integration.­On­the­other­hand,­for­home­delivery­platforms­such­as­ Netflix­or­Mubi,­who­do­not­have­much­of­a­vault­to­guard­or­who­have­only­ recently­started­to­produce­their­own­features,­it­becomes­imperative­to­ license existing content from these vaults in order to maintain the currency of­their­own,­subscription-based­catalogs—usually­a­curated­library­which,­ for­the­time­being,­cannot­be­amplified­by­the­production­of­new­content.­In­ this­media­landscape,­the­convergence­of­the­vault,­content­producer,­and­ platform­distributor­gains­currency.­The­launch­of­Disney+­in­November­2019­ attests­to­this­heightened­significance. The­COVID-19­pandemic­expedited­this­modus­operandi.­In­March­2020,­when­ the­production­of­new­film­and­television­content­was­halted­in­the­wake­of­ the­virus’s­global­spread,­film­studios,­video­platforms,­and­content­producers­ such­as­Netflix,­Amazon,­Apple,­and­Disney­faced­a­conundrum.­On­the­one­ 56 Pandemic Media hand,­they­sought­to­maintain­their­competitive­standing­by­postponing­the­ theatrical­release­of­new­features­to­a­post-viral­future,­as­was­the­case­with­ the­twenty-fifth­James­Bond­film,­No Time to Die­(Cary­Joji­Fukunaga,­2020).­On­ the­other­hand,­these­companies­became­the­key­providers­of­new­content­ by­releasing­some­of­their­new­films­exclusively­and­instantaneously­on­their­ streaming­platforms,­as­evinced­by­the­release­of­Spike­Lee’s­Da 5 Bloods (2020),­a­Netflix­original­which,­akin­to­Martin­Scorsese’s­The Irishman­(2019),­ was scheduled to have a limited run in theaters before being dropped on the video­platform­(Smits­2020). At­the­same­time,­however,­the­film­library­has­solidified­its­standing­in­this­ pandemic media landscape. With a business model that thrives on the stream- ing­of­archived­content­from­the­vault­(Crisp­2015,­62–67)­and,­as­we­have­seen,­ on­the­production­of­new,­exclusive­content­in­order­to­maintain­the­market­ value­of­that­archive,­companies­were­compelled­to­extract­the­collections­ from­their­vaults,­and­to­unleash­a­copyright­war­to­obtain­the­licensing­of­ existing­film­and­television­content­in­order­to­augment­competitive­standing­ of­their­libraries.­In­April­2020,­at­the­height­of­the­pandemic,­Netflix­accord- ingly­teamed-up­with­the­French­distributor­MK2­and­licensed­part­of­its­ catalog­for­the­French­market,­thereby­offering­its­subscribers­access­to­such­ classics­as­François­Truffaut’s­Les quatre cents coups­(1959)­and­Jacques­Demy’s­ Les parapluies de Cherbourg­(1964).­Disney,­meanwhile,­declared­that­its­vault­ had­now­been­“opened”­in­an­attempt­to­promote­its­new,­subscription-based­ video­platform­Disney+,­awarding­its­subscribers­with­access­to­a­deluge­of­ titles which had been buried in its archive for decades. Indeed,­it­was­Disney­who­first­understood­the­strategic­importance­of­the­ vault in an increasingly converged and conglomerated media landscape in which­content­would­migrate­across­technologies,­platforms,­formats,­circuits,­ and borders. Since the re-release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs­(1937)­in­ 1944,­Disney­began­to­store­its­films­in­a­vault—the­infamous­“Disney­Vault”— and­would,­for­a­moratorium­period,­not­make­them­available­again­in­either­ movie theaters or on home media delivery circuits—a practice it maintained during­the­heyday­of­VHS­in­the­1980s­and­DVD­in­the­2000s.­The­idea­was­ that this economy of scarcity would augment the market value of the Disney library while enabling the media behemoth to strictly regulate the circulation of its catalog on legal or illegal distribution circuits. The arrival of Disney+ in the­midst­of­a­pandemic,­in­other­words,­seemingly­retired­the­concept­of­the­ vault because it strengthened the competitive standing of the home video platform in the streaming wars while granting Disney even greater control over the distribution and exhibition of its collection. Some of its more contro- versial­animated­features,­however,­such­as­the­blatantly­racist­Songs From the South­(1946),­remain­buried­in­its­vault­indefinitely­in­the­hope­that­they­will­ eventually be forgotten. Opening the Vault 57 The­film­library,­then,­reorients­our­understanding­of­pandemic­media­away­ from the production studio or the movie theater and toward a conceptualiza- tion­of­the­vault­as­a­significant­site­of­our­engagement­with­pandemic­screen­ cultures.­Now­a­meticulously­guarded­if­no­longer­a­material­vault,­the­film­ library­has­become­a­gatekeeper­which­governs­the­lives­and­afterlives­of­film.­ In­this­closed­circuit,­the­public’s­access­to­the­vault—or­the­lack­thereof—is­ translated­into­economic­and­cultural­currency.­In­economic­terms,­subscrip- tion-based­video­platforms­such­as­Netflix­rely­on­the­shrewd­design­of­their­ interface in order to create an illusion of choice and textual abundance in what ultimately­remains­a­finite­catalog.­In­other­words,­as­Ramon­Lobato­(2019,­ 37)­elucidates,­the­home­video­platform­is­“closed,­library-like,­professional;­ a­portal­rather­than­a­platform;­a­walled­garden­rather­than­an­open­market- place.”­Such­a­business­model­thrives­in­pandemic­times,­when­the­scarcity­of­ content­is­simultaneously­programmed­and­inadvertent.­Indeed,­during­the­ COVID-19­lockdown,­Netflix­emerged­as­a­chief­beneficiary­of­the­pandemic,­ attracting­millions­of­new­subscribers­worldwide­as­an­unprecedented­15.8­ million­new­connections­were­added­to­its­existing­user-base.­Meanwhile,­the­ value­of­its­shares­skyrocketed­by­almost­40­percent,­revamping­the­streaming­ service­into­one­of­the­high­performing­tech-stocks­of­2020. If­the­vault­generates­profit,­it­also­governs­our­cultural­and­affective­engage- ment­with­pandemic­media.­This­is­in­itself­nothing­new.­If,­as­Walter­Benjamin­ (1968,­67)­already­noted,­libraries­shape­our­subjectivity,­the­streaming­of­the­ fim­library­in­pandemic­times­similarly­topples­our­liaison­with­film.­At­the­ level­of­nationhood,­geoblocking­protocols­ensure­that­digital­content­pro- viders­operate­mostly­as­“territorial­catalog­systems”­(Lobato­2019,­179).­In­ spite­of­the­pretense­that­video­platforms­such­as­Netflix­or­Amazon­provide­ instant­and­absolute­access­to­their­subscribers­in­all­four­hemispheres,­IP­ (internet­protocol)­addresses­nonetheless­restrict­the­infinity­of­the­vault­by­ geographical location and thus control which titles users may have access to. Netflix’s­“reliance­on­territorial­copyright­licensing,”­Lobato­(2019,­70)­elu- cidates,­“means­that­it­may­be­best­understood­as­a­series­of­national­media­ services­stitched­together­into­a­single­platform.” In­this­geoblocked­screen­world,­the­pandemic­vault­monitors our cinephilia. The­advent­of­the­digitized­library­in­the­twenty-first­century­facilitated­the­ gradual­erosion­of­the­personal,­domestic­archive­which­had­demarcated­the­ first­hundred­years­of­moving­image­culture.­As­Erkki­Huhtamo­(2013,­50–51)­ notes,­pre-cinematic­projection­and­optical­toys,­such­as­the­Thaumatrope­ (1824)­and­the­Phenakistoscope­(1833),­were­already­available­for­purchase­ in­the­early­nineteenth­century,­engendering­a­proto-cinephile­culture­that­ introduced­a­“persistence­of­vision”­which­would­come­to­define­a­century­of­ celluloid,­magnetic,­and­digital­cinephilia.­This­material­economy­of­cinephilia­ lingered­well­into­the­era­of­VHS­and­DVD,­when­home­video­formats­enabled­ 58 Pandemic Media the­film­library­to­realize­its­democratic potential (Greenberg­2010;­Klinger­ 2006),­and­“a­specific­topology­and­materiality­would­support­and­determine­ cinephile­practices”­(Hagener­2016,­184).­The­digital­vault,­in­contrast,­dema- terializes­our­affective­cinephilia­while­eroding­its­democratic­potential­in­the­ process.­As­evinced­by­the­COVID-19­lockdown,­it­is­the­pandemic­content­pro- vider­who­determines­what­we­are­able­to­watch,­when­we­are­able­to­do­so,­ and­at­what­cost.­Pandemic­cinephilia­thus­marks­a­modality­of­signal­traffic­ that­flows­through­interfaces,­algorithms,­protocols,­formats,­technologies,­ and infrastructures. Subscription-based video platforms such as MUBI or Net- flix­now­operate­as­gatekeepers­of­access­and­curators­of­taste,­circumventing­ the principles of excessive user-choice and consumer autonomy which these streaming­services­sell­to­their­user-base.­In­the­process,­the­home­video­ platform­consolidates­its­“binary­role­as­tastemaker­and­educator”­(Smits­and­ Nikdel­2019,­29). Indeed,­the­pandemic­film­library­has­begun­to­mold­the­university­in­its­own­ image. At a time when higher education is under pressure to evolve into a dislocated and disembodied protocol in which learning occurs online and at distance,­lecturers­and­students­are­at­the­mercy­of­the­operative­logic­of­the­ vault. While in-class screenings become ephemeral as social distancing can no­longer­be­maintained,­the­teaching­of­film­will­be­organized­in­terms­of­ what­will­be­available­for­streaming­online.­As­Lucas­Hilderbrand­(2009,­231)­ reminds­us,­however,­such­“convergence­usually­means­content­redundancy­ across­platforms,”­which­will­have­profound­implications­for­how­our­ped- agogy will engage with global screen cultures. What will remain in our curric- ula?­Hollywood­fare?­Cheap­content—the­“fillers”—that­has­been­licensed­to­ promote­the­release­of­Netflix­originals­or­Disney­classics?­A­much-needed­ activist­alternative­is­provided­by­Leshu­Torchin­(2020)­and­the­Centre­for­ Screen Cultures at the University of St Andrews. In the wake of the worldwide closures­of­cinemas,­festivals,­galleries,­and­collectives,­the­Centre­curates­an­ online collection of video resources that connects the audience-in-lockdown to­independent­films,­documentaries,­and­avant-garde­works­which­have­man- aged­to­escape­the­all-consuming­vortex­of­the­vault.­Perhaps,­then,­it­is­up­to­ the­media­scholar­to­preserve,­study,­deconstruct,­and shape our pandemic screen­cultures­of­the­twenty-first­century. References Benjamin,­Walter.­1968.­“Unpacking­My­Library:­A­Talk­about­Book­Collecting.”­In­Illuminations,­ edited­and­with­an­Introduction­by­Hannah­Arendt,­translated­by­Harry­Zohn,­59–67.­New­ York: Schocken Books. Benson-Allott,­Caetlin.­2013.­Killer Tapes and Shattered Screens: Video Spectatorship from VHS to File Sharing. Los Angeles and Berkeley: University of California Press. Crisp,­Virginia.­2015.­Film Distribution in the Digital Age: Pirates and Professionals. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Opening the Vault 59 Greenberg,­Joshua.­2010. From Betamax to Blockbuster: Video Stores and the Invention of Movies on Video.­Cambridge,­MA:­MIT­Press. Hagener,­Malte.­2016.­“Cinephilia­and­Film­Culture­in­the­Age­of­Digital­Networks.”­In­The State of Post-Cinema: Tracing the Moving Image in the Age of Digital Dissemination,­edited­by­Malte­ Hagener,­Vinzenz­Hediger,­and­Alena­Strohmaier,­181–94.­Basingstoke:­Palgrave­Macmillan. Hediger,­Vinzenz.­2005.­“The­Original­Is­Always­Lost:­Film­History,­Copyright­Industries,­and­ the­Problem­of­Reconstruction.”­In­Cinephilia: Movies, Love and Memory,­edited­by­Marijke­de­ Valck­and­Malte­Hagener,­135–50.­Amsterdam:­Amsterdam­University­Press. Hilderbrand,­Lucas.­2009.­Inherent Vice: Bootleg Histories of Videotape and Copyright.­Durham,­ NC: Duke University Press. Hoyt,­Eric.­2014.­Hollywood Vault: Film Libraries Before Home Video. Los Angeles: University of California Press. Huhtamo,­Erkki.­2013.­Illusions in Motion: Media Archeology of the Moving Panorama and Related Spectacles.­Cambridge,­MA:­MIT­Press. Klinger,­Barbara.­2006.­Beyond the Multiplex: Cinema, New Technologies, and the Home. Los Angeles: University of California Press. Lobato,­Ramon.­2019.­Netflix Nations: The Geography of Digital Distribution. New York: New York University Press. Schneider,­Alexandra.­2007.­“Time­Travel­with­Pathé­Baby:­The­Small-Gauge­Film­Collection­as­ Historical­Archive.”­Film History 19­(4):­353–60. Singer,­Ben.­1988.­“Early­Home­Cinema­and­the­Edison­Home­Projecting­Kinetoscope.” Film History 2­(1):­37–69.­ Smits,­Roderik.­2020.­“Coronavirus:­How­Hollywood­Studios­and­Online­Video­Platforms­Are­ Responding.”­Flow: A Critical Forum on Media and Culture,­Special­Issue­on­“Over*Flow:­ COVID-19­Conversations,”­April­21.­Accessed­June­14,­2020.­https://www.flowjournal.org/ 2020/04/Ccoronavirus-online-video-platforms-respond. Smits,­Roderik,­and­E.­W.­Nikdel.­2019.­“Beyond­Netflix­and­Amazon:­Mubi­and­the­Curation­of­ On-Demand­Film.”­Studies in European Cinema­16­(1):­22–37. Torchin,­Leshu.­2020.­“Streaming­Video­Resources­for­Times­of­Social­Distancing.”­Centre for Screen Cultures, University of St Andrews,­March­18.­Accessed­June­16,­2020.­https:// screenculture.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/2020/03/18/streaming-video-resources-for-times-of- social-distancing. Wasson,­Haidee.­2009.­“Electronic­Homes!­Automatic­Movies!­Efficient­Entertainment!:­16mm­ and­Cinema’s­Domestication­in­the­1920.”­Cinema Journal 48­(4):­1–21. Williams,­Raymond.­2003.­Television: Technology and Cultural Form. New York: Routledge Classics. PIVOTING INCENTIVES JOURNALISM STUDIES COMMUNICATION STUDIES RESEARCH DYNAMICS [ 5 ] Pivoting in Times of the Coronavirus Felix M. Simon Despite the disruption the coronavirus pandemic has caused in academia, research has not ground to a halt. On the contrary, the early months of the pandemic saw a real boost in productivity in many scientific fields, with many researchers starting to work on COVID-related projects. This essay addresses this “pivot to COVID” in the fields of journalism and communication studies. Interrogating potential reasons for this shift to coronavirus-related research, it identifies four concurrent push and pull factors that co-determine how research agendas are being set in these fields. It ends by outlining some of the potential implications of such a pivot for the quality and long- term direction of research in journalism and com- munication scholarship. “History­never­waits­for­us­to­get­ready”­writes­French­author­Laurent­Gaudé­ in­his­poem-cum-essay­“Our­Europe:­Banquet­of­Nations.” Of­course,­this­is­a­ truism—profoundly meaningful and banal at the same time. Most quotations 62 Pandemic Media lifted from texts of famous authors and intellectuals are. But thinking of the COVID-19­pandemic­it­is­hard­to­argue­that­Gaudé­does­not­have­a­point.­ This­time,­history­really­did­not­wait­for­us­to­get­ready.­In­just­a­few­short­ months,­a­virus­listening­to­the­charming­name­SARS-CoV-2­has­unleashed­ an international public health crisis and brought along economic and political upheaval unlike anything most of us have seen in our lifetimes. States around the world in quick succession introduced measures that most of us would have deemed draconian just half a year ago. Some of us still think that way even though a majority has—at times grudgingly—come to accept their necessity. When and how (let alone if) all of these will be rolled back probably exceeds­the­imagination­of­even­those­who­introduced­them­in­the­first­place.­ Ultimately,­to­claim­that­most­of­us­“got­ready”­in­time­for­what­awaited­us­ also­flies­in­the­face­of­entire­governments­and­societies­(with­some­notable­ exceptions)­simply­winging­their­response­to­the­situation.­Some­still­do­so,­ against better judgment. Just­as­the­coronavirus­has­disrupted­the­world­as­we­knew­it,­mercilessly­ laying­bare­its­fragility,­the­pandemic­has­also­wrought­havoc­on­the­academe.­ In­my­own­case,­it­not­only­forced­me­to­temporarily­leave­behind­the­current­ epicentre­of­my­academic­life,­it­has­also­profoundly­rattled­the­fields­I­work­ in. And while there are more aspects to this than I can cover within the scope of­this­essay,­one­of­them—what­I­have­come­to­call­the­“pivot­to­COVID”—is­ worth­briefly­reflecting­upon­at­this­critical­inflection­point.­Why?­Well,­for­ one­because­that­is­essentially­what­we­get­paid­for­as­academics.­Reflecting­ on­things­is­in­essence­the­core­of­our­job.­Second,­because­thinking­about­ this particular development can be food for thought when it comes to the dynamics­governing­our­research­and­fields­of­study­before—and­in­all­ likelihood beyond—the COVID era. Thoughts on Pivoting What­do­I­mean­by­“pivot­to­COVID”?­In­a­nutshell,­it­serves­to­describe­the­ ways­in­which­my­field—best­summarised­as­journalism­and­communication­ studies in the social science tradition—has adapted to the pandemic in terms of what it researches and the questions it asks. Following the outbreak and the­subsequent­lockdown­measures­in­countries­outside­of­China,­many­com- munication­scholars­have­tried­to­retrofit­their­research­agenda­to­COVID-19­ (Cornwall­2020).­I­would,­by­no­means,­exclude­myself­here.­But­why­is­that­so?­ Why­are­“we”­pivoting?1 And how should one judge this development? 1­ It­should­be­noted­that­by­“we,”­“our,”­or­“our­field”­I­broadly­refer­here­to­the­fields­ of journalism and communication studies in the social science tradition of which I am a­part,­with­an­emphasis­on­the­US,­the­UK,­and­the­wider­English-speaking­world­(as­ opposed­to­the­“relatives”­of­these­fields­in­other­countries,­for­instance­in­Germany,­ who­often­approach­these­subjects­from­a­humanities,­or­cultural­studies­perspective). Pivoting in Times of the Coronavirus 63 Let­us­start­with­the­personal,­individual­reasons.­Scholars­are­humans­too— with the same set of emotions as everyone else. Speaking from personal experience­and­that­of­friends­and­colleagues,­the­rush­to­start­working­on­ COVID-related­projects­can­at­least­partially­be­described­as­a­coping­strategy,­ an attempt to mentally process a deeply traumatic event through one’s work. While doctors save lives in hospitals and medical experts work on ways to get a­handle­on­the­pandemic,­including­finding­a­vaccine,­it­is­also­easy—and­this­ was the case especially in the early days of the pandemic—to feel useless and powerless­as­an­academic­who­is­not­involved­in­these­efforts.­While­I­am­not­ saying that such personal crises generally should be solved through (more) work,­for­some­it­is­an­effective­remedy.2­The­expression­“working­things­out”­ exists for a reason. A second personal motivation can be found in what might best be described as­an­activist­impetus.­Aware­of­the­cumulative­effects­of­the­pandemic,­ particularly­in­unstable,­unjust,­or­unequal­socio-economic­and­political­ structures­(arguably­these­attributes­often­intersect),­some­academics­found­ themselves compelled to think about the pandemic as part of larger social and political­crises­(Neff­2020),­some­of­them­pivoting­to­COVID-related­work­out­of­ a sense of urgency and emergency in order to call attention to the pandemic’s role as a catalyst for long-standing structural problems. Yet,­I­would­submit­that­the­current­rush­in­pivoting­to­Corona-related­ research,­especially­in­US­and­UK-centric­journalism­and­communications­ research,­is­mainly­the­result­of­several­concurrent­push­and­pull­factors­that­ largely­determine­how­we­operate­as­fields.­By­push­factors­I­refer­here­to­the­ internal­dynamics­of­our­fields:­the­norms­and­(in)formal­logics­we­have­some­ control­over­and­which­characterise­our­work.­Pull­factors,­on­the­other­hand,­ are­external­dynamics:­the­demands­and­interests­of­the­media,­policymakers,­ funders,­and­the­public­at­large,­which­we­cannot­control­but­which­to­a­ certain­extent­shape­our­work—for­good­and­for­ill­(Nielsen­2020).­So­what­are­ some of these? The­first­(push)­factor­is,­I­would­argue,­a­legitimate­claim­of­expertise.­Some­ of the conundrums and social phenomena thrown into sharp relief by the pandemic—e.g.­people’s­trust­in­the­media­(Nielsen­et­al.­2020),­how­infor- mation­flows­affect­behaviour,­false­information­(Brennen­et­al.­2020),­or­the­ affordances­of­virtual­environments—yield­themselves­quite­well­to­topics­ 2­ In­fact,­there­are­several­inherent­risks­and­problems­in­such­an­approach­which­should­ not­go­unacknowledged,­in­particular­the­risk­to­one’s­mental­health.­In­addition,­such­ behaviour is part and parcel of a system which incentivises but seldom rewards over- time­work­and­unequally­distributes­opportunities.­To­put­it­differently:­Not­everyone­ currently has the luxury to drop everything and get started on new projects. Rather than rushing­to­the­keyboards,­we­would­be­well-advised­to­take­this­moment­as­an­oppor- tunity to think about and change some of the structural problems academia undeniably has. 64 Pandemic Media and questions scholars from the humanities and social sciences interested in communication­have­been­studying­for­decades.­Hence,­it­is­only­natural­that­ we would take an interest in them and have something to say about them (and feel an urge to do so). Second,­and­following­from­the­first­point,­is­that­many­scholars­seem­to­see­ the­pandemic­as­an­opportunity­for­(post-hoc)­legitimisation,­a­chance­to­ prove one’s discipline’s value vis-à-vis other disciplines and areas of research. While we have studied many of the abovementioned phenomena in great depth,­this­has­not­always­translated­into­greater­(external)­recognition­of­ our­expertise­in­these­areas­(Nielsen­2020;­Lewis­2020).­One­only­needs­to­ consult a handful of the many essays and op-eds that are currently being published­around­COVID-19­on­some­of­the­topics­that­fall­within­our­area­of­ work­to­find­that­a­lot­of­them­seem­to­care­little­for­what­we­as­a­community­ of­scholars­know—and­if­they­care,­then­often­with­a­too­strong­emphasis­on­ some­topics­at­the­expense­of­others.­It­is­often­“sexier”­to­report­on­bots,­the­ so-called­“infodemic,”­or­propaganda­than­it­is,­for­instance,­to­think­about­the­ long-term­implications­of­trust,­the­communication­strategies­and­narratives­ woven­around­the­pandemic,­and­the­long-term­structural­damage­COVID-19­ is­inflicting­on­the­business­of­the­news­(to­name­just­a­few). A third factor is arguably a hybrid between push and pull. As Ruth Falkenberg contends,­modern­academia­is­suffused­with­an­epistemic­capitalist­logic­of­ neoliberal­valuation­schemes­(see­also­Hicks­et­al.­2015) where researchers are “drilled­to­become­rapid­response­experts”­and­forced­to­“follow­the­money­ while­sacrificing­long-term­epistemic­agendas­to­the­needs­of­short-term­ productivity”­(Fochler­2016;­Falkenberg­2020).­While­I­slightly­disagree­with­ Falkenberg’s­all­too­bleak­assessment­of­the­situation,­especially­regarding­the­ sacrifice­of­long-term­agendas,­she­makes­a­critical­point­that­has­become­vis- ible in the pace with which some scholars have turned on the spot to address the pandemic. A fourth—and closely linked to the third—pull factor is the demand from funders,­policymakers,­the­media,­and­the­public­for­answers­and­more­ information­on­phenomena­relating­to­the­pandemic.­Especially­in­the­first­ weeks­after­the­outbreak,­the­available­knowledge­about­its­character- istics­and­effects­was­as­thin­as­the­caramel­crust­on­a­crème­brûlée.­And­ where­there­is­demand,­there­will­always­be­people­who­will­try­to­meet­it.­It­ is not an exaggeration to say that demand for information has been over- whelming­(Fletcher­et­al.­2020),­not­least­evidenced­by­the­staggering­rise­in­ viewer and readership numbers witnessed by many outlets in the early days. Similarly,­many­researchers,­at­least­in­the­UK,­have­been­inundated­with­ money,­with­funding­announcements­for­COVID-19­related­research­flooding­ people’s­inboxes­in­the­days­and­weeks­following­the­first­lockdown.­Likewise,­ Pivoting in Times of the Coronavirus 65 researchers­working­on­areas­related­to­the­topic­have­been­in­high-demand,­ with some of them reaching superstar status within weeks. Ground Gives, Capstones Shift Of­course,­this­list­is­far­from­exhaustive,­but­all­this­begs­a­second­question:­ Is­all­this­pivoting­a­good­or­a­bad­thing?­The­answer,­I­suggest,­lies­in­the­past.­ In­a­way,­we­have­all­been­here­before.­The­last­major­disruption­to­the­fields­ of journalism and communication research in recent years has arguably been­the­Brexit­referendum,­followed­by­the­election­of­Donald­Trump­and­ the concomitant rise of right-wing populism in various parts of the world. In the­wake­of­these,­a­flurry­of­activity­ensued­and­scholars­of­all­backgrounds­ and research traditions rushed to the case. Everyone suddenly seemed to be working­on­so-called­“fake­news”­(Nielsen­and­Graves­2017),­the­dark­arts­of­ the­supposedly­all-powerful­political­data­analytics­industry­(Simon­2019),­or­ nefarious­bots­and­other­influence­campaigns­(Karpf­2019).­Grant­applications­ were­re-written,­new­grants­announced,­research­agendas­re-defined,­ expertise­from­other­contexts­applied­to­the­new­paradigm,­and­so­on.­In­a­ word:­The­fields­pivoted.­ The motivations of scholars at the time to jump on the bandwagon were eerily similar to what we see playing out in front of our eyes at this very moment. For some,­it­was­a­way­to­cope­with­events­that­more­than­a­handful­of­us­experi- enced­as­deeply­disturbing.­Some­were­well-meaning­and­wanted­to­help,­ or hoped to achieve change. For others it was the promise of funding and/or fame and the felt necessity to pursue these lines of research to survive in a hyper-competitive,­neo-liberalised­academic­market.­The­group­dynamics­and­ peer­pressure­were­there,­too:­everyone­else­seemed­to­be­doing­it.­And­some­ truly wanted to understand what was happening and create new knowledge in­the­process.­In­many­cases,­it­was­a­mix­of­all­these.­I­could­go­on,­but­again,­ the scope of this essay is limited. This­is­not­to­say­that­the­research­resulting­from­these­efforts—or­research­ resulting­from­similar­“pivots”­more­broadly—has­been­bad­or­low­in­quality­ across the board. Some of it has been excellent. A lot of it fell somewhere in between.­Unfortunately,­some­of­it­has­been­poor­and­lacking­nuance­(and­ one­could­probably­make­a­claim­that­this­is­often­what­gained­wider­traction),­ with­the­conceptual­work­focusing­on­a­supposed­“infodemic”—defined­by­ the WHO as an over-abundance of information that makes it hard for people to­find­trustworthy­sources­and­reliable­guidance—providing­a­pertinent­ example.­Research­addressing­this­“concept”­has­exploded­in­recent­months­ (Simon­and­Camargo­2020).­While­drawing­analogies­to­epidemiology­when­it­ comes­to­the­existence­and­spread­of­(mis)information­might­be­intuitive,­it­is­ also misleading and fundamentally misunderstands how information is being 66 Pandemic Media produced,­shared,­and­consumed­in­modern,­high-choice­media­environ- ments. Describing the complex communicative phenomena around the COVID-19­pandemic­as­an­“infodemic”­or­calling­for­the­establishment­of­a­new­ field­of­“infodemiology”­is­merely­giving­new­names­to­something­we­have­ other­names­for,­without­adding­additional­explanatory­power. Ultimately,­the­question­remains­if­the­current­pivot­to­Corona-related­ research­in­the­broad­fields­of­journalism,­media,­and­communication­is­ something to cherish or to curse. As with most things in life the answer prob- ably­lies­somewhere­in­the­middle.­These­fields­are­shaped­by­macro-trends­ which­cage­us­(Schroeder,­2018),­but­within­that­metaphorical­cage­we­have­a­ surprising­amount­of­flexibility­to­run­after­the­latest­fad.­To­put­it­differently,­ trends come and go but some underlying topics and questions remain broadly the same and will continue to matter in the future. As journalism scholar­Seth­Lewis­has­argued­elsewhere,­if­history­is­any­guide,­“no­matter­ how­disruptive­this­pandemic­proves­to­be,­there­will­be­many­enduring­ tensions­and­tendencies­that­matter­greatly”­(Lewis­2020).­From­this­point­of­ view,­the­rush­to­Corona-related­research­is­just­another­trend­that­will­rise,­ peak,­and­subside­(hopefully­like­the­virus)—at­least­in­the­grand­scheme­of­ things.­Undoubtedly,­it­will­create­academic­“losers”­and­“winners”­along­the­ way (most likely at greater speed than usual) and crowd out other topics and agendas­for­some­time,­before­interest­and­attention­will­inevitably­fade­and­ move on. With any luck and with science in general under more public scrutiny than­usual,­it­might­also­push­these­fields­towards­more­open­and­rigorous­ research­practices,­as­some­have­demanded­for­a­long­time.­But­at­least­for­ now,­the­rush­to­and­demand­for­Corona-related­research­is­here­to­stay,­with­ all­its­positive­and­negative­effects.­ “Capstones­shift,­nothing­resettles­right”­writes­Seamus­Heaney­in­“Anything­ Can­Happen”.­I’m­sympathetic­to­Heaney’s­sentiment­in­this­poem,­but­I­am­ not­quite­sure­if­I­agree­with­him.­Yes,­nothing­resettles­right,­right­away.­But­ eventually it will. References Brennen,­J.­Scott,­et­al.­2020.­“Types, Sources, and Claims of COVID-19 Misinformation.”­Reuters­ Institute­for­the­Study­of­Journalism,­April­7.­Accessed­July­20,­2020.­https://reutersinstitute. politics.ox.ac.uk/types-sources-and-claims-covid-19-misinformation. Cornwall,­Warren.­2020.­“Social­Scientists­Scramble­to­Study­Pandemic,­in­Real­Time.”­Science Magazine, AAAS,­April­8.­Accessed­July­20,­2020.­https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/04/ social-scientists-scramble-study-pandemic-real-time. Falkenberg,­Ruth.­2020.­“Being­Productive­in­Times­of­Crisis,­Making­the­Crisis­Productive?!” STS Blog,­April­1.­Accessed­July­20,­2020.­https://blog.sts.univie.ac.at/2020/04/01/being- productive-in-times-of-crisis-making-the-crisis-productive/. Fletcher,­Richard,­et­al.­2020.­“Information­Inequality­in­the­UK­Coronavirus­Communications­ Crisis.”­Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism,­July­23.­Accessed­20­Oct.­2020.­ Pivoting in Times of the Coronavirus 67 https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/information-inequality-uk-coronavirus- communications-crisis. Fochler,­Maximilian.­2016.­“Variants­of­Epistemic­Capitalism:­Knowledge­Production­and­the­ Accumulation­of­Worth­in­Commercial­Biotechnology­and­the­Academic­Life­Sciences.”­ Science, Technology, & Human Values­41­(5):­922–48.­doi:10.1177/0162243916652224. Hicks,­Diana,­et­al.­2015.­“Bibliometrics:­The­Leiden­Manifesto­for­Research­Metrics.”­Nature 520­ (7548):­429–31.­doi:10.1038/520429a. Karpf,­David.­2019.­“On­Digital­Disinformation­and­Democratic­Myths.”­MediaWell, Social Science Research Council,­December­10.­Accessed­July­20,­2020.­https://mediawell.ssrc.org/ expert-reflections/on-digital-disinformation-and-democratic-myths/.­ Lewis,­Seth­C.­2020.­“The­Objects­and­Objectives­of­Journalism­Research­During­the­Coronavirus­ Pandemic­and­Beyond.”­Digital Journalism­8­(5):­681–89.­doi:10.1080/21670811.2020.1773292. Neff,­Gina.­2020.­“To­Fight­this­Pandemic­We­Must­Use­Stories.”­Twitter,­April­30,­3:14­p.m.­ Accessed­July­21,­2020.­https://twitter.com/ginasue/status/1255847973797462016?s=20. Nielsen,­Rasmus­Kleis,­and­Lucas­Graves.­2017.­“News You Don’t Believe”: Audience Perspectives on Fake News.­Reuters­Institute­for­the­Study­of­Journalism,­October.­ Accessed­July­20,­2020.­https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/our-research/ news-you-dont-believe-audience-perspectives-fake-news. Nielsen,­Rasmus­Kleis,­et­al.­2020.­“Navigating­the­‘Infodemic’:­How­People­in­Six­Countries­ Access­and­Rate­News­and­Information­about­Coronavirus.”­Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism,­April­15.­Accessed­20­Jul.­2020.­https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/ infodemic-how-people-six-countries-access-and-rate-news-and-information-about- coronavirus. Nielsen,­Rasmus­Kleis.­2020.­“Communications­Research­Has­a­Lot­to­Offer­during­the­ Coronavirus­Crisis.­But­Are­We­Offering­It?”­rasmuskleisnielsen.net,­May­22.­Accessed­July­20,­ 2020.­https://rasmuskleisnielsen.net/2020/05/22/communications-research-has-a-lot-to- offer-during-the-coronavirus-crisis-but-are-we-offering-it/.­ Schroeder,­Ralph.­2018.­Social Theory After the Internet: Media, Technology, and Globalization. London: UCL Press. Simon,­Felix­M.­2019.­“‘We­Power­Democracy’:­Exploring­the­Promises­of­the­Political­Data­ Analytics­Industry.”­The Information Society­53­(3):­1–13.­doi:10.1080/01972243.2019.1582570. Simon,­Felix­M.,­and­Chico­Q.­Camargo.­2020.­“Are­We­Really­Living­in­an­Infodemic?­Criticising­a­ Buzzword.”­Working­Paper.­ DRIVE-IN NOSTALGIA MOVIES AUDIENCE [ 6 ] “If You Say You Watch the Movie, You’re a Couple o’ Liars”: In Search of the Missing Audience at the Drive-In Karin Fleck This short piece deals with the 2020 resurgence of the marginal dispositif of drive-in theaters by focusing on the (dis)placement of the audience, nostalgia, and its modes of movie and music experience, which anticipates that of pandemic media. Jenny was sweet. Show a smile for the people she needs. I’m trouble, let’s drive. I don’t know the way you came alive. Sniff ‘n’ the Tears On­May­12,­2020,­German­comedian­and­musician­Helge­Schneider­released­a­ short video message for his fans: In­the­near­future,­I­won’t­be­able­to­perform.­I­would­thus­like­to­clarify­ that­I­don’t­perform­in­front­of­cars,­I­don’t­perform­in­front­of­people­ who­have­to­sit­1.5m­apart­from­each­other­and­wear­a­face­mask­and­I­ also­don’t­perform­on­the­internet­via­streaming­programs.­To­be­honest,­ I also don’t want to familiarize myself with that because in streaming ser- vices,­a­crucial­part­of­my­work­is­missing,­which­is­you!­If­things­continue­ as­they­are,­that’s­it.­(2020) 70 Pandemic Media Helge­Schneider­misses­his­audience,­but­what­he­states­actually­refers­to­a­ live­audience­at­a­concert­venue,­neglecting­the­fact­that­within­a­month­his­ video­message­had­already­clocked­up­almost­800,000­views.­The­audience­ had shifted elsewhere a long time ago but Helge refused to follow.1 His nostalgia is clearly bound to a place shared with many concert venues and currently­endangered­due­to­the­pandemic,­but­also­to­a­state,­which­is­the­ collective­ecstasy­of­being­part­of­a­live-audience:­the­collective­singing,­clap- ping,­swaying,­dancing,­cheering,­and­sometimes­even­the­shabby­band­shirt­ that fans wear even many years after the concerts—a material souvenir of the experience. But a closer look reveals that his statement is about more than his music and concert­experiences.­It­is­about­audience­experience­and­spectatorship,­which­ also makes it relevant to think about another currently endangered institu- tional­form,­namely­the­cinema.­Since­there­is­no­material­proof­that­can­be­ taken­home­as­a­souvenir­from­the­cinema­(except­the­ticket),­it­is­the­memory­ of­the­collective­experience­that­persists:­the­laughter,­the­chat­afterwards,­ the­annoying­couple­sitting­next­to­you,­and­the­taste­of­the­popcorn­on­that­ day. What is thus missed in these pandemic times is not the movies as such but­a­certain­place­to­experience­them­in,­especially­new­theatrical­releases.­ The idea of consuming movies from home was embraced by streaming ser- vices­such­as­Netflix,­Prime,­and­Mubi­that­extended­their­range.­Movies­avail- able at the touch of a button are today’s more comfortable alternative with no greater risks involved. Cinema­releases,­however,­were­postponed.­Time­froze.­If­you­walked­past­ your­favorite­cinema,­the­film­ads­hanging­above­the­entrance­were­still­those­ from mid-March at the moment of their closure. So venues in which to experi- ence­music­and­movies­were­closed,­enabling­two­different­ways­of­respond- ing,­and­in­turn­conjuring­up­the­Schneider­conflict:­mourning­or­moving?­ The movies have moved since their early days at the end of the nineteenth century,­along­with­the­music­and­the­audience.­Compared­to­Schneider,­ movies­like­to­play­at­different­places­and­find­new­niches.­Lately,­they­even­ like to resurrect old places they formerly inhabited: because movies don’t mind­playing­in­front­of­cars!­The­sudden,­drastic­lockdown­of­the­cinema­and­ its spectators in its classical dispositif as analyzed by Jean-Louis Baudry and Jean-Louis­Comolli­at­the­end­of­the­1960s­has­given­rise­to­the­resurgence­of­a­ marginal dispositif during­the­COVID-19­pandemic­in­2020:­an­extremely­Ameri- can invention called the drive-in. Understanding its socio-cultural implications means­returning­to­the­prosperous­post-war­America­of­the­1950s. 1­ He­is­65­years­old­and­likes­to­experience­music­the­way­he­used­to­as­a­teenager:­via­ records and gigs. “If You Say You Watch the Movie, You’re a Couple o’ Liars” 71 The­first­drive-in­was­patented­in­1933­by­Richard­M.­Hollingshead­on­a­seven- acre­field­near­New­Jersey­as­an­outdoor­theater­with­automobiles­parked­on­ inclined­ramps.­However,­they­did­not­reach­their­economic­breakthrough­ until­they­peaked­in­the­late­1950s,­when­there­were­over­4,000­drive-ins­in­ the­US­alone­(Fox­and­Black­2011,­272).­The­reasons­for­this­cinematic­con- figuration’s­success­were­the­country’s­prosperity,­the­availability­of­vacant,­ accessible,­and­cheap­land,­and­the­rise­of­a­car­culture­that­established­ American’s­“emotional­relationship­with­their­cars”­(Segrave­1992,­vii).­Part­ of the baby boom and the concomitant suburbanization while also part of an­attempt­to­cushion­the­rapid­spread­of­TVs­in­households,­drive-ins­(or­ ozoners)­developed­as­“focal­points­of­local­communities”­and­as­a­“midpoint­ between­domestic­and­public­spheres”­(Goldsmith­1999,­158–59).­Combining­ a­family-friendly­environment­with­an­occasion­to­live­out­obsessive­car­love,2 drive-ins became the comparatively cheap and comfortable alternative3 to urban theaters and solved the truly American dilemma of “deciding which he likes­better,­the­movies­or­automobile­riding”­(Valentine­1994,­160).­Additional­ services­and­facilities­such­as­diaper­machines,­bottle­warmers,­playgrounds,­ petting­zoos,­swimming­pools,­and­flea­markets­clearly­situated­movies­as­ just one part of the overall experience: a cinema where the attraction is the distraction.4 Technological aspects (apart from seasonal and temporal con- straints) in drive-ins were always imperfect compared to their indoor rivals with­sound­delivery­systems­shifting­from­huge,­fixed­speakers­to­hanging­ intercom­speakers,­and­later­FM­radio­transmission­(Fox­2018,­32).­But­their­ technological­inefficiency­did­not­matter­because­the­movies­did­not­matter,­ a­phenomenon­that­became­even­clearer­in­the­1960s.­The­Beach­Boys’­1964­ song­“Drive-In”5 showed that they understood everything about it: “Forget about­the­plot­and­take­your­dates­to­the­drive­in.”­The­drive-in­as­a­site­for­ sexual adventures became the sassy supplement to the history of family 2 Proof of this love can also be found in the numerous pop songs around car culture by­artists­such­as­Woody­Guthrie,­Bob­Dylan,­Tracy­Chapman,­Janis­Joplin,­the­Eagles,­ Steppenwolf,­Rose­Royce,­Lana­del­Rey,­and­Iggy­Pop,­to­name­a­few.­This­trend,­just­like­ the­drive-in,­was­also­adopted­in­songs­by­European­bands­such­as­Roxette,­Sniff­’n’­the­ Tears,­Madness,­Golden­Earring,­the­Beatles,­and­the­Rolling­Stones.­ 3­ By­comfort,­I­am­referring­here­especially­to­the­informality­of­dress.­The­drive-in­was­ just one step to liberate family members from the pressure of dressing up when going out.­Instead,­families­could­enjoy­a­shared­activity­without­having­to­worry­about­ babysitters­or­dinner.­The­kids­could­be­taken­in­their­pajamas,­while­food­was­either­ guaranteed­through­the­offer­of­snack­bars­and­drive-in­restaurants­or­through­self- supply,­which­was­allowed­in­drive-ins­as­opposed­to­cinemas­downtown.­ 4­ The­term­“cinema­of­distraction”­was­coined­by­Ben­Goldsmith­in­his­1999­article­about­ Australian drive-ins. 5­ “Every­time­I­have­a­date­there’s­only­one­place­to­go,­that ’s­to­the­drive­in.­It ’s­such­a­ groovy­place­to­talk­and­maybe­watch­a­show,­down­at­the­drive­in.­Forget­about­the­ plot,­it ’ll­do­very­well,­but­make­sure­you­see­enough­so­you’re­prepared­to­tell,­about­ the­drive­in.­If­the­windows­get­fogged,­you’ll­have­to­take­a­breath,­down­at­the­drive­ in…If­you­say­you­watch­the­movie,­you’re­a­couple­o’­liars…” 72 Pandemic Media drive-ins,­including­fogged­windows­and­cars­parked­in­the­last­row,­known­as­ “Love­Lane,”­bouncing­up­and­down.­Cars­parked­on­“Love­Lane”­had­to­pay­ additional fees but considering the more prudish and restrictive educative methods­of­the­time,­most­adolescents­welcomed­drive-ins­as­the­only­place­ for­secret­getaways.­“Love­Lane”­indeed­lost­a­bit­of­its­popularity­when­the­ gear­stick­in­car­models­started­to­be­placed­between­the­two­front­seats,­ instead­of­next­to­the­steering­wheel.­In­this­design,­the­“separated”­seats­ were­more­reminiscent­of­those­in­downtown­cinemas,­where­the­last­row­ continues to be the favorite place for getting closer in touch with a date. Meanwhile,­the­first­drive-ins­were­culturally­exported­to­Europe.6­The­first­ one­opened­in­1960­and­still­operates­today­in­Gravenbruch,­near­Frankfurt.­A­ curiosity­and­another­product­of­American­Cultural­Imperialism,­this­element­ of­the­American­lifestyle­was­sold­as­described­by­film­scholar­Nils­Peiler:­ “There was an outdoor-cinema for individualists who wanted to watch a movie from their cars while eating Burgers at a time when US soldiers were still sta- tioned­and­‘Fast­Food’­was­a­foreign­word”­(Peiler­2016,­12).­The­drive-ins’­leap­ to­European­destinations­happened­at­the­end­of­the­1960s:­a­time­of­change­ in audience demographics and the beginning of Hollywood’s restructuring process,­targeting­a­younger­audience.­The­ultimate­result­of­this­early­New­ Hollywood is The Graduate­(Mike­Nichols,­1968),­which­promotes­a­successful­ date­between­the­two­protagonists­at­a­drive-in,­chatting­and­eating­burgers­ to­Simon­and­Garfunkel’s­“Big­Bright­Green­Pleasure­Machine”—a­wink­to­ happy,­consuming­Americans.­The­failed­version­of­this­date­follows­ten­years­ later in the musical comedy Grease­(Randal­Kleiser,­1978),­which­reveals­the­ worst-case scenario7­of­being­stuck­next­to­grabbing,­abusive,­and­infectious­ company in the enclave of the car. Here lies the fallacy of the presumed safety­in­cars,­luring­consumers­with­their­elaborate­designs­and­controllable­ gadgets­to­feel­safe­and­sound,­or,­as­in­Karin­Bijsterveld­et­al.’s­twisted­formu- lation­“sound­and­safe.”­ 6­ But­compared­to­their­wide­extent­in­the­US,­they­never­really­exceeded­the­status­of­ curiosities,­because­in­Europe­the­pragmatic­notion­of­cars­as­a­means­of­transportation­ prevailed. 7­ This­only­pertains­to­worst-case­scenario­for­dates­at­drive-ins.­The­real­worst-case­ happens­in­the­film­Targets­(Peter­Bogdanovich,­1968),­where­the­drive-in­becomes­the­ target for a killer’s rampage. “If You Say You Watch the Movie, You’re a Couple o’ Liars” 73 [Figure­1]­Trapped in the Car­(Screenshot:­Karin­Fleck­2020,­5) In­the­scene,­Danny’s­( John­Travolta)­advances­to­the­shy,­well-behaved­Sandy­ (Olivia­Newton­John)­are­constantly­rejected.­As­the­screenshot­above­(fig.­1)­ shows,­the­front­of­the­windshield­is­the­most­telling:­Not­only­does­its­frame,­ visually­separating­them,­anticipate­the­upcoming­conflict,­but­the­wind- shield­as­a­whole­even­replaces­the­screen­(or­is­the­screen),­and­reveals­what­ the­drive-in­experience­is­really­about,­meaning­what­happens­inside­rather­ than outside the car. The windshield could thus be described as a double- sided­screen.­It­is­a­projection­surface­for­the­disastrous­drive-in­date,­or,­put­ another­way,­a­movie­about­movie­experience­at­drive-ins,­whereas­from­the­ opposite­perspective­behind­the­wheel,­the­windshield­also­works­as­a­mirror,­ reflecting­the­drive-in­spectators’­distracted­attention.­To­a­great­extent,­the­ spectator’s drift towards other activities is also provoked by the radio trans- mission of movie sound and the car radio as a personally controllable audio device­enabling­what­Bijsterveld­et­al.­called­“acoustic­cocooning”­(2).­Auditory­ information­is­received­differently­through­the­radio­than­during­a­live-con- cert,­which­makes­listening­a­culturally­learned­but­also­hierarchized­process.­ Anahid­Kassabian­categorized­radio­music­as­“ubiquitous­music,”­which­is­“the­ kind­of­music­that­we­listen­to­as­part­of­our­environment”­and­which­could­ “invisibly­accompany­any­kind­of­activity”­(2013,­4).­But­the­sort­of­distraction­ activity­Danny­pursues­is­offensive­in­Sandy’s­eyes,­so­she­ends­the­scene­ outraged­by­leaving­a­devastated­Danny­alone­at­a­drive-in­movie,8 shouting desperately­after­her:­“Sandy,­you­can’t­just­walk­out­of­a­drive-in!” 8­ Which­is­also­the­title­of­an­instrumental­song­of­the­same­name,­featured­on­the­Grease record single of You’re the One that I Want. 74 Pandemic Media [Figure­2]­A­heartbroken­Danny­sings­the­soundtrack­to­the­silent­ads­at­the­drive-in.­(Screen- shot:­Karin­Fleck­2020,­6) The feeling of being alone at a drive-in is not only the dramatic consequence of­Danny’s­failed­date­but­a­sensation­that­is­symptomatic­for­drive-ins,­where­ spectators are sitting isolated in the self-enclosed space of the car: a private bubble­in­the­public­drive-in­area,­which­tends­to­feel­even­more­private­once­ the­space­is­filled­with­darkness­at­night.­Drive-ins­thus­bring­the­“outside­ experience”­of­cinemas­to­the­inside­of­one’s­own­four­wheels,­provoking­ closer contact between those inside the vehicle while keeping everything out- side­at­a­close­distance.­But­there­is­something­about­Travolta’s­filmography­in­ particular­that­predestines­him­as­the­iconic­figure­of­these­emptied­pandemic­ cinematic­spaces.­In­fact,­the­look­of­lonely­Travolta­at­the­drive-in­as­in­the­ screenshot­above­(fig.­2)­is­not­unfamiliar,­given­that­the­GRK­“Configurations­ of­Film”­chose­a­specific­configuration­of­the­“Confused­Travolta­GIF”­for­ their­website,­which­shows­him­in­the­more­than­ever­abandoned­space­of­ the cinema with empty rows of red seats. The GIF is a future outcome of the expert­of­nostalgic­resurrections,­Quentin­Tarantino­himself,­who­revived­ the­figure­of­dancing­Travolta­for­Pulp Fiction­in­1994.­The­scene­preceding­his­ famous dance at the Jack Rabbit Slim’s Twist Contest served as a basis for the GIF.­Commissioned­by­his­boss­to­take­out­his­wife,­the­contract­killer­Vincent­ Vega­( John­Travolta)­needs­to­pick­up­Mia­Wallace­(Uma­Thurman)­from­home,­ where she communicates with him via a semi-hidden intercom speaker. The confusion in the scene stems from his irritation as to the source of her acous- matic­voice,­while­Mia­Wallace­is­in­control­of­Vega­and­the­operation­of­the­ speaker. “If You Say You Watch the Movie, You’re a Couple o’ Liars” 75 [Figure­3]­Confused­Travolta­at­the­Cinema­(Website­Configurations­of­Film­2018,­5) What­confused­Travolta­is­looking­for­in­this­reconfigured­version­of­the­ GIF­from­the­Website­Configurations­of­Film­(fig.­3)­is­the­missing­audience. Part of that missing audience is currently sitting in one of the many hundred drive-ins9­in­Germany,­a­well-visited­extra­setup­for­movie­entertainment­ during the pandemic. Even my small hometown Zweibrücken in southwest Germany set up a drive-in at the former airport site10—a military relict from Canadians,­North­Americans.­The­2020­drive-in­scenario­intertwines­two­kinds­ of­audiences,­namely­the­absent­audience­of­the­pandemic­and­the­sustained­ restructuring­of­the­audience­effected­by­the­drive-in.­The­former­is­recon- figured­by­dispersion,­whereas­the­latter­is­distracted­by­the­re-configuration­ of the apparatus. In­the­trailer­for­the­2019­documentary­At the Drive-in,­a­female­narrator­ explains the current fascination of younger generations for this format with nostalgia in the sense of an ache: an ache to return to that unknown place of the­drive-in.­But­I­don’t­think­this­is­a­quest­for­a­lost­space.­In­fact,­I­think­we­ have been here before many times in the movies. This is about something different:­the­fatal­pattern­to­repeat­and­the­visual­drive,­driving­us­in­hope­ for­moving­experiences­in­times­when­we­are­told­not­to­touch,­nor­to­get­too­ close­but­keep­a­social­distance.­The­automobile­as­an­obstacle,­separating­ 9­ Another­resurrection­of­Tarantino­in­his­latest­movie­Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood. In this­love­letter­to­the­cinema­as­a­place,­the­stuntman­Cliff­Booth­lives­in­a­trailer­behind­ The­Van­Nuy’s­Drive-In­Theater,­which­first­opened­in­1948.­According­to­the­L.A. Times,­ the­theater­was­demolished­because­of­financial­problems­in­1998.­The­drive-in­scenes­ were­filmed­at­the­Paramount­Drive-In­Theaters.­­ 10­ Something­Zweibrücken­did­not­come­up­with­is­the­idea­of­Ed­Brown,­who­opened­the­ first­and­only­“Fly-in/Drive-In­Theater”­to­cars­and­planes­in­Wall­Township,­New­Jersey­ in­1948.­He­operated­an­airport­at­the­very­same­property­and­would­allow­up­to­25­ planes to park at the back of the theater grounds. 76 Pandemic Media rather­than­connecting­people,­has­already­been­thematized­by­Jean­Baudril- lard in The System of Objects. It is this proximity to his audience and between audience members that Helge Schneider misses and that is lost through the drive-in­movie­experience,­regardless­of­the­content­being­shown,­which­ ranges from concert broadcastings to Hollywood blockbusters. In other words,­drive-ins­miss­out­on­something,­which­lies­at­the­heart­of­the­movie­ experience­at­cinemas­beyond­displacement­through­streaming­devices,­the­ pandemic movie suppliers. The drive-in experience thus needs to be located between­that­of­classical­cinemas­and­that­of­streaming­devices,­while­incor- porating­aspects­of­both.­It­is­cinema,­but­one­that­maintains­enough­safety­ distance between the screen and the audience (and its members) to make it­an­approved­leisure­entertainment­during­the­pandemic,­while­allowing­ all sorts of side activities during the screening as granted through streamed movie consumption. Comparable to big stage performances of music stars that­are­surrounded­by­security­for­safety­reasons,­drive-ins­assume­the­role­ of protected and protective starlets among cinemas during the pandemic. Their­history­is­one­of­secluding,­distracted­movie­entertainment­in­line­with­ current social distancing advises: a pandemic media space that was active even­before­the­pandemic.­Therefore,­drive-ins­not­only­celebrated­a­come- back­during­the­pandemic,­but­most­of­all­they­reflect­consumer­preferences­ of­the­domestic­movie­experience­in­the­twenty-first­century­through­the­ windshield­of­the­car,­which­is­both­a­screen­for­an­outward­projection­and­a­ mirror­of­distracted,­displaced,­and­dispersed­spectators.­ Movies­will­continue­to­move,­but­Baudrillard­also­notes­that­“a­whole­ civilization­can­come­to­a­halt­in­the­same­way­as­the­automobile”­(2020,­137).­ Some­driving­schools­in­Germany­are­called­“Walk­in-Drive­Out,”­which­is­also­ a­catchy­ad­slogan­at­the­same­time.­In­conclusion­and­in­contrast,­however,­I­ suggest: If the place of the drive-in turns out to be a disappointing distraction from­the­movie,­you­can­always­just­walk­out­of­a­drive-in,­as­Sandy­did­in­ Grease. References Baudrillard,­Jean.­2020.­The System of Objects. London: Verso Books. Bijsterveld,­Karin,­Eefje­Cleophas,­and­Stefan­Krebs.­2013.­Sound and Safe: A History of Listening Behind the Wheel. New York: Oxford University Press. Fox,­Mark­A.,­and­Grant­Black.­2011.­“The­Rise­and­Decline­of­Drive-In­Cinemas­in­the­ United­States.”­In­Handbook on the Economics of Leisure,­edited­by­Sam­Cameron,­271–98.­ Cheltenham: Edward Elgar. Fox,­Mark­A.­2018.­“Drive-In­Theatres:­Technology­and­Cultural­Change.”­Economics, Management, and Financial Markets­13­(2):­24–39.­ Goldsmith,­Ben.­1999.­“The­Comfort­Lies­in­all­the­Things­You­Can­Do.”­Journal of Popular Culture 33­(1):­153–64. Kassabian,­Anahid.­2013­Ubiquitous Listening: Affect,­Attention,­and Distributed Subjectivity. Berkeley: University of California Press. “If You Say You Watch the Movie, You’re a Couple o’ Liars” 77 Peiler,­Nils­Daniel.­2016.­“Von­Bullis­und­Burgern:­Besuch­in­Europas­ältestem­Autokino.“­ Filmdienst.­Accessed­October­8,­2020.­https://www.filmdienst.de/artikel/fd213781/ kino-an-ungewohnlichen-orten-1-von-bullis-und-burgern.­ Segrave,­Kerry.­1992.­Drive-In Theaters: A History of their Inception in 1933.­Jefferson,­NC:­ McFarland and Co. Valentine,­Maggie.­1994.­The Show Starts on the Sidewalk: An Architectural History of the Movie Theatre.­New­Haven,­CT:­Yale­University­Press.­ S P A C E / S C A L E AERIAL VIEWS DRONES ECOLOGICAL THOUGHT ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS [ 7 ] Of Drones and the Environmental Crisis in the Year of 2020 Teresa Castro As coronavirus lockdowns left the world’s cities deserted, drone footage of empty towns made its appearance on video-sharing platforms. Across the globe, observers insisted on the melancholic feelings that such “post-apocalyptic” images aroused. This essay proposes to read these images against the back- ground of our current ecological crisis, highlighting their connections to drone footage of anti-racist pro- tests and to footage of wild animals taking over lock- down cities around the world. Attention will be drawn to their problematic aestheticization of politics, in particular when it comes to ecological thinking. As­I­write­this­text,­in­June­2020,­George­Floyd’s­body­has­just­been­put­to­rest.­ Across­the­globe,­people­have­taken­to­the­streets,­protesting­against­racial­ discrimination and toppling statues of slave traders and colonialist rulers. In­mid-March,­when­the­world­was­progressively­brought­to­a­standstill­by­ a­bewildering­pandemic,­it­was­hard­to­imagine­that­the­year­2020­would­ be remembered for anything else than Covid-19,­a­cunning­virus­strain­that­ spilled over from bats to humans and is still taking lives. But our current and 82 Pandemic Media elusive enemy has brutally exposed a world fraught with economic and racial inequalities. What do anti-racist protests have to do with coronavirus drone footage? I­bring­them­up­for­two­reasons.­First,­because­this­text­is­an­immediate­ reaction­to­the­political­questions­raised­by­such­footage,­and­as­such,­a­ response deeply embedded in the present moment. We’ve had little time to­refl­ect­on­the­massive­amount­of­images­inspired­by­the­outbreak.­If­the­ history of aerial imagery can help us to better grasp some of the issues at stake,­some­of­these­problems­strike­me­as­intimately­related­to­the­nature­ of­our­times.­In­this­sense,­the­powerful­George­Floyd­protests­that­we­are­ witnessing are part of the equation: they’re all the more relevant as enormous crowds­fi­lled­the­streets,­shortly­after­virus­lockdowns­across­all­continents­ left­them­deserted.­Against­the­rising­specter­of­surveillance­societies,­drone­ fl­yovers­of­such­massive­demonstrations—and­this­is­my­second­point—have­ become inseparable from aerial views of cities transformed into ghost towns. The­uncanniness­of­Los­Angeles’s­eerily­quiet­streets,­shot­on­March­20th,­ appears even more staggering when compared to the extraordinary images of­Hollywood­Boulevard­swarming­with­protesters­on­June­8th­(fi­g.­1).1 My dis- cussion of coronavirus drone footage will keep these images in mind—as it will summon­very­diff­erent­pictures­made­during­the­pandemic,­such­as­footage­ of wild animals taking over lockdown cities around the world. By juxtaposing these­apparently­disparate­elements,­I­wish­to­highlight­their­underground­ connection.­On­the­one­hand,­they­all­evoke­the­policing­and­monitoring­of­ human­and­non-human­bodies,­as­well­as­the­belief­that­some­lives­are­more­ valuable­than­others.­On­the­other­hand,­they­refer­to­a­problematic­“aes- theticization­of­politics,”­in­particular­when­it­comes­to­ecological­thinking. [Figure­1­a–b]­Los­Angeles­on­March­20th and Los Angeles on June 8th, 2020. 1­ See­https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O51LOuQzROI,­posted­by­The Washington Post on­YouTube­on­March­20th,­as­well­as­Ron­Kurokawa’s­viral­drone­footage,­documenting­ a­march­organized­by­Black­Lives­Matter­BLD,­PWR­and­local­LA­rapper­YG :­https://www. instagram.com/p/CBKLOkAhGEV/,­posted­on­Instagram­on­June­8th.­All­accessed­June­11,­ 2020.­­ Of Drones and the Environmental Crisis in the Year of 2020 83 Coronavirus Drone Footage “Uncanniness”­is­a­good­starting­point.­As­drone­footage­of­unusually­des- olate­cities­popped­up­on­video-sharing­platforms,­the­words­“awe-inspiring”­ and­“post-apocalyptic”­came­up­almost­immediately.­In­early­February,­an­ evocative­assemblage­of­drone­sequences­captured­in­the­city­of­Wuhan,­then­ under­strict­lockdown,­was­widely­relayed.2­Some­qualified­it­as­“haunting,”­ mentioning­“scenes­reminiscent­of­a­post-apocalyptic­movie”­(O’Brian­2020);­ others­evoked­a­“spectral­situation”­(Anonymous­2020).­As­the­pandemic­ spread­to­more­than­200­countries­and­aerial­footage­of­other­cities­under­ lockdown­was­broadly­circulated,­observers­insisted­on­the­“eerie­beauty”­ of­such­once­familiar­and­now­“ghostly­towns,”­as­well­as­on­the­melancholic­ feelings they aroused. As vehicles that have access to humanly impossible movements and points of view,­drones­are­uncanny­by­nature.­So­are­the­images­they­produce:­Harun­ Farocki’s­expression,­“subjective­phantom­images,”­evokes­such­uncanniness­ well­(Farocki­2004).­Police­surveillance­drones­generated­much­of­this­footage,­ destined­first­and­foremost­for­humans­and­machines­to­monitor­and­there- fore inseparable from disciplinary power structures.3 Despite this (whether shot­by­the­police,­civilians­or­major­news­organizations,­coronavirus­drone­ footage­is­strongly­embedded­in­the­surveillance­society),­such­pictures­ cannot­be­described­as­fully­“operative,”­that­is,­as­images­made­by­machines­ for­machines,­“neither­to­entertain­nor­to­inform”­(Farocki­2004,­17).­While­ illustrating­an­iteration­of­logistical­images,­coronavirus­drone­footage­doesn’t­ totally­exclude­the­human­eye.­Its­horizon­might­be­full­automation,­but­ human­intermediaries­are­still­present.­Moreover,­as­they­enter­the­maelstrom­ of­visual­culture,­such­images­escape­their­purely­instrumental­destiny­and­ become­aesthetic­objects­offered­to­the­contemplation­of­their­anxious,­con- fined­spectators.­Drone­footage­of­cities­under­lockdown­evokes­the­longer­ history­of­urban­cinematic­views­(Castro­2017).­The­feeling­of­flight,­as­well­ as­the­extraordinary­mobility­of­their­point­of­view,­was­(and­is)­as­important­ 2­ The­New­York­Times.­2020.­“Drone­Footage­shows­Wuhan­under­lockdown.”­The New York Times,­February­4.­Accessed­June­11,­2020.­https://www.nytimes.com/video/world/ asia/100000006960506/wuhan-coronavirus-drone.html. The footage was shot by a Chinese photojournalist and edited by The New York Times. 3­ See,­for­instance,­https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpe-ARGSi-w (drone and time- lapse­footage­of­Paris­before­and­under­lockdown,­put­together­by­the­French­police­ and­posted­online­on­March­28th­2020,­accessed­June­11­2020)­and­https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=ND1EIf7s2d4 (drone footage from the Barcelona lockdown shot by the Catalonian­“Mossos­de­esquadra,”­posted­online­of­April­20,­2020,­accessed­June­11,­ 2020).­I­will­not­address­other­features­of­these­so-called­“pandemic­drones”­in­this­ essay,­which,­beyond­monitoring­social­distance­and­quarantined­individuals,­claim­to­ remotely­pick­up­the­heart­rate­and­temperature­of­people,­or­to­know­if­they’re­wearing­ a­mask.­Note­also­that­talking­drones­equipped­with­speakers­were­used­in­different­ countries­during­lockdown,­from­China­to­Portugal.­­­­­­ 84 Pandemic Media as the enjoyment experienced in observing the city from an unusual point of view. The pleasure inherent to coronavirus drone footage equally lies in this oscillation­between­visual­and­kinaesthetic­perception,­referring­to­cultural­ practices of looking that go beyond the military expediency of drones.4 Like­some­of­these­earlier­views,­coronavirus­drone­footage­has­a­strong­ affective­dimension.­Even­sequences­documenting­deserted­tourist­hot- spots,­inviting­their­viewers­to­experience­entertaining­virtual­tours­from­the­ safety­of­their­homes,­seem­shrouded­in­an­elegiac­veil,­often­reinforced­by­ atmospheric soundtracks.5 A clip entitled The Silence of Rome is absolutely exemplary.6­While­the­video’s­aesthetics­perfectly­illustrates­the­corporate,­ promotional­look­in­which­its­maker­specializes,­the­ambient­soundtrack­ encourages contemplation.7­In­one­of­the­first­pieces­on­coronavirus­drone­ footage,­Patricia­Zimmerman­and­Caren­Kaplan­have­pointed­out­the­ melancholic,­almost­mournful­nostalgia,­of­such­aerial­images­(Kaplan­and­ Zimmermann­2020). Despite­their­innocuous­appearance,­such­reactions­are­ deeply­political.­As­Zimmerman­observes,­“the­affective­response­…­seems­like­ a form of romanticism available only to the privileged with time to meditate on emptiness­and­revel­in­it”­(Kaplan­and­Zimmerman­2020).­Indeed,­coronavirus­ drone­footage­illustrates­in­many­ways­a­worrying­aestheticization­of­politics,­ and not only because it primarily speaks to the world’s privileged. 4­ In­addition­to­this,­it­should­be­pointed­out­that­despite­its­military­origins,­drone­ technology is sometimes used in order to undermine the same power regime that produced­them.­See,­for­instance,­the­way­in­which­the­No­Dakota­Access­Pipeline­ movement used drones in order to monitor police activities. See https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=uXWw0y44xaM­(posted­on­YouTube­December­2,­2016).­­­­­ 5­ See,­among­countless­examples,­drone­footage­of­quarantined­San­Francisco,­https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQky8qARcwc­(posted­on­YouTube­April­2,­2020),­Chicago­ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8Ia03Ve1fc­(posted­on­You­Tube­April­11th­2020),­ Florence­https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTJvE7BIZTo­­(posted­on­YouTube­March­28,­ 2020)­or­Lisbon­https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSsarnHMXbA­(posted­on­You­Tube­ April­3,­­2020).­All­accessed­June­11,­2020.­The­platform­Airvūz,­“the­premiere­online­video­ sharing­community­for­the­emerging­Drone­Age,”­compiles­a­large­number­of­drone­lock- down­footage­shot­all-over­the­world­(see­https://www.airvuz.com/).­Drone­DJ,­a­website­ specialized­in­the­drone­industry,­also­made­compilations­of­coronavirus­drone­footage.­ See­https://dronedj.com/2020/04/01/ultimate-coronavirus-drone-footage-roundup-usa- china-italy-spain-and-more/­(posted­on­April­1st­2020,­accessed­June­11,­2020).­­­ 6­ The­video­was­shot­by­shot­by­a­certain­Luigi­Palumbo,­a­professional­drone­operator.­ See­Il­Silenzio­di­Roma,­posted­by­Invidiosrl,­April­7,­2020.­Accessed­June­11,­2020.­https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFGZKUxJwkM. 7­ Some­of­the­viewers’­responses,­left­on­the­comments­section,­are­worth­quoting:­ “beautiful­and­sad”­or­“wonderful­and­truly­moving­video­clip,­poetically­beautiful­Rome,­ wounded­in­the­heart­by­the­sirens­in­their­sad­silence,­in­order­to­rescue­lives­from­the­ virus”­(“Stupendo­video­clip­davvero­commovente,­Roma­poeticamente­meravigliosa,­ ferita­al­cuore­dalle­sirene­nel­suo­triste­silenzio,­per­strappare­vite­al­virus”).­On­the­ author’s­Instagram­account,­an­aerial­photograph­of­Victor­Emmanuel­II­Monument­is­ accompanied­by­the­comment­mala­tempora­currunt­(“bad­times­are­upon­us”).­See­ https://www.instagram.com/p/CBIMIZQh8TU/,­posted­June­8,­2020.­Accessed­June­11,­ 2020. Of Drones and the Environmental Crisis in the Year of 2020 85 Drones and the Aestheticization of Ecological Politics The­expression­“aestheticization­of­politics”­was­first­used­by­Walter­Benjamin­ in­order­to­address­fascism’s­“glorification­of­war”­(Benjamin­2008,­41).­Sieg- fried­Kracauer’s­discussion­of­the­mass­ornament­(and­aerial­views),­illustrates­ well what the aestheticization of political life meant during those gloomy inter- war­years­(Kracauer­1995;­Castro­2013).­I­will­use­this­idea­in­a­different­way.­ It­seems­to­me­that­the­pleasurable­and­affective­dimensions­of­coronavirus­ drone­footage—their­inherently­aesthetic­features—induce,­in­the­public­ sphere,­a­worrying­victory­of­spectacle­over­criticism.­This­is­particularly­ evident when it comes to ecological thought—an aspect otherwise dis- regarded by discussions on the automation of vision. As a human-made crisis (not­because­the­virus­was­fabricated­in­a­lab,­but­because­its­spill-over­was­ driven­by­human­activities),­the­current­pandemic­links­explicitly­to­ecology­ and­to­our­troubled­relationship­with­the­“natural”­world.­As­governments­ imposed­more­or­less­strict­social­distancing­regulations,­commentators­were­ quick­to­suggest­that­this­was­the­first­major­crisis­of­the­Anthropocene­(Tooze­ 2020).­Discussions­on­the­positive­and­negative­environmental­outcomes­of­ the outbreak thrived: the most optimistic anticipated a new era of ecological consciousness.­As­satellite­images­revealed­significant­drops­in­air­pollution­ across­the­planet,­drone­footage­of­emptied­cities­came­to­embody,­for­some,­ what­the­world­would­look­like­without­humans—or,­at­least,­with­consid- erably fewer humans. Images (many of them fake) of wild animals returning to human-deserted­metropolises­were­widely­shared­(fig.­2).8 In the UK and some parts­of­Europe,­false­Extinction­Rebellion­(XR)­stickers­proclaimed:­“Corona­ is­the­cure,­humans­are­the­disease”­(fig.­3).­XR­quickly­dismissed­them:­they­ were­the­creation­of­far-right­activists,­who­not­only­wished­to­discredit­the­ group,­but­to­promote­“eco-fascism”­(Manavis­2020).­­ 8­ See,­among­others,­“Coronavirus­Outbreak:­Animals­Take­to­Streets­among­Lockdown,”­ posted by India Today­on­YouTube,­April­10,­2020.­Accessed­June­11,­2020.­https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=_DSLP95CR2k;­and­“6­Things­that­prove­that­the­Earth­is­Healing,”­ posted­on­YouTube­by­Curly­Tales,­March­23,­2020.­Accessed­June­11,­2020.­https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=R3M908TJG9M. 86 Pandemic Media [Figure­2]­Two­ducks­in­front­of­the­restaurant­Tour­d’Argent,­Paris.­Photograph­posted­on­ Twitter­by­@sisyphe007­on­March­31,­2020.­­ [Figure­3]­False­Extinction­Rebellion­sticker:­“Corona­is­the­cure,­humans­are­the­disease.”­ In­what­feels­like­a­long­time­ago,­in­the­far-away­galaxy­of­our­pre-pandemic­ world,­self-proclaimed­eco-fascists­murdered­a­significant­number­of­people­ in­El­Paso­and­Christchurch­(Darby­2019).­Eco-fascism­certainly­precedes­the­ outbreak­(Gardiner­2020).­But­as­drone­footage­of­emptied­cities­suggested­ Of Drones and the Environmental Crisis in the Year of 2020 87 that the world had turned into a nuclear-disaster exclusion zone where “nature”­was­regaining­its­rights,­eco-fascists­seized­the­occasion.­Their­credo:­ to preserve the planet over certain­lives,­in­particular­black,­indigenous­and­ other­minority­ethnic­lives.­The­very­idea­that­“humans­are­the­virus”—a­ meme­tweeted­and­relayed­countless­times­during­lockdown,­and­somewhat­ inseparable from drone footage and satellite images—is inherently problem- atic.­While­human­activities­are­certainly­behind­the­environmental­crisis,­ the­genocidal­view­according­to­which­COVID-19­is­the­planet’s­answer­to­the­ “human­virus”­is­untenable.­In­practical­terms,­those­being­“sacrificed”­are­the­ frailest­in­terms­of­health,­age,­and­economic­position:­the­poor,­the­homeless,­ the­incarcerated,­the­displaced,­the­marginalized,­etc.­If­drone­footage­ of­emptied­cities­and­“cute”­images­of­wild­animals­exploring­the­world’s­ metropolises­serve­the­“humans­are­the­virus”­credo,­environmental­politics­is­ neutralized (if not aestheticized): the real reasons behind our current crisis are not­addressed,­they­become­a­spectacle.­­­­ The link between racial justice and the environmental crisis must be acknowledged. Racial (and gender) inequality and environmental destruction go­hand­in­hand­(Ferdinand­2019).­In­this­context,­the­human­and­non-human­ bodies absent or present in drone footage of lockdown (and post-lockdown) cities­are­significant.­While­the­real­impact­of­the­crisis­on­environmental­ consciousness­still­needs­to­be­seen,­the­pandemic­feels­like­an­occasion­to land on Earth­(Latour­2018­and­2020).9 According to French sociologist Bruno Latour,­the­modern­project­has­been­“in­flight,”­detached­from­the­soil,­plants,­ animals,­life.­But­we­cannot­escape­the­ecological­urgency­anymore:­the­reality­ of anthropogenic climate change is making the planet uninhabitable and now begs for a terrestrial politics. Latour’s argument appears as particularly relevant for a discussion on aerial imagery: if the disjunction between the world we live in and the world we live from is at the heart of our current environmental­crisis,­points­of­view­matter.­In­other­words,­from­where­do­ we­see­the­world?­In­this­context,­the­mapping­and­surveying­of­the­planet­ from an aerial perspective undoubtedly contributed to our remoteness from it. Beyond the general feeling of mastery and control over space that maps procure,­cartography­has­played­(and­still­plays)­a­decisive­role­in­the­process­ of extracting natural resources from the Earth. Maps have helped to trans- form­“nature”­into­an­entity­to­be­mastered­and­exploited.­Transitioning­from­ what­we­could­call­a­cartographic­to­an­ecological­reason­means,­among­other­ things,­adjusting­our­standpoints­to­more­small-scale­and­non-objectifying­ points­of­view,­imagining­counter-mappings.­In­order­to­truly­inhabit­the­ 9­ In­addition­to­Bruno­Latour’s­idea­that­politics­should­be­redefined­as­what­leads­ towards­the­Earth­(and­not­the­global­or­the­national—the­“ethnonational”­according­to­ eco-fascism),­“landing”­should­potentially­be­a­way­to­think­about­the­necessary­articu- lation­between­a­“cartographic”­and­an­“ecological”­reason.­For­more­or­less­obvious­ reasons,­aerial­views­play­an­important­role­in­this­conundrum.­ 88 Pandemic Media planet­and­to­make­it­a­world­worth­living­in,­we­need­to­tackle­its­problems.­ As­far­as­environmental­politics­is­concerned,­so­long­drone­hovering­and­ detached views: we need to put our feet back on Earth. References Anonymous.­2020.­“Coronavirus­Cina,­le­immagini­dal­drone­di­Wuhan­diserta.”­Sky tg24,­ February­6.­Accessed­June­11,­2020.­https://tg24.sky.it/mondo/2020/02/06/coronavirus- wuhan-video-drone. Benjamin,­Walter.­“The­Work­of­Art­in­the­Age­of­Its­Technological­Reproducibility:­Second­ Version.”­In­The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility and Other Writings on Media,­edited­by­Michael­W.­Jennings,­Rodney­Livingstone­and­Thomas­Y.­Levin,­19–55.­ Cambridge,­MA:­The­Belknap­Press. Castro,­Teresa.­2013.­“L’Ornement­de­la­masse,­de­Weimar­à­Hollywood.”­In­Vues d’en haut,­ edited­by­Angela­Lampe,­253–59.­Metz:­Centre­Pompidou­Metz.­ Castro,­Teresa.­2017.­“Cinematic­cartographies­of­urban­space­and­the­descriptive­spectacle­ of­aerial­views­(1898-1948).”­In­Cinematic Urban Geographies,­edited­by­Richard­Koeck­and­ François­Penz,­47–63.­London:­Palgrave­Macmillan.­­ Darby,­Luke.­2019.­“What­is­Eco-fascism,­the­Ideology­Behind­Attacks­in­El­Paso­and­ Christchurch.”­GQ,­August­7.­Accessed­June­11,­2020.­https://www.gq.com/story/ what-is-eco-fascism. Farocki,­Harun.­2004.­“Phantom­Images.”­Public­29:­New­Localities:­12–22.­­­ Ferdinand,­Malcom.­2019.­Une écologie décoloniale: Penser l’écologie depuis le monde caribéen. Paris: Éditions du Seuil. Gardiner,­Beth.­2020.­“White­Supremacy­Goes­Green.­Why­is­the­far­right­suddenly­paying­ attention­to­climate­change?”­The New York Times,­February­28.­Accessed­June­11,­2020.­ https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/28/opinion/sunday/far-right-climate-change.html.­­ Kaplan,­Caren­and­Patricia­R.­Zimmermann.­2020.­“Coronavirus­Drone­Genres:­Spectacles­ of­Distance­and­Melancholia,” Film Quarterly,­April­30.­Accessed­June­11,­2020.­https:// filmquarterly.org/2020/04/30/coronavirus-drone-genres-spectacles-of-distance-and- melancholia/. Kracauer,­Siegfried.­1995.­“The­Mass­Ornament.”­In­The Mass Ornament: Weimar Essays,­edited­ by­Thomas­Y.­Levin,­75–88.­Cambridge,­MA:­Harvard­University­Press.­­­ Latour,­Bruno.­2018.­Down to Earth: Politics in the New Climactic Regime. Cambridge: Polity Press. Latour,­Bruno.­2020.­“Seven­Objections­Against­Landing­on­Earth.”­In­Critical Zones: The Science and Politics of Landing on Earth,­edited­by­Bruno­Latour­and­Peter­Weibel,­9–24.­Karlsruhe:­ ZKM Center for Art and Media. Manavis,­Sarah.­2020.­“Is­coronavirus­leading­to­a­rise­in­eco-fascism.”­New Statesman,­May­11.­ Accessed­11­June,­2020.­https://www.newstatesman.com/science-tech/social-media/2020/05/ coronavirus-leading-rise-eco-fascism. Tooze,­Adam.­2020.­“We­are­living­through­the­first­economic­crisis­of­the­Anthropocene.”­The Guardian,­May­7.­Accessed­June­11,­2020.­https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/may/07/ we-are-living-through-the-first-economic-crisis-of-the-anthropocene. ANTOINE D’AGATA THERMAL IMAGES THERMOGRAPHIC CAMERA BIOPOLITICS CARE [ 8 ] The Fever of Images: Thermography, Sensuality and Care in Pandemic Times Alice Leroy In the midst of the pandemic crisis, while disturbing figures and pictures of intubated patients and mass graves in rich western cities at complete standstill invaded the traditional and social media screens on the one hand, and governments massively invested in pervasive surveillance technologies on the other hand, the French photographer Antoine D’Agata went walking alone, with a thermographic camera, along the empty streets of Paris and in the intensive care units of hospitals in France. The pictures he took tes- tify to a totally different experience both of the media and of the disease: not one of surveillance, identifi- cation, and intervention, but one of consideration, sensuality, and care. First,­we­hardly­see­anything.­Against­a­dark­bluish­background,­glowing­spots­ light­up­the­center­of­the­image.­After­a­while,­a­kneeling­figure­emerges,­the­ bust­and­the­head­turned­towards­an­iridescent­and­indeterminate­shape,­like­ a­kind­of­sun­crushed­on­itself.­Taking­a­closer­look,­we­soon­see­recognizable­ 92 Pandemic Media shapes­surface.­These­shadows­and­these­lights­outline­the­folds­of­a­dress,­ perhaps­a­loose­blouse,­covering­the­entire­body­of­the­kneeling­figure.­The­ head­is­underlined­with­a­kind­of­turban,­or­a­hairnet,­which­conceals­the­ hair.­From­the­blouse­a­hand­rises,­stretched­towards­a­luminous­disc­which­it­ touches­gently,­as­if­to­caress­it.­This­luminous­disc­is­a­face­from­which­all­the­ features­have­been­erased,­as­if­swallowed­by­light.­Around­this­face,­darker­ shades­outline­the­hair,­the­shoulder­and­the­rest­of­the­body­covered­by­a­ sheet.­It­looks­like­a­religious­scene,­a­figure­of­devotion­kneeling­at­the­bed- side­of­a­recumbent­figure.­However,­we­are­not­in­a­church­or­a­museum,­but­ in­a­hospital.­These­bodies­are­not­of­stone,­but­of­flesh­and­blood,­and­that­is­ why they appear surrounded by light in the night of thermal images. This pho- tograph­was­taken­in­an­intensive­care­unit­at­the­height­of­the­COVID-19­crisis­ in France. It belongs to a double series produced by photographer Antoine d’Agata­during­the­eight­weeks­of­lockdown­in­the­country,­in­the­depop- ulated­streets­of­the­capital­and­at­the­heart­of­hospitals­in­Paris,­Bordeaux,­ Marseille,­and­Nancy. On­March­16,­2020,­on­the­eve­of­the­lockdown,­Antoine­d’Agata­decided­ to­settle­in­the­deserted­offices­of­Agence­Magnum,­for­which­he­works­in­ Paris.­He­slept­in­these­premises­for­two­months,­and­began­an­intensive­and­ obsessive­wandering­across­the­city­emptied­of­its­inhabitants,­equipped­with­ several­devices­and­in­particular­with­a­thermal­camera.­At­first,­he­wandered­ the streets in the early morning or at nightfall and saw a new social geography of­the­city­taking­shape.­The­regular­distances­between­the­silhouettes,­the­ isolated­or­fleeing­passers-by,­the­bodies­struggling­to­inhabit­a­space­that­ had­become­uninhabitable,­and­then­the­last­of­men,­those­who­had­no­refuge­ and­for­whom­a­bench,­a­corner­of­a­building,­or­a­sidewalk­were­the­only­ place­to­sleep.­In­the­city­engulfed­by­the­thermal­spectrum,­an­abstraction­of­ colors­going­from­hot­to­cold,­the­decor­disappears­and­further­isolates­the­ bodies,­fragile­witnesses­of­a­world­that­sinks­into­the­night.­In­parallel­with­ this­series,­D’Agata­went­to­the­intensive­care­units­of­hospitals,­overwhelmed­ by­the­influx­of­patients.­The­violence­expected­in­these­clinical­spaces­is­ proportionally opposite to that of street images. Because in the abstraction composed­by­the­thermal­camera,­not­only­do­the­hospital­system­and­its­ morbid­decor­of­technologies­and­tubes­disappear,­but­so­do­all­the­details­ singularizing­the­suffering­of­the­patients,­an­entire­organic­life­metamor- phosed into spectral clarity. All that remains in this ballet of shadows and lights­are­the­gestures­of­care,­applied­with­a­gentleness­which­finds­its­most­ essential expression there. Thermal­imaging,­however,­belongs­to­a­set­of­biopolitical­technologies­which­ have­a­long­history.­Discovered­in­1800­when­Sir­William­Herschel,­followed­by­ his­son­John,­tried­to­measure­heat­beyond­the­visible­spectrum­(Vollmer­and­ Möllmann­2010;­Ring­and­Jones­2013)­thermography­is­literally­based­on­the­ The Fever of Images 93 detection of invisible radiation from the electromagnetic spectrum. Our eyes can­only­see­visible­light,­but­they­can­neither­detect­ultraviolet­nor­infrared­ light.­The­primary­source­of­infrared­light­is­heat.­Any­organic­body­emits­heat;­ even­non-organic­bodies,­objects,­stones,­and­even­ice,­as­long­as­they­have­a­ temperature­above­absolute­zero­(-273.15­degrees­Celsius­or­0­Kelvin),­produce­ infrared radiation. We perceive infrared radiation as heat whereas the infrared thermal imaging camera captures it as data and represents it in the form of images.­The­first­infrared-sensitive­cameras­were­designed­in­the­early­1940s­ with electronic sensors and used as (then poor) anti-aircraft defense. But it was­not­before­the­early­1970s­that­these­night­vision­systems­succeeded­in­ framing thermal images on a real-time basis. This was the time when the US Military­invented­the­Forward­Looking­InfraRed­(FLIR)­systems,­targeting­and­ navigation­technologies­that­were­able­to­detect­objects­at­distances­up­to­3­ km­and­soon­equipped­aircrafts­and­warships­(Vollmer­and­Möllmann­2010,­ 95).­These­systems­defeated­all­visual­obstacles—night,­fog,­smoke—and­were­ then­logically­used­not­only­for­aerial­reconnaissance,­but­also­for­monitoring,­ tracking,­and­targeting—or,­in­the­parlance­of­US­special­operations,­to­“find,­ fix,­and­finish”—their­objective­(Parks­2014,­18). Among the numerous technological gadgets that then became prominent in­war­movies,­thermal­imaging­came­to­represent­an­ambivalent­mode­ of­perception,­at­the­threshold­of­visibility.­It­is­no­coincidence­that­a­film­ reinvesting the genre of man-hunting like Predator­John­McTiernan­(1987)­ granted an alien this more-than-human vision and made it the greatest threat ever faced by a group of elite soldiers. The strangeness of such a mode of perception was so incommensurable with that of human senses that it most surely­relied­on­that­of­an­other-than-human­being,­like­a­machine­or­an­ alien,­than­on­a­man,­even­if­that­man­was­Arnold­Schwarzenegger.­Ironically­ enough,­one­of­the­US­Military’s­drones,­equipped­with­infrared­sensors­able­ to­detect­heat-bearing­objects­and­bodies,­was­then­to­be­named­“Predator”­ in­1995­and­used­during­operations­in­Afghanistan­and­Iraq.­The­film­also­con- fronted­an­analog­medium,­that­of­film,­with­a­digital­and­quantifiable­image,­ since­computer­technology­had­entirely­redefined­the­level­of­resolution­of­ thermal­imaging.­This­split­is­not­only­between­two­different­mediums­but­ also between two opposite modes of perception. In his reading of Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s­last­book,­The Visible and the Invisible,­which­he­comments­ on in his Seminar,­Jacques­Lacan­says­that­the­split­that­matters­in­Merleau- Ponty’s­book­is­not­between­the­visible­and­the­invisible,­but­rather­“between­ the­eye­and­the­gaze”­(1973,­73).­It­does­not­have­much­to­do­with­the­limits­ of our perception (the fact that we perceive only a fragment of the electro- magnetic­spectrum),­but­rather­with­the­reversibility­in­vision.­Observing­is­ also always being observed. It does not matter to Lacan whether this gaze is materialized­or­not;­it­could­belong­to­a­living­being,­as­well­as­to­a­machine,­or­ it could even be an internalized or imagined gaze. What matters though is that 94 Pandemic Media this­being-under-a-gaze­is­primary.­“I­see­only­from­one­point,­but­in­my­exis- tence,­I­am­looked­at­from­all­sides,”­writes­Lacan­(1973,­72).­Aircraft­and­drone­ pilots see bodies and forms they would be unable to detect were they not equipped with night-vision or thermal camera systems. Their experience of this augmented vision occurs through a gaze that simultaneously places them under­observation,­making­them­objects­that­are­seen.­Their­omnipotent­ eye paradoxically designates their own vulnerability as bodies permeable to other­gazes,­especially­those­of­machines.­Thermal­images­participate­in­this­ Lacanian­dissociation­between­the­eye­and­the­gaze,­causing­us­to­experience­ ourselves­like­glowing­forms­in­the­night,­potential­targets­and­vulnerable­ beings. Indeed,­before­these­technological­enhancements­deployed­the­electromag- netic­spectrum­in­a­series­of­visible­images,­the­very­first­thermal­medium­ is­our­own­body.­“The­significance­of­body­temperature­lies­in­the­fact­that­ humans are homeotherms who are capable of maintaining a constant tem- perature­that­is­different­from­that­of­the­surroundings.­This­is­essential­to­ the preservation of a relatively constant environment within the body known as­homeostasis”­(Ring­&­Jones­2013,­2-1).­In­the­history­of­medicine,­fever­ was one of the most frequently observed symptoms of a disease. Physicians from­the­time­of­Hippocrates­used­mud­on­the­skin­to­measure,­in­a­very­ approximate­and­subjective­manner,­the­raised­temperature­of­a­body,­before­ Galileo­invented­a­“thermoscope”­from­a­glass­tube,­a­predecessor­to­the­ thermometer.­By­producing­heat,­the­organic­body­thus­acts­as­a­medium­ itself,­and­by­collecting­data­on­different­populations­of­bodies,­thermal­ cameras act as instruments of another form of biopolitical control. Following a­Foucaldian­perspective,­Nicole­Starosielski­has­shown­how­thermal­ technologies were part of a vast apparatus and a long history of social control. She analyzes a military technology experimented with by the United States in Afghanistan­in­2010,­the­Active­Denial­System,­also­known­as­the­“Heat­Ray,”­ which­consists­in­irradiating­a­human­subject­with­“a­millimeter­wave­beam,­a­ microwave.”­The­radiation­leaves­no­visible­mark­or­burns­on­the­body­but­it­ generates a powerful sensation of pain: Unlike­other­‘non-lethal’­means­of­control,­such­as­taser­guns­and­tear­ gas,­the­Active­Denial­System­works­at­a­distance,­a­means­of­weapon- izing the spectrum to generate thermal sensations. The system is akin to existing forms of torture by media: sound cannons that damage the hearing of protesters and strobe lights used in prisoner interrogation. And­like­the­techniques­of­psychological­operations,­the­heat­ray­is­ described­as­a­psychological,­communicative,­and­affective­tool,­one­that­ conveys an impression of being burned without actually being burnt. (Starosielski­2019,­2) The Fever of Images 95 This­thermal­violence­operates­invisibly­and­at­distance,­as­a­kind­of­‘no- touch torture.’ The Heat Ray’s absence of traces opens a legal vacuum: how can a government or a military authority be hold accountable for an action without visible evidence? How can it be accused of torture with no physical mark­of­injury?­But­beyond­these­ethical­concerns,­Starosielski­shows­that­this­ technology belongs to a long-standing history of intimate and perverse modes of­punishment.­She­recognizes­as­a­predecessor­of­the­Heat­Ray­the­sweatbox,­ an­apparatus­designed­to­detain­someone­in­a­very­close­space,­about­the­size­ of­a­coffin,­with­restricted­access­to­air,­water,­and­food,­which­was­designed­ by slavers on the ships and plantations before being adopted in prisons and schools. The sweatbox happens to be selectively destined to colored bodies: “what­sets­[it]­…­apart­from­other­techniques­of­racist­violence­during­this­ period,­such­as­lynching,­was­its­invisibility­and­indeterminacy”­(Starosielski­ 2019,­10).­What­she­identifies­as­“thermal­violence,”­and­which­characterizes­ racialized­techniques­of­disciplining­black­bodies,­also­appears­as­exposing­ bodies to an invisible and nonetheless pervasive form of violence that does penetrate deep into the body. How do Antoine d’Agata’s images take into account and respond to this long history of thermal violence and bodily discipline? Against this “politics of exposure,”­which­Starosielski­identifies­with­thermal­military­technologies,­ his pictures account for the vulnerability of the body and the precarity of life.­Grounded­in­a­history­of­tracking­and­targeting,­thermography­has­been­ described­as­a­hunting­device,­of­which­we­know­how­it­can­disembody­its­ subjects,­dispossessing­them­of­their­envelope­of­flesh­and­the­singularity­of­ their features. Quite the opposite here: preserving the anonymity of hospital patients,­the­image­only­restores­the­carnal­and­deeply­empathetic­dimension­ of the care they receive. The hospital represents the opposite of what we see­on­the­streets,­because­the­euphemistic­violence­of­one­responds­to­the­ paradoxical sensuality of the other. The pandemic risk assimilated the sense of­touch­to­a­path­of­contamination,­justifying­the­introduction­of­a­new­ges- tural­lexicon­of­“social­distancing.”­On­the­contrary,­Antoine­d’Agata’s­thermal­ images­revealed­the­actions­of­the­caregivers,­who­were­most­exposed­to­the­ virus,­as­the­last­bulwark­against­the­alienation­of­touch.­In­the­end,­these­ images­are­not­informative,­they­are­evidence­of­the­meaning­of­“caring”:­to­ stand­closer,­to­pay­attention,­to­give­help­and­consideration­to­the­suffering­ ones.­The­“poverty”­of­these­images­in­low­definition­is­therefore­neither­a­ gap,­nor­even­a­break­in­style,­it­simply­describes­another­level­of­reality,­not­ the emergency and the horror of the pandemic as it has been portrayed on all­screens,­but­rather­a­space-time­where­life­and­death­merge­in­almost­ liturgical­gestures.­Reflecting­on­the­powers­of­mourning­and­violence,­Judith­ Butler writes: 96 Pandemic Media The­demand­for­a­truer­image,­for­more­images,­for­images­that­convey­ the­full­horror­and­reality­of­the­suffering­has­its­place­and­importance.­ The­erasure­of­that­suffering­through­the­prohibition­of­images­and­ representations­more­generally­circumscribes­the­sphere­of­appearance,­ what we can see and what we can know. But it would be a mistake to think­that­we­only­need­to­find­the­right­and­true­images,­and­that­a­ certain reality will then be conveyed. The reality is not conveyed by what­is­represented­within­the­image,­but­through­the­challenge­to­ representation­that­reality­delivers.­(2004,­146) D’Agata’s thermal camera series precisely deals with that challenge by showing vulnerable bodies through a traditional military tracking system. It features­no­graphic­violence­or­abstract­shades,­but­the­gentle­sensuality­of­a­ gesture of attention to others. They contrast both the frightening pictures that were­produced­by­drones­surveilling­deserted­cities,­and­the­terrible­images­ of the loss of sociability gestures in pandemic times. Using a surveillance and recognition­technology,­designed­for­scientific­and­military­purposes,­the­ photographer makes counter-use of it. By detecting the infrared radiation emitted­by­the­bodies,­the­camera­does­not­try­to­locate­and­identify­them,­ but­on­the­contrary­to­abstract­them­from­the­hospital­context,­and­to­pro- tect their identity (so as not to expose people who are already in situations of­extreme­distress).­“This­is­not­a­battlefield­and­we­are­not­at­war,”­say­the­ images­of­d’Agata;­in­this­theater­of­operations­that­is­the­hospital,­the­only­ gestures that matter are those that recognize the vulnerability of the bodies and­that­take­care­of­lives.­One­day,­when­we­remember­these­forgotten­ges- tures,­disappeared­with­the­advent­of­a­digital­era­which­also­saw­the­pro- hibition­of­physical­contact,­these­images­will­compose­a­sensual­atlas­of­the­ gestures of attention and care. References Butler,­Judith.­2004.­Precarious Life: The Powers of Mourning and Violence. London: Verso. D’Agata,­Antoine.­2018.­Acéphale. Paris: Studio Vortex. —­—­—­.­2019.­STASIS. Paris: Studio Vortex. Lacan,­Jacques­1998­[1973].­The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psycho-analysis: Seminar Jacques Lacan XI.­Edited­by­Jacques-Alain­Miller,­translated­by­Alan­Sheridan.­New­York:­W.­W.­Norton. Merleau-Ponty,­Maurice.­1968­[1964].­The Visible and the Invisible.­Edited­by­Claude­Lefort,­ translated­by­Alphonso­Lingis.­Evanston,­IL:­Northwestern­University­Press. Parks,­Lisa.­2014.­“Drones,­Infrared­Imagery,­and­Body­Heat.”­International Journal of Communication­8­(Feature):­2518–21. Ring,­Francis­J.,­and­Brian­Jones.­2013.­“Historical­Development­of­Thermometry­and­Thermal­ Imaging­in­Medicine.”­In­Medical Infrared Imaging. Principles and Practices,­edited­by­Mary­ Diakides,­Joseph­D.­Bronzino,­and­Donald­R.­Peterson,­2–6.­New­York:­CRC­Press. Starosielski,­Nicole.­2019.­“Thermal­Violence:­Heat­Rays,­Sweatboxes­and­the­Politics­of­ Exposure.”­Culture Machine­17­(Thermal­Objects).­Accessed­December­20,­2020.­https:// culturemachine.net/vol-17-thermal-objects/thermal-violence/. Vollmer,­Michael,­and­Klaus-Peter­Möllmann.­2010.­Infrared Thermal Imaging: Fundamentals, Research and Applications. Weinheim: Wiley-VCH. VIDEOCONFERENCING SCREEN MIRROR INTERFACE SELF-REFLEXIVITY SELF-MONITORING [ 9 ] Videoconferencing and the Uncanny Encounter with Oneself: Self-Reflexivity as Self-Monitoring 2.0 Yvonne Zimmermann During the corona pandemic, videoconferencing has become the standard mode of communication with colleagues from work. Videoconferencing has not only changed the way we interact with others, but also with ourselves. This article explores how video- conferencing has brought about a new relationship of closeness and distance of self and/as other. While virtually meeting others, we primarily encounter ourselves. It is an uncanny encounter, a self-reflection as imaged self/other that opens up to a specific mode of self-reflexivity: to self-monitoring 2.0. 100 Pandemic Media You are you. Now, isn’t that pleasant? Dr. Seuss Find out who you are and do it on purpose. Dolly Parton Contact­restrictions­in­the­corona­pandemic­sent­many­of­us­into­home­office.­ Many­of­us­were­used­to­working­at­home,­and­many­have­privileged­working­ at­home­over­working­at­the­office.­But­the­corona­pandemic­has­us­working­ from­home,­which­is­not­the­same­as­working­at home. Working from home is teleworking.­The­prefix­tele­means­distance—as­in­telephone­and­television,­ where we hear and see from a distance. Teleworking then means working from a distance. But distance from what and whom? Pandemic precaution requires distance from others in real life. This is one side of the coin. The other side­is­close­contact—with­oneself,­in­telework.­It­is­a­contact­that­we­didn’t­ ask­for­any­more­than­we­asked­for­distance­from­others.­Worse,­this­close­ contact with oneself comes at a moment when others are to be kept at a dis- tance. Teleworking and the computer-mediated-communication technologies that­enable­it­have­produced­a­new­relationship­of­closeness­and­distance,­of­ self­and­other,­of­subject­and­object,­of­looking­and­being­looked­at. The Self, Me or You? Among­the­various­videoconference­systems,­some­may­be­preferred­over­ others­for­reasons­of­ownership,­data­security,­or­usability.­Ultimately,­they­ all­work­the­same—with­some­small­but­noteworthy­differences.­All­services­ name­the­participants­in­a­videoconference,­including­myself.­But­in­addition­ to stating my name­to­refer­to­me,­they­also­use­a­reflexive­pronoun.­They­ label the image of me on screen either as me or as you.­This­is­a­small­detail,­ but­it­makes­a­significant­difference­in­how­I­am­envisioned­and­addressed­by­ the system. Am I a virtual me or a virtual you? If the person I see on screen is me,­it­is­suggested­that­it­is­me­who­looks­at­an­image­of­myself­on­screen.­I­ am the subject that looks at me—and at others. If the person I see on screen is you,­the­perspective­changes.­For­this­suggests­that­it­is­the­others­who­look­ at an image of myself on screen. I am the object of their look—while I am at the same time the object of my­look.­Ultimately,­I­am­both­subject­and­object­ of­my­look.­I­see­myself­at­once­as­self­and­other,­as­one­self/other­among­ others,­a­split­perception­of­self/other­on­a­split­screen. Videoconferencing and the Uncanny Encounter with Oneself 101 The Screen as Mirror and Interface In­configurations­of­media­like­videoconference­systems,­the­screen­is­both­ a­mirror­and­an­interface.­In­the­history­of­film­theory,­the­mirror­has­been­a­ prominent­paradigm­to­describe­the­relationship­of­spectator­and­screen,­and­ more­specifically,­to­theorize­the­moment­“when­we­are­confronted­with­an­ image­as­if­with­our­own­reflected­self”­(Elsaesser­and­Hagener­2015,­63).­The­ mirror metaphor has been approached from psychoanalysis ( Jacques Lacan’s concept­of­the­mirror­stage­immediately­comes­to­mind,­but­also­Jean-Louis­ Baudry’s­thoughts­on­the­“Ideological­Effects­of­the­Basic­Cinematographic­ Apparatus”),­phenomenology,­and­neuroscience.­The­metaphor­has­been­ instructive­for­exploring­cinema­as­reflected­in­the­mirror,­that­is,­as­a­tool­to­ think­about­self-reflection.­To­think­about­one’s­reflected­self­is,­in­my­under- standing­here,­self-reflexivity.­ Yet­the­mirror­remained­a­metaphor,­as­Christian­Metz­reminds­us: But­film­is­also­different­from­the­natural­mirror­in­one­important­respect:­ although­everything­can­reflect­just­as­well­in­the­former­as­in­the­latter,­ there­is­one­thing­that­will­never­find­its­reflection­in­film,­namely­the­ spectator’s­body.­From­a­certain­point­of­view,­then,­the­mirror­suddenly­ becomes­opaque.­(1986­[1975],­45) Videoconferences­are­not­cinema.­If­they­were,­they­would­prove­Metz­ wrong. For videoconferences do­reflect­the­spectator’s­body.­The­body­may­ be­reduced­to­the­face,­but­this­is­not­the­point.­The­point­is:­the­mirror­is­no­ longer a metaphor. No longer are we confronted with an image as if with our own­reflected­self:­The­user’s­face­is­mirrored­on­screen,­the­self­is reflected.­ But­to­what­kind­of­self-reflexivity­does­this­reflection­of­our­own­self­open­ up?­Self-reflexivity­in­cinema­has­mainly­been­about­cinema­as­a­medium.­ Film­reflexivity­foregrounds­a­film’s­own­production,­its­authorship,­inter- textual­influences,­its­reception,­or­its­enunciation­(Stam­1992­[1985],­xii,­xiv).­ Self-reflexivity­in­videoconferencing­however­is­first­and­foremost­about­the­ self­as­reflected­self,­about­the­self­as­image—and­then,­perhaps,­about­the­ conference­system­and­what­it­does­with­the­self­and­to­the­self,­namely­both­ reflecting­and­othering­the­self.­Othering­the­self­in­that­it­turns­the­self­into­ an­object­both­of­one’s­own­look­and­that­of­others.­Like­modernist­reflexive­ cinema,­videoconferencing­is­a­way­of­‘distanciation’­(in­the­sense­of­Bert­ Brecht).­It­distances­the­self­from­the­self­rather­than­from­the­medium,­but­ like­in­cinema,­this­distancing­opens­the­self­up­to­critical­reflection—both­by­ the self and by others. The­screen­as­interface,­on­the­other­hand,­works­in­opposite­directions.­ Instead of distancing­the­self­from­the­self,­it­leads­to­an­encounter with the self.­According­to­Laurie­Johnson,­the­idea­that­a­computer­mediates­in­ 102 Pandemic Media communications between two or more interlocutors is the grand illusion of computer-mediated communication. Arguing from a phenomenological perspective,­Johnson­holds­that­what­happens­at­the­most­basic­level­when­ engaging with the computer interface is not mediation on the way towards interlocution,­but­“the­taking­of­a­place­for­oneself—one­self—seemingly­ beyond­the­reach­of­that­which­is­ready,­and­seemingly,­by­extension,­ beyond­one’s­own­embodied­self.”­Referencing­Derrida,­Johnson­calls­this­ phenomenon “an ultimately terrifying prospect of an uncanny encounter with oneself—the ghost in the machine—against which one seeks to pro- tect­oneself­in­advance­by­positing­an­other­that­is,­…­like­every­other,­wholly­ other”­(2009,­170).­Rather­than­mediating­in­communications­between­self­and­ others,­then,­videoconferencing­throws­the­self­back­on­the­self.­This­is­indeed­ an­uncanny­encounter,­even­more­so­because­it­is­an­unsolicited­encounter­ imposed­by­the­system,­which­leads­the­self­to­protect­the­self­by­imagi(ni)ng­ the self as other. Hence,­in­videoconferencing,­there­are­two­opposite­processes­at­work.­There­ is a process of distancing­the­self­in­the­reflection­of­the­self­as­imaged­other­in­ the­screen-mirror,­and­there­is­a­process­of­encountering the self when the self is thrown back on the self while engaging with the interface. Both processes lead­towards­imaging­the­self­on­the­screen­as­other,­and­both­processes­ incite­us­to­think­about­this­self/other­on­screen.­Thus,­videoconferencing­ enhances­self-reflexivity­from­two­directions.­If­Dolly­Parton­once­reminded­ her­audience­to­“find­out­who­you­are­and­do­it­on­purpose,”­videocon- ferencing­somehow­calls­out­for­the­same,­if­only­that­it­is­no­longer­necessary­ to remind us to do it on purpose. For video conference systems ensure that you cannot not do it on purpose. Self-Reflexivity in Videoconferencing— Self-Monitoring 2.0 There­have­been­different­modes­of­self-reflexivity­in­cinema,­popular­media­ culture,­art,­and­advertising.­These­different­modes­are­based­on­different­ concepts­of­the­audience.­This­in­reverse­suggests­that­self-reflexivity­is­ a­mode­of­address­rather­than­a­textual­feature.­Like­in­modern­art,­the­ critical­and­didactic­modes­of­the­1950s­and­1960s­arthouse­cinema­imagined­ audiences­as­suffering­from­(media)­incompetence­and­being­in­need­of­ education and enlightenment. The­ironic­and­parodic­modes­of­self-reflexivity­ that­the­critical­and­didactic­modes­have­given­way­to­since­1980s­post- modernism are festive modes rather than revelatory modes in that they address the audience as media-literate spectators and acknowledge and celebrate their media expertise more than disclosing the workings of the medium­itself­(Zimmermann­forthcoming­2021). Videoconferencing and the Uncanny Encounter with Oneself 103 Self-reflexivity­in­videoconferencing­differs­from­the­cinematic­modes­of­ self-reflexivity.­As­mentioned­above,­the­self­in­cinematic­self-reflexivity­ refers­to­the­medium,­whereas­self-reflexivity­in­videoconferencing­refers­ first­of­all­to­the­self.­Self-reflexivity­in­cinema­is­largely­a­mode­of­address­of­ spectators.­It­speaks­to­others.­Self-reflexivity­in­videoconferencing,­on­the­ other­hand,­speaks­to­the­self­in­a­mode­of­address­that­can­be­described­ as call for self-monitoring. But self-monitoring in a media environment like videoconferencing is self-monitoring taken to a second level. It is the critical reflection—and­thus­a­self-reflexive­process—of­self-monitoring.­The­concept­ of­self-monitoring­was­introduced­by­Mark­Snyder­in­the­1970s.­It­focuses­on­ how­people­monitor­their­self-presentation,­expressive­behavior,­and­non- verbal­expression—in­short,­their­performance—in­interaction­with­others,­ knowing that others monitor their behavior as well. Self-monitoring is an established­concept­in­sociology,­so­nothing­new­under­the­sun.­But­videocon- ferencing­has­given­self-monitoring­a­new­visibility.­And,­as­a­consequence,­it­ has­opened­it­up­to­critical­self-reflection.­ Videoconferencing may be primarily conceived and used as a communication tool that mediates between two or more interlocutors. But it is just as much a monitoring tool of the self. To communicate with others in video conferences is to consciously and constantly monitor the self as imaged self/other. It is self-monitoring­2.0.­This­is­not­a­fundamentally­new­phenomenon­in­com- munication­through­media.­Yet­pandemic­media,­and­videoconferencing­in­ particular,­have­made­this­more­evident­than­ever,­and­thus­have­opened­it­up­ for­thinking­about­the­reflection­of­the­self­on­screen.­This­self-reflexivity­has­ not­been­solicited­by­users,­but­imposed­by­video­conference­systems,­and­it­ therefore is no longer only about the self. It is more and more also about the media—and what it does to the self. References Baudry,­Jean-Louis.­1974–75­[1970].­“Ideological­Effects­of­the­Basic­Cinematographic­ Apparatus.”­Film Quarterly 28­(2):­39–47. Elsaesser,­Thomas,­and­Malte­Hagener.­2015.­Film Theory: An Introduction Through the Senses. New­York,­London:­Routledge. Johnson,­Laurie.­2009.­“A­Ghost­of­a­Chance,­After­All.” Derrida Today 2­(2):­166–76. Metz,­Christian.­1986­[1975].­The Imaginary Signifier: Psychoanalysis and the Cinema. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. Stam,­Robert.­1992­[1985].­Reflexivity in Film and Literature: From Don Quixote to Jean-Luc Godard. New York: Columbia University Press. Zimmermann,­Yvonne.­forthcoming­2021.­“Advertising’s­Self-Reference:­From­Early­Cinema­to­ the­Super­Bowl.”­In­Bo­Florin,­Patrick­Vonderau,­and­Yvonne­Zimmermann.­Advertising and the Transformation of Screen Cultures. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. CONVENIENCE RISK DIGITAL PLATFORMS INTERMEDIATION ZOOM [ 1 0 ] Pandemic Platforms: How Convenience Shapes the Inequality of Crisis Joshua Neves and Marc Steinberg This article examines how digital platforms responded to the COVID-19 crisis, showing how “pandemic platforms” exploit the present intersection of con- venience and necessity. During the pandemic, plat- forms provide convenience-turned-necessity for stay-at-home consumers, even as platforms made use of stay-at-home orders to further exploit (and put at risk) their workforce. What we show are that convenience and risk are two sides of the same coin, shaping how platforms based on a logic of inter- mediation further entrench themselves during the pandemic. This requires media studies to turn its attention towards the logic of intermediation, organization, and pandemic mediations to account for the ways platforms exploit the current crisis to fur- ther entrench themselves via a combined appeal to convenience and risk. 106 Pandemic Media Pandemic platforms can be understood through the convergence of two bubbles.­The­first­is­a­speculative­bubble­that­gave­rise­to­the­monopolistic­ platforms­that­have­come­to­dominate­digital­life.­This­financial­bubble­begins­ with­the­dot.com­boom­and­bust­of­the­late­1990s,­and­resurged­post-2009,­ when high risk and rapid return investments in tech companies transformed the industry by prioritizing speculative ventures over the long-term viability or­utility­of­start-ups­(Srnicek­2016).­Indeed­the­term­“start-up”­captures­the­ very­logic­of­financial­bubbles.­The­dot.com­crash­forced­companies­to­find­ new­avenues­to­profitability,­shaping­ad-driven­data­mining,­on­the­one­hand,­ and­the­e-commerce­giants­that­dominate­the­platform­economy­today,­on­the­ other. The second bubble is based on personal health and public safety and encapsulates­people’s­everyday­activities­during­the­COVID-19­crisis—albeit­in­ sharply­different­ways.­This­idea­of­the­“bubble”­has­quickly­become­a­domi- nant­metaphor­for­coronavirus-era­co-isolation­and­co-habitation,­such­as­ health­and­travel­bubbles,­pandemic­pods,­and­quaranteams.­Canada’s­deputy­ health­officer­even­framed­one’s­personal­space­in­those­terms­as­he­advised­ the­nation­to­“stay­in­your­bubble”­(“‘Stay­in­Your­Bubble’”­2020).­But­while­ pandemic­bubbles­are­popularly­tied­to­health­and­security,­it­is­also­clear­that­ they­can­be­deeply­hazardous—including­screen­fatigue­and­addiction,­iso- lation­and­depression,­and­problems­of­access,­attention,­and­ableism­(Gins- burg,­Mills,­and­Rapp­2020).­ The­speculative­bubble­produces­the­platform­economy;­the­pandemic­bubble­ remakes­and­intensifies­aspects­of­it,­with­financial­analysts­like­Royal­Bank­of­ Canada’s­John­Stackhouse­going­so­far­as­to­call­this­the­“platform­pandemic”­ (2020).­In­what­follows,­we­briefly­examine­how­platformed­life­is­transformed­ by­the­current­crisis,­focusing­on­the­relationship­between­essential­ser- vices and the experience of convenience (consumers),­and­how­this­notion­of­ convenience generates risk and exposure for those who work to produce it (laborers). There­are­two­general­models­for­understanding­platforms.­The­first­view,­ common­in­media­studies,­understands­platforms­as­a­base­that­supports­ social­media­and­related­activities:­YouTube,­Twitter,­Twitch,­Facebook,­etc.­ The second model is as an economic intermediary between two people or entities­to­facilitate­financial­transactions­(Eisenmann,­Parker,­and­Alstyne­ 2006;­Kokuryō­1994;­Steinberg­2019).­Since­the­2000s,­transactional­platforms­ like­the­FAANG­(Facebook,­Amazon,­Apple,­Netflix,­Google)­and­BAT­(Baidu,­ Alibaba,­Tencent)­giants,­among­many­others,­have­become­intermediaries­ for­everyday­exchange,­displacing­newspapers,­ad­agencies,­film­theatres,­ booksellers,­department­stores,­cloud­providers,­taxis,­hotels,­and­much­else. What platform intermediaries provide consumers is convenience. The con- venience­of­not­going­to­a­video­store;­of­not­re-entering­credit­card­infor- mation­for­every­transaction;­of­calling­a­driver­to­your­home­with­an­app;­ Pandemic Platforms 107 of internet-mediated transactions of all types. Tim Wu has described conve- nience­in­the­twenty-fi­rst­century­as­“more­effi­­cient­and­easier­ways­of­doing­ personal­tasks”­and­“perhaps­the­most­powerful­force­shaping­our­individual­ lives­and­our­economies”­(Wu­2018).­Convenience­is,­of­course,­a­historically­ relative­concept­(Tierney­1993).­Convenience­is­produced­by­a­space-time­com- pression that gives rise to a feeling of ease linked historically to “increasing pressures­of­time”­and­tied­to­the­historical­rise­of­the­consumer­society­ (Shove­2003,­22).­Convenience­is­also­what­Sianne­Ngai­would­call­an­ “aesthetic­category”­(2012),­one­whose­parameters­change­according­to­the­ era­in­question.­As­mobilized­here,­convenience­is­more­specifi­cally­tied­to­ the­lure­of­immediacy­off­ered­by­tech­companies;­the­“prominent­promise­ of­convenience,­with­its­emphasis­on­immediacy­and­instant­gratifi­cation”­ (Appadurai­and­Alexander­2020,­21)­that­Appardurai­and­Alexander­fi­nd­at­the­ heart­of­the­appeal­of­Silicon­Valley­companies­and­their­platforms.­Indeed,­ convenience is crucial to how platforms disrupt existing industries and carve out new revenue streams for big tech. But amid critiques of data extraction and­surveillance­capitalism­(Andrejevic­2009;­Zuboff­­2019),­less­attention­has­ been given to how convenience structures the consumption or production sides of the platform economy—an issue that is exacerbated by the COVID crisis. [Figure­1]­Pandemic­platforms­make­convenience­essential­(Source:­Neves­and­Steinberg­ 2020, image­design­by­Teagan­Lance) The COVID pandemic transforms our relationship to platforms and to con- venience­by­expanding­and­normalizing­the­protective­bubble­(distancing,­ sheltering,­quarantine,­etc.).­This­bubble­brings­with­it­two­sets­of­distinctions­ that reorder our everyday activities: – Essential­vs.­non-essential­(workers,­tasks,­items) – Remote­vs.­in-person­(work,­services,­interactions). 108 Pandemic Media In­this­context,­activities­that­are­both­remote and essential take the place of most­in-person­activities,­like­going­to­work­or­to­the­grocery­store,­which­are­ further­shifted­onto­platforms­(fi­g.­1).­This­is­to­observe­an­important­trans- formation: what was merely convenient just a few months ago has become infrastructural­to­everyday­life­for­many­people.­Put­diff­erently,­this­intersec- tion recasts convenience as an essential or necessary service. The impact of this shift for digital platforms is crucial and divisive. For the quarantined and the vulnerable,­pandemic­platforms­emerged­as­basic­services­providing­access­ and­delivery­of­food,­medicine,­household­items,­TV­and­movies­(streaming),­ and­contact­with­loved­ones,­students,­and­coworkers­(e.g.­Zoom).­In­an­era­ of­contagion,­remoteness­and­the­absence­of­human­touch­is­at­a­premium,­ and many platform intermediaries are well positioned to provide essential services­at­a­distance.­Amazon,­as­one­person­close­to­the­company­puts­it,­is­ presenting­itself­as­the­new­Red­Cross­(Lee­and­Nilsson­2020).­ [Figure­2]­Essential­and­in-person­platforms­produce­risk­and­exposure­(Source:­Neves­and­ Steinberg­2020, image­design­by­Teagan­Lance) But­the­confl­ation­of­the­essential and the convenient also obscures much about pandemic platforms. Not only does this pervasive discourse under- stand platforms from the perspective of distancing and privileged con- sumers—those­who­use­contactless­services­to­order,­receive,­and­rate—but­ it diminishes how the production of convenience itself generates inequality and­vulnerability.­There­are,­of­course,­important­reasons­to­ensure­essential­ services and minimize human contact. This is not in dispute. What concerns us here is how pandemic platforms exploit essential and in-person labor (see fi­g.­2)­in­ways­that­intensify­risk­and­exposure­(e.g.­for­grocery­clerks,­nurses,­ warehouse and delivery workers) and contribute to the consolidation of the platform industry. A recent headline captures the situation: “The Economy is­Reeling.­The­Tech­Giants­Spy­Opportunity”­(Isaac­2020).­Instead­we­need­ to­re-ask­an­old­question:­who­produces­convenience­and­who­consumes­it,­ Pandemic Platforms 109 and­under­what­conditions?­In­this­way,­the­current­crisis­both­makes­visible­ already-existing­precarity—Amazon­warehouses,­the­gig­economy,­platform- mediated­contract­workers­(Chen­and­Sun­2020;­Scholz­2017)—and­intensifies­ gigification­and­self-responsibility­by­using­the­crisis­to­make­this­work­ essential. It also presents new opportunities for political dissent and worker organization,­not­least­of­which­were­strikes­by­Amazon­and­Instacart­workers­ (Lerman­and­Tiku­2020). As platformed convenience becomes the new normal amidst an ethical requirement­to­flatten­the­curve­and­ensure­access­to­basics,­a­few­companies­ have emerged as the lead providers of essential-remote services. From the perspective­of­pandemic­media,­key­platforms­like­Amazon,­Microsoft,­Netflix,­ WhatsApp,­and­Zoom­play­an­outsized­role­in­shaping­everyday­life­(in­North­ America­and­beyond).­Zoom,­in­particular,­is­a­crucial­example­of­what­we­are­ calling­pandemic­platforms.­In­the­span­of­a­few­months,­it­has­shifted­from­ a­niche­subscription­service­to­a­basic­infrastructure­used­for­work,­happy­ hours,­and­even­funerals.­In­December­2019,­Zoom­had­a­user­base­of­10­mil- lion.­By­April­2020,­Zoom­claims­it­has­“300­million­daily­meeting­participants”­ (Warren­2020).­It­has­gone­from­a­minor­software­to­become­a­proprietary­ eponym and a verb: let’s Zoom. Zoom­(like­Slack,­Teams,­and­others)­brings­renewed­attention­to­teleworking,­ now­expanded­well­beyond­tech­jobs­and­privileged­digital­nomads,­as­an­ everyday­necessity­(Gregg­2013).­This­includes,­in­many­areas,­a­crucial­role­for­ live and asynchronous video for a wide range of jobs—from telemedicine to teaching.­In­terms­of­higher­education,­and­the­work­of­media­studies­in­par- ticular,­it ’s­a­moment­when­the­object­of­study­also­becomes­an­infrastructural­ condition.­This­is­also­to­pressure­the­conceptual­distinction,­suggested­above,­ separating consumers and producers in the platform economy. For all its analytic­utility­(Qiu,­Gregg,­and­Crawford­2014),­this­separation­begs­the­ques- tion of how to parse the range of activities carried out on platforms like Zoom: academics­produce­course­content,­use­the­platform­to­attend­meetings­and­ conferences,­hold­office­hours,­conduct­research­(as­in­the­current­fascination­ with­remote­ethnography),­and­even­form­personal­relationships.­Students­by­ the same token both watch Zoom and also regularly generate their own con- tent and uses. 110 Pandemic Media [Figure­3]­The­“I­Yield­My­Time”­meme­speaks­to­the­rapid­significance­of­Zoom­and­the­ways­ that media platforms penetrate all aspects of life during the COVID crisis. (Source: Screengrab from YouTube video: https://www.gq.com/story/lapd-i-yield-my-time-guy) The rise of platforms like Zoom also points to the further outsourcing of public services­to­consumer­platforms.­On­the­one­hand,­even­commercial­platforms­ like Instagram and WhatsApp have allowed for local communities to organize groceries­for­the­elderly,­among­other­community­projects.­On­the­other­ hand,­the­current­crisis­has­enabled­multinational­corporations­to­extend­their­ influence­across­traditional­social­sectors,­including­health­care­(Apple­and­ Google’s­contact­tracing­apps),­education­(Zoom),­postal­delivery­(Amazon),­ news­and­public­information­(Facebook­Live),­and­much­else­besides.­Even­ public­hearings­take­place­on­private­platforms,­exemplified­perhaps­by­the­LA­ Police­Department’s­virtual­community­meeting­gone­viral­video­(fig.­3).­These­ interventions,­which­intensify­changes­already­underway,­demand­that­we­ turn our attention to how the platform economy seeks to reorder society. We must not only guard against the Uberization of social care and neighborhood life,­but­also­refuse­to­let­these­industries­set­the­terms­for­how­we­inhabit­ and respond to the current crisis. This brief consideration of pandemic platforms has two general takeaways for COVID-era­media­critique.­The­first­is­that­media­studies­has­much­to­gain­by­ thinking across platforms and not just those that deliver media content (Net- flix,­YouTube,­Facebook).­Instead,­platforms’­unique­mode­of­intermediation cuts across multiple sectors—from online ordering to video streaming to health­monitoring.­This­includes,­as­we­have­suggested­here,­the­ways­that­ convenience­and­risk­are­conflated­by­the­logistical­operations­of­the­current­ crisis.­Second,­beyond­the­question­of­production­and­consumption­that­we­ emphasize­above,­platform­mediation­also­turns­our­attention­to­the­cen- trality of distribution and logistics­(Cowen­2014;­Lovink­and­Rossiter­2018).­In­ Pandemic Platforms 111 this­context,­media/platforms,­understood­as­“civilizational­ordering­devices,”­ play a critical role in administering our experience and understanding of crisis (Peters­2015,­5).­ The consequences of intensifying platformed convenience (as both remote and essential) for our everyday habits and social operations will endure long­after­the­coronavirus­goes­the­way­of­the­Spanish­flu­or­becomes­a­new­ normal. More than ever we need critical media perspectives that examine how crises—of­health,­but­also­economic,­political,­racial,­etc.—shape­the­plat- formed convenience that unevenly distributes basic services and risk media society­(Neves­2020).­This­includes,­as­is­forcefully­traced­in­the­Pirate Care syllabus,­the­growing­gap­between­care­and­negligence­at­the­heart­of­the­ current­crisis­(Fragnito­et.­al.­2020).­Here­we­rely­on­both­quotidian­and­con- crete understandings of crisis—especially the experiences and mediations of everyday life during the coronavirus pandemic—as well as the fact that critique itself derives from the Greek krisis. As­Wendy­Brown­puts­it,­“the­project­of­ critique is to set the times right again by discerning and repairing a tear in justice through practices that are themselves exemplary of the justice that has been­rent”­(Brown­2005,­6).­Addressing­crisis­is­central­to­the­critical­project­ itself,­and­hence­to­deepen­critique­from­within­platform­studies­also­requires­ that­we­attend­to­how­platforms­seize­moments­of­crisis­to­reconfigure­the­ social. This involves connecting the political sense of crisis to its more recent technological consolidation. To rework Wendy Hui Kyong Chun’s critique of networked­technologies, in Updating to Remain the Same,­that­“habit­+­crisis­=­ update”­(Chun­2016),­we­might­say­that:­platforms­+­crisis­=­inequality.­That­is,­ pandemic­platforms­produce­convenience­for­some,­hazard­for­others,­and­ financial­consolidation­for­elites.­In­many­regards­this­is­a­familiar­story­of­ exploitation and crisis. What is perhaps new about this mode of organization and extraction is the role of media platforms in redistributing convenience and necessity. Platform monopolies will just be waiting for the next crisis- bubble to work this equation again. References Andrejevic,­Mark.­2009.­“Exploiting­YouTube:­Contradictions­of­User-Generated­Labour.”­In­The YouTube Reader,­edited­by­Pelle­Snickars­and­Patrick­Vonderau,­406–23.­Stockholm:­National­ Library of Sweden. Appadurai,­Arjun,­and­Neta­Alexander.­2020.­Failure. Cambridge: Polity Press. Brown,­Wendy.­2005.­“Untimeliness­and­Punctuality:­Critical­Theory­in­Dark­Times.”­Edgework: Critical Essays on Knowledge and Politics,­1–16.­Princeton,­NJ:­Princeton­University­Press.­ CBC.­2020.­“‘Stay­in­Your­Bubble.’”­CBC,­March­27.­Accessed­December­9,­2020.­https://www.cbc. ca/news/politics/stay-in-your-bubble-dr-njoo-1.5512605. 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Qiu,­Jack­Linchuan,­Melissa­Gregg,­and­Kate­Crawford.­2014.­“Circuits­of­Labour:­A­Labour­ Theory­of­the­IPhone­Era.”­TripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique. Open Access Journal for a Global Sustainable Information Society­12­(2):­564–81. Scholz,­T.­2017.­Uberworked and Underpaid: How Workers Are Disrupting the Digital Economy. Hoboken,­NJ:­John­Wiley­&­Sons. Shove,­E.­A.­2003.­Comfort, Cleanliness and Convenience: The Social Organization of Normality. Oxford: Berg. Stackhouse,­John.­2020.­“Food­Delivery’s­Challenges,­Vaccine­Hopes.”­The Current Account, Royal Bank of Canada Newsletter,­June­21. Steinberg,­Marc.­2019.­The Platform Economy: How Japan Transformed the Consumer Internet. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Tierney,­Thomas­F.­1993.­The Value of Convenience: A Genealogy of Technical Culture.­Albany,­NY:­ SUNY Press. Warren,­Tom.­2020.­“Zoom­Admits­It­Doesn’t­Have­300­Million­Users,­Corrects­Misleading­ Claims.”­The Verge,­April­30.­Accessed­December­9,­2020.­https://www.theverge.com/2020/ 4/30/21242421/zoom-300-million-users-incorrect-meeting-participants-statement. Wu,­Tim.­2018.­“The­Tyranny­of­Convenience.”­The New York Times,­February­16.­Accessed­ December­9,­2020.­https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/16/opinion/sunday/tyranny-con- venience.html. Zuboff,­Shoshana.­2019.­The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power.­London:­Profile­Books. ANIMATION MIRGRANT WORKERS INDIA SOCIAL MEDIA GLOBAL SOUTH [ 1 1 ] An Animated Tale of Two Pandemics Juan Llamas-Rodriguez A fifty-second animated video uploaded to Instagram on May 21 by Indian artist Debjyoti Saha poignantly illustrates the contrast between how internal migrant workers and upper-middle-class Indians experienced the country’s pandemic lockdown. The video’s circu- lation on social media exposed the connections between these intra-national disparities and those of other nations around the world. In its transnational circulation, the video offers a glimpse into how the pandemic has further expanded the rift between global cosmopolitan elites and the millions that inhabit the Global South. An­oft-repeated­refrain­in­the­early­weeks­of­the­global­COVID-19­pandemic­ was­that­“we­are­all­in­this­together.”­The­assumption­behind­this­phrase­was­ that,­because­a­virus­does­not­socially­discriminate,­the­global­pandemic­ represented­an­event­that­affected­all­groups­of­people­equally.­The­actual­ spread of the virus soon belied this ideology once reported rates of infection and­death­tolls­were­shown­to­predominantly­affected­poor­racial­minorities.­ Absent adequate access to healthcare and unable to stay at home for fear of 116 Pandemic Media losing­their­sole­sources­of­income,­disenfranchised­groups­disproportion- ately­suffered­the­brunt­of­infection­and­death.­As­the­months­went­on,­the­ pandemic­revealed­an­uneven­distribution­of­harm,­particularly­in­countries­ where leaders severely failed to respond promptly and decisively to protect public­health.  This uneven distribution of harm has been starkly evident in the case of India. On­March­24,­prime­minister­Narendra­Modi­announced­a­nationwide­lock- down starting at midnight. The rushed announcement and short time frame left­millions­of­“internal­migrants”­(daily­wage­laborers­from­India’s­rural­towns­ working in urban informal sectors) essentially jobless with four hours’ notice to get back home. Some made it into packed trains heading back to their home­states,­but­the­rest­of­these­estimated­139­million­people­embarked­ on­the­homeward­journey­by­whatever­means­they­could­(Bhowmick­2020).­ As­India’s­states­closed­their­internal­borders­to­mitigate­the­virus­spread,­ some migrants were trapped in government-run shelters. Most continued to walk for miles on empty highways with little money or food for weeks as the summer­heat­built­(N.­Roy­2020).­While­those­in­the­cities­followed­shelter-in- place­orders­from­the­comfort­of­their­home,­hundreds­of­internal­migrants­ have­died­not­because­of­the­virus­but­due­to­starvation,­exhaustion,­travel­ accidents,­lack­or­denial­of­medical­care,­suicides,­and­police­brutality.1 A­50-second­animated­video­by­Mumbai-based­animator­Debjyoti­Saha­ succinctly­illustrates­these­disparities.­Posted­on­Saha’s­Instagram­profile­on­ May­21,­the­animation­shows­two­side-by-side­narratives­of­an­upper-middle- class man and a poor migrant man dealing with the restrictions instituted by the­lockdown­(fig.­1).­While­the­former­finds­comfort­in­all­sorts­of­recreational­ activities­within­his­home,­the­latter­suffers­hunger,­discrimination,­and­ unbearable heat in his attempt to travel back to his village. Within days of its publication,­the­video­struck­a­chord­with­users,­gaining­almost­2.5­million­ views­on­Instagram­and­achieving­worldwide­circulation.  1­ The­“Non-virus­Deaths”­project­spearheaded­by­Aman,­Kanika­Sharma,­Krushna,­and­ Thejesh GN has been tracking data about these other deaths related to the pandemic: https://thejeshgn.com/projects/covid19-india/non-virus-deaths/. An Animated Tale of Two Pandemics 117 [Figure­1]­Debjyoti­Saha’s­video­uses­ironic­contrast­to­emphasize­the­class­disparities­shaping­ experiences of lockdown during the pandemic. (Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/ CAcKQ41A-s7/) The video’s most powerful rhetorical strategy is the use of ironic contrast by showing excerpts of what seem like two similar activities only to reveal that their­distinct­contexts­make­a­world­of­difference:­sport­sneakers­walking­ on­a­treadmill­versus­bare­feet­walking­on­the­pavement;­a­cool­breeze­from­ air conditioning versus the wind under a tree on the side of the road. Saha alternates­between­horizontal­and­vertical­split-frames,­with­the­middle-class­ man­in­the­left­or­top­half­and­the­migrant­man­in­the­right­or­bottom­half,­ training­the­viewer­to­first­watch­the­example­of­economic­privilege­then­ confront the sight of disenfranchisement. Water from a shower head con- trasts­with­the­greenish­liquid­coming­from­a­disinfectant­hose,­an­allusion­to­ that­time­when­authorities­in­the­city­of­Bareilly­“sanitized”­migrant­workers­ by­spraying­a­bleach­solution­on­their­unprotected­skin­and­eyes­(fig.­2).­The­ video ends with another allusion to a recent tragic event in India: the death of sixteen exhausted migrants who fell asleep on the train tracks and were 118 Pandemic Media killed­by­an­oncoming­train­in­Aurangabad­(MN­2020). Breaking­the­previously­ established­convention­by­positioning­the­migrant­worker­on­the­top­half,­this­ frame pointedly signals us to rethink how we have been viewing the relation- ship between the two halves thus far. [Figure­2]­Debjyoti­Saha’s­video­uses­ironic­contrast­to­emphasize­the­class­disparities­shaping­ experiences of lockdown during the pandemic. (Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/ CAcKQ41A-s7/) Debjyoti­Saha’s­simple­2-D­animation­and­collage­aesthetics­accentuate­the­ video’s­social­critique.­Settings­and­objects­are­specific­enough­to­denote­class­ differences­yet­generic­enough­to­implicate­a­broad­public.­In­a­short­montage­ contrasting­the­food­options­of­the­two­men,­the­background­on­the­poor­ man’s­side­is­a­collage­of­Indian­newspapers,­suggesting­not­only­the­man’s­ lack of plates to eat on but also the news’ complicity in ignoring the plight of people­like­him.­Although­a­thick­black­line­always­divides­the­stories,­we­hear­ the­diegetic­sound­effects­from­both­sides­at­once.­The­style­visually­separates­ the two men’s lived realities while aurally reminding us of their co-temporality. Its ominous soundtrack (an excerpt from the score for Dunkirk) accentuates An Animated Tale of Two Pandemics 119 the tragedy at the intersection of its twin stories: ignoring the situation of the poor man is what allows the rich man to enjoy his quarantined time unbothered.­These­are­not­just­contrasting­stories;­they­are­relational­and­ interdependent.­At­the­end,­when­the­train­horn­blares­and­a­light­approaches­ the­poor­migrant­man,­presumably­about­to­run­him­over,­the­rich­man­sleeps­ soundly­(fig.­3). [Figure­3]­Debjyoti­Saha’s­video­uses­ironic­contrast­to­emphasize­the­class­disparities­shaping­ experiences of lockdown during the pandemic. (Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/ CAcKQ41A-s7/) This­animated­tale­of­two­vastly­different­experiences­of­the­pandemic­was­ the most popular entry in Saha’s Korona video series about long-standing tensions­and­rifts­in­Indian­society­laid­bare­by­the­pandemic.­Saha­modifies­ corona­as­“Korona”­to­signal­“don’t,”­the­meaning­of­the­word­in­Bengali.­“It­is­ a wordplay on all the things people shouldn’t be doing during this coronavirus pandemic,”­he­admits.­An­early­video­in­the­series­features­a­doctor­trying­to­ explain the lack of resources to deal with the rising virus infections but being overwhelmed by banging pots and pans. Another video features a woman at 120 Pandemic Media a­pharmacy­racially­profiling­an­Asian­man,­an­African­man,­and­an­Arab­man­ by­associating­them­with­different­viruses.­Saha­published­the­videos­on­his­ Instagram­page,­where­they­regularly­logged­anywhere­between­50,000­and­ 100,000­views­each.­In­an­interview­with­the­Hindustan Times,­the­animator­ explained­that­“Public­memory­is­short­and­news­fades­away,­but­I­hope­the­ message­[of­these­videos]­stays”­(quoted­in­Rao­2020). In­particular,­the­message­of­the­“two­tales”­video­soon­found­resonance­ around the world. While the black line dividing the two narratives signals social­differences­within­India,­the­popularity­and­widespread­circulation­ of the video illustrate the similarities between India’s disparities and those around­the­world.­Across­Latin­America,­the­video­acquired­notoriety­follow- ing its publication on the social media accounts for AJ+ en Español with the provocative­tag­“¿Vivimos­todos­la­misma­pandemia?”­(Do­we­all­live­the­same­ pandemic?)­Indeed,­I­first­came­across­the­video­when­Mexican­journalist­ Gabriela Warkentin tweeted the AJ+­post­with­the­caption:­“Es­la­India,­pero­ podría­ser­México­y­tantos­lugares­más.”­(It ’s­India,­but­it­could­be­Mexico­and­ many­other­places.) Akin­to­the­millions­of­internal­migrants­in­India,­countries­ in­Latin­America­rely­heavily­on­informal­markets,­and­leaders­in­countries­like­ Mexico and Brazil were unable or unwilling to proactively support poor com- munities­affected­by­the­pandemic­(Rivers­2020).­By­summer­2020,­the­United­ Nations­Development­Programme­warned­that­the­unfettered­rise­in­COVID-19­ cases,­growing­food­insecurity,­and­the­coming­economic­recession­in­most­ countries in the region would exacerbate already stark inequalities (Luiselli 2020;­Santos­2020). Through­its­online­circulation,­the­video­manages­to­transform­the­referent­for­ “we”­in­the­“we­are­in­this­together”­refrain.­It­addresses­a­global­cosmopolitan­ audience,­understood­as­a­transnational­network­of­urban­elites­(Cheah­2006)­ that­would­have­the­time,­resources,­and­labor­stability­to­be­watching­the­ video on their online feeds. While the incidents alluded to in the poor man’s narrative­invoke­specific­events­in­India,­the­references­in­the­rich­man’s­story­ include­recent­social­media­fads­such­as­Dalgona­coffee,­Zoom­parties,­and­the­ “Laxed­(Siren­Beat)”­dance­on­TikTok.­Despite­being­spread­across­different­ countries,­the­cosmopolitan­audience,­in­some­ways,­lives­the­pandemic­ together through this shared media online. Yet the video explicitly divides this public­from­the­global­marginalized.­That­other­public,­represented­by­the­ poor­man,­has­no­access­to­these­shared­media.­Instead,­they­walk­every­day;­ brave­the­heat,­exhaustion,­and­the­virus;­and­plunge­further­into­poverty.­ Excluded­from­the­global­“we,”­this­other­public­is­instead­the­global­“they.” “They”­belong­to­what­scholars­often­refer­to­as­the­deterritorialized­geog- raphy and subaltern relational position of the Global South. Rather than categorizing­nation-states­as­haves­and­have-nots,­the­concept­of­the­Global­ South illuminates how the uneven transnational spread of racial capitalism An Animated Tale of Two Pandemics 121 upholds rich elites in so-called poor countries and maintains subjugated peoples­within­the­borders­of­so-called­wealthy­countries­(Prashad­2013).­It ’s­ India,­but­it­could­be­Mexico­and­many­other­places.­The­Global­South­exists­ in­relation­to­the­cosmopolitan­elites­that­benefit­from­its­exploitation.­In­ many­nations­in­Latin­America,­for­instance,­wealthy­citizens­returning­from­ Europe­trips­first­introduced­the­COVID-19­virus­but­then­poorer­citizens­who­ kept­working­in­formal­and­informal­sectors­suffered­its­worst­effects­(Stott­ and­Schipani­2020).­Most­of­the­euphemistically­titled­“essential­workers”­and­ “pandemic­heroes”­are­in­fact­working-class­and­migrant­people­bearing­the­ risk of infection and death to support daily (and often leisure) services for everyone­else­(Hammonds,­Kerrissey,­and­Tomaskovic-Devey­2020).­In­this­ regard,­the­Saha­video­not­only­illustrates­an­intra-national­division­but­also­ exposes the networks of complicity perpetuated by cosmopolitan audiences around the world. In­April,­Arundhati­Roy­examined­the­Indian­response­to­the­pandemic­and­ argued that “pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine­their­world­anew.­This­one­is­no­different”­(2020).­Imagining­the­world­ anew,­however,­will­require­admitting­there­are­at­least­two worlds­suffering­ through the pandemic and contending with the rift between the two—a rift the pandemic only further exacerbates. References Bhowmick,­Nilanjana.­2020.­“‘They­Treat­Us­Like­Stray­Dogs’:­Migrant­Workers­Flee­India’s­Cities.”­ National Geographic,­May­27,­2020.­Accessed­July­14,­2020.­https://www.nationalgeographic. com/history/2020/05/they-treat-us-like-stray-dogs-migrant-workers-flee-india-cities/. Cheah,­Pheng.­2006.­“Cosmopolitanism.”­Theory, Culture & Society­23­(May):­486–96. Hammonds,­Clare,­Jasmine­Kerrissey,­and­Donald­Tomaskovic-Devey.­2020.­“Stressed,­ Unsafe,­and­Insecure:­Essential­Workers­Need­A­New,­New­Deal.”­Center for Employment Equity,­June­5.­Accessed­July­25,­2020.­https://www.umass.edu/employmentequity/ stressed-unsafe-and-insecure-essential-workers-need-new-new-deal. Luiselli,­Cassio.­2020.­“Food­Security­in­the­Face­of­the­Covid-19­Pandemic.”­United Nations Development Programme,­June­16.­Accessed­July­25,­2020.­https://www.latinamerica.undp. org/content/rblac/en/home/blog/2020/la-seguridad-alimentaria-frente-a-la-pandemia-del- covid-19.html. MN,­Parth.­2020.­“‘Walked­All­Night­on­Tracks,­Left­Behind­as­I­Couldn’t­Keep­up’­Says­Auranga- bad­Tragedy­Survivor.”­Firstpost,­May­9,­2020.­Accessed­July­14,­2020.­https://www.firstpost. com/india/walked-on-tracks-to-avoid-police-check-posts-were-in-too-deep-sleep-to-hear- goods-train-coming-says-aurangabad-tragedy-survivor-8350121.html. Prashad,­Vijay.­2013.­The Poorer Nations: A Possible History of the Global South.­Brooklyn,­NY:­ Verso Books. Rao,­Yoshita.­2020.­“Korona­—­Debjyoti­Saha­Paints­a­Different­Picture­of­the­Coronavirus­ Pandemic­in­India.”­Hindustan Times,­May­26.­Accessed­July­14,­2020.­https://www.hindustan- times.com/art-and-culture/korona-debjyoti-saha-paints-a-different-picture-of-the-coronavi- rus-pandemic-in-india/story-r8a0XVMk3V9bhxz7SWX4pO.html. Rivers,­Matt.­2020.­“Latin­America­is­Losing­the­Battle­against­Coronavirus.”­CNN,­June­6,­2020.­ Accessed­July­14,­2020.­https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/06/americas/latin-america-coronavi- rus-intl/index.html. 122 Pandemic Media Roy, Arundhati. 2020. “The Pandemic is a Portal.” Financial Times, April 3. Accessed July 14, 2020. https://www.ft.com/content/10d8f5e8-74eb-11ea-95fe-fcd274e920ca. Roy, Nilanjana. 2020. “A Nation on Pause: Coronavirus in India.” 1843 Magazine, April 24. Accessed July 14, 2020. https://www.1843magazine.com/dispatches/a-nation-on-pause- coronavirus-in-india. Santos, Maria Emma. 2020. “Multidimensional Poverty in Times of COVID-19.” United Nations Development Programme, April 28. Accessed July 25, 2020. https://www.latinamerica.undp. org/content/rblac/en/home/blog/2020/pobreza-multidimensional-en-tiempos-del-covid-19. html. Stott, Michael, and Andres Schipani. 2020. “Poverty and Populism Put Latin America at the Centre of Pandemic.” Financial Times, June 13. Accessed July 14, 2020. https://www.ft.com/ content/aa84f572-f7af-41a8-be41-e835bddbed5b. Thejesh GN. 2020. "Non Virus Deaths." Accessed December 20, 2020. https://thejeshgn.com/ projects/covid19-india/non-virus-deaths/. FILM RESILIENCY VULNERABILITIES FESTIVAL ECOSYSTEM ECONOMIC SHOCK [ 1 2 ] Vulnerabilities and Resiliency in the Festival Ecosystem: Notes on Approaching Film Festivals in Pandemic Times VULNERABILITIES Marijke de Valck Film festivals are hit particularly hard in pandemic times. Safety regulations restrict festivals in core activities and organizations suffer from the ensuing economic shock. The global health crisis interferes in the logics of the global art film economy, which is paced by an annual festival and award season rhythm. The impact of COVID-19 on film festivals, however, cannot be generalized. These notes distinguish film festivals on a continuum between film-driven and festival-driven events, remind scholars to consider the diverging vulnerabilities in the film festival eco- system, and end with a call to combine a tradition in case-study-based scholarship with large-scale data projects to face the challenge of theorizing transitions in the film festival ecosystem. 126 Pandemic Media On April 9, 2020 I took a seat behind the computer to attend the Zoom event “Screen Talks: moving film festivals online during Covid-19.”1 The inaugural event of the online Screen Talks program discussed opportunities and challenges for film festivals during COVID-19. While Screen editor Matt Mueller engaged three guests2 in conversation, attendees used the chat to flag presence and send amiable greetings to the group. It was this chat space and the sense of community evoked through a spontaneous presence check that added urgency and connectivity to the online event. It took well over 10 minutes before everybody who felt compelled had been able to express presence. The conversation that evolved over one hour touched upon several pressing issues in the festival world: choosing between moving online, postponement, and cancellation, the status of world premieres, rights online, geo-blocking, IT solutions, the problem of revenue loss, what the big festivals would do and how this would impact the lifecycle of films and the award season. In addition, anticipated long-term effects were mentioned. One hoped festivals would reap the benefits of their forced digital adventures and expected they would continue working with online programs, in particular because of the advantages of increased access and diversification of audiences. At the same time the sentiment that the value of the theatrical experience would not be lost—and may even emerge stronger from this crisis—found resonance as well. Despite celebration of the connectivity gained, the longing for “real” con- tact persisted. The Zoom event constituted an early public discussion on the future of film festivals in pandemic times. It offered a useful practical inventory of the immediate concerns of professionals working for festivals and a preview of debates that will need to be conducted more rigorously in the months and years to come. Despite local differences and a high level of uncertainty about future developments, it is safe to say the festival ecosystem is severely challenged by the enfolding crisis, and that this, in its turn, in time, will require film scholars to reassess the tools and frames they use to make sense of world cinemas and contemporary media industries in which film festivals traditionally take on nodal roles (Andrew 2010; Chaudhuri 2005; de Valck 2006; White 2015). Knowledge of what happens in the professional field will be indis- pensable for the task ahead of us, and close monitoring of developments, I contend, will have to precede new theorizing. These notes on approaching fes- tivals in pandemic times are a reminder to distinguish amongst the multitude 1 The video stream of the talk was recorded and can be watched here: https://www. screendaily.com/news/screen-talk-the-challenges-and-opportunities-for-film-festivals- during-covid-19/5148961.article. 2 CPH:DOX director Tine Fischer, BFI director of festivals Tricia Tuttle, and executive director and director of programming at Miami Film Festival Jaie Laplante. Vulnerabilities and Resiliency in the Festival Ecosystem 127 of festival events when assessing vulnerabilities and resiliency within the film festival ecosystem before, during, and after COVID-19. Film and Festival Of the two key components of film festivals—the films and the festival—it is the festival form that appeared most vulnerable in pandemic times. Con- fronted with safety regulations or lockdowns many film festivals were quick to respond by making (selections) of their programs available through digital platforms (de Valck and Damiens 2020).3 Having adapted to digital delivery standards in the early 2010s, technical options for moving films online were readily available and relatively easy to achieve by festivals partnering with platform providers. While films migrated online quite smoothly, creative attempts to emulate the festival experience online proved to be more complicated. Virtual talks, Q&As, cocktail parties, and markets differ from their physical counterparts in atmosphere and affordances. Once the initial excitement of online experimentation had waned off and screen time fatigue set in, virtual festivals are, simply put, less festive and therefore less effective in achieving some of their purposes. The symbiotic relation between films and festival that is forged at film festival events is worth unpacking a bit further, because ties are far from uniform across events. Some festivals serve the films. At others, the films serve the festival. Cannes can serve as emblematic case at one side of the spectrum. On the opposite side we find a myriad of audience events (Peranson 2008). I will take mountain film festivals, an arbitrary choice of genre, as my example here. Cannes is famous as well as notorious for its “hoopla”—the hype and buzz, glitz and glamour, the indulgence and opulent pleasures, the scandals, sun, and sex (Sklar 1996; Bart 1997; Pascal 1997; Schwartz 2007; Jungen 2014). It is this affective and experiential decoration of the event that lubricates the business of international film industries and drives circulation of prime pro- duct globally. Festival serves film.4 Mountain film festivals are events where adventure sports enthusiasts gather to watch films. The social and communal aspects of the festival are crucial to their popularity, and many festival visitors have prior affiliations through climbing clubs or outdoor gear stores (Frohlick 2005, 177). Their engagement with the narratives and imaginaries of the films 3 See the special dossier Film Festivals and COVID-19 in NECSUS_European Journal of Media Studies for reviews of various case studies (de Valck, Damiens 2020). 4 Please note that the use of the word ‘film’ in this context is not elaborated upon and deployed to contrast with the word ‘festival.’ More precise would be to write that the festival form facilitates film business or supports the functioning of a global film economy. Tensions between festivals’ commitments to serve the interest of film as an industry versus film as art form, however, have always existed and are a recurrent point of discussion and critique, in which the term ‘film’ (as art) is typically contrasted with ‘business’ (of film). 128 Pandemic Media constitutes a welcome occasion to form and perform identities that hold social significance in the peer group. The films screened at mountain film festivals, in other words, are vehicles for mountaineering communities to investigate, articulate, and negotiate shared discourses. Films are conducive to the purpose of the festival. While many film festivals ought to be placed somewhere on the continuum between these two extreme poles, a pertinent question to ask is whether the impact of COVID-19 is felt differently on either side? Impact of COVID-19 It is evident that festivals are hit particularly hard in pandemic times. In anticipation of a vaccine for COVID-19 safety regulations are required to prevent spread of the virus, and as long as social distancing is the norm film festivals are restricted in core activities. Antonyms for festival–described as “social gathering or enjoyable activity to celebrate something”–are solitude, isolation, and lack of company.5 At a first glance, the festival-driven events, like the mountain film festivals mentioned above, therefore appear to be heavily affected by the COVID-19 containment measures, precisely because the collective festival experience, the social gathering, constitutes such an essential part of their mission. The Dutch Mountain Film Festival (DMFF) for example states: The film festival is the moment when memories become shared. It communicates and accounts for these, and excites and entertains its audience. The film festival provides new insights, education and inspiration. The festival is the platform for meeting film producers, adventurers, as well as old mountain comrades, in the ambience of a mountain refuge. It is like a mountain expedition, where new vistas open out after every corner.6 By promoting the festival as meeting place and memory site (Nora 1986; see de Valck 2006, 138) DMFF emphasizes the significance of onsite festival encounters for its event. Such a firm commitment to physical encounters was also apparent in the way COVID-19 was handled by the principal player in the field. The Canadian BANFF Mountain Film Festival, which supplies films to the local hosts of the BANFF Mountain Film Festival World Tour, pointedly did not chose to move the tour online, but initially opted for postponing events in Europe. Only when the number of COVID-19 infections and deaths continued to increase, BANFF decided to cancel all events for the remaining 5 For a full list of antonyms go to https://www.wordhippo.com/what-is/the-opposite-of/ festival.html. 6 Website Dutch Mountain Film Festival. Accessed June 15, 2020. https://www.dmff.eu/en/ about-dmff/vision-and-mission/. Vulnerabilities and Resiliency in the Festival Ecosystem 129 part of the 2020 tour. Particularly telling is the way compensation was han- dled. Prospective festival visitors who had purchased tickets for the tour were addressed as “dear BANFF fans” and offered two alternatives; either a new streaming platform, where festival tickets could be exchanged for streaming vouchers or the option to receive a voucher for the World Tour 2021.7 Looking at communication and platform interface it is striking how clearly the streaming platform is distinguished from the festival. Where other festivals attempt to emulate their events in virtual forms, the BANFF World Tour did not eventify the new platform, but instead set it apart from the festival proper. They seem to have sensed that when the purpose of a film festival surpasses the screening of films, the void that is left by cancellation of physical events cannot be filled with online offerings exclusively. On the film-driven side of events the cards are shuffled differently. His- torically, film festivals are a product of the analogue age, where they con- stituted politically endorsed solutions to the growing power of globally operating film oligopolies (de Valck 2006). Film festivals were strategically positioned outside existing distribution and exhibition markets to create visibility for national cinemas and support their circulation. As the number of film festivals worldwide increased the global network that was formed displayed strict hierarchical stratification (Loist 2016), with a small number of top festivals taking up nodal positions in a global art film economy–combining multiple functions as cultural gatekeepers, market places, media events–and the rest assuming retail functions as aggregators of prime films launched at the wholesale events (Bachmann 2000) and/or as outlet for a variety of niche products, like mountain films. In the contemporary digital age, however, the original access problem has lost part of its urgency. Possibilities to distribute media content and aggregate films have exponentially increased (Iordanova and Cunningham 2012; Tryon 2013; Smits 2019), and festivals have seen platform-based companies enter the market and take on roles as aggregators and producers of content formerly typified as festival product (Shattuc 2019; Smits and Nikdel 2019). As a result of the advanced digitized state of the film and media industries—in which digital platforms (e.g. Withoutabox, Vimeo, YouTube) also facilitate processes of fes- tival submission, review, and sales—festival programs could be moved online relatively easily from a technological point of view. Decisions to do so, or rather opt for postponing or cancelation, were not only a matter of crisis man- agement, but involved careful consideration of the strategic interests of the various stakeholders involved, and awareness of possible long-term repercus- sions on dynamics and power relations in the media industries at large. On the film-driven side of festivals, the global health crisis interferes most clearly in the logics of the global art film economy, which is paced by an 7 See https://banff-tour.de/en/veranstaltungsinformationen. 130 Pandemic Media annual festival and award season rhythm. In this economy, the top festivals exert crucial gatekeeping functions through eventified processes of sym- bolic consecration (Elsaesser 2005; English 2008; de Valck 2016). A look at Cannes’s handling of the 2020 edition sheds light on the interests involved for a festival at the helm of the system. The Festival de Cannes 2020 was initially postponed from May to June, and when the pandemic was not brought under control, a split between the two core activities was made. The Marché du Cinema, the world’s premier film market, was moved online and took place from June 22-26. Registration was available from 95 Euros up (early bird fee), including one-year access to Cinando,8 the online database of film projects and professional networking and streaming service of the Marché du Film. This streaming service was used to hold market screenings during the online edition of the Cannes film market. The official competitions and out-of- competition programs, on the other hand, were not moved online. Instead, on June 3, the festival presented an official 2020 selection list that included 56 titles with the Cannes hallmark of approval.9 The list included feature films and shorts as well as classics, all to be released in cinemas carrying the Cannes logo. Choosing distinct strategies for market and festival appears riveted on the hope, prevalent in the festival’s offices in Cannes and Paris, that 2020 will remain an anomaly year, after which everybody will go back to business as usual. Hosting the market in virtual forms ensured continuation of pipeline business for future years, while not hosting a virtual version of the competition programs protects the festival-model in which cultural legiti- mization and prestige are traditionally linked to theatrical exhibition as a pre- mier release window. The allegiance to theaters is buttered thickly by Thierry Frémaux in his official statement about the selection: To be adamant in our decision to deliver an Official Selection is ultimately, for the Festival, the best way to help cinema, as well as focus on the films that will be released in theaters in the coming months. The reopening of cinemas, after months of closure, is a crucial issue. The Cannes Film Festival intends to accompany these films and support their careers in France and abroad, as well as confirm the importance of theaters as in what makes the value of the Seventh Art. We know that many festivals are taking the same position. The statement closes with an incisive appeal on audiences, “Viva il cinema! See you in the movie theatres.”10 8 Available at www.cinando.com. 9 See Festival de Cannes, “Announcement of the 2020 Official Selection,” accessed June 3, 2020, video, 43:20, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbcvBAXYZCQ. 10 See Website Festival de Cannes, “About the Official 2020 Selection,” accessed June 15, 2020, http://www.cannes2020.festival-cannes.com/%C3%A0-propos?lang=en. Vulnerabilities and Resiliency in the Festival Ecosystem 131 While many festivals did explore digital routes to connect to audiences, the hesitance and reserve of industry players, including the major festivals themselves, to embrace platform aggregation in lieu of festival curation is indicative of the anxiety over tech companies’ growing power in the field (see Srnicek 2016; van Dijck, Poell and de Waal 2018). Vulnerabilities and Resiliency in the Film Festival Ecosystem Approaching film festivals from a scholarly perspective in pandemic times ought to start by taking note of the individual situation of events. Use of stake- holder theory is common to map various interests involved (Rhyne 2009; Ooi and Pedersen 2010) and elucidate the position and function of festivals in their local, regional, and international contexts. Generalizations about the impact of COVID-19 on festivals are, at the time of writing this—a couple of months into the pandemic—premature, albeit perhaps one: In the short-term, the fes- tivals’ biggest problem is financial. How can film festival organizations survive COVID-19 when there are limited ways to generate alternative income? Mon- etization of online content is tricky, while straight-out cancellation of events results in sure loss of revenues and fees, loss of sponsoring, and a drop of interest in merchandise. The COVID-19 economic shock will come down hard on film festivals.11 Uncertainty about extended lockdowns, second waves, and possible implementation of safety regulations for several years to come leads to less funding options. The recession caused by the pandemic, moreover, will force a range of companies to cut sponsor budgets, so new fundraising needs to be taken on while rising unemployment figures impact audience demand. Few organizations have sufficient reserves to withstand the economic shock without support and are challenged in achieving a healthy funding mix. It is the economic crisis rather than the pandemic then that exposes key vulnerabilities in the film festival ecosystem. In Europe, where governmental support programs and relief funds for the cultural sector are made available, two things are apparent: capital reserved for arts and culture is relatively modest, and support prioritizes established cultural institutions. Typically, these include the larger film festivals that already receive structural subsidies and have an industry function to sustain.12 In other words, it is the film-driven 11 See, for example, staff cuts at North American festivals: South by Southwest laid off 50 employees (33%). Variety, March 9 2020, https://variety.com/2020/music/news/ sxsw-lays-off-one-third-of-employees-in-heartbreaking-step-1203528553/; Toronto International Film Festival announced to lay off 31 full-time staffers (17%) CBS News, June 23, 2020, https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/tiff-layoffs-1.5623910; and the Sundance Institute cut 24 positions (13%). Indiwire, July 1, 2020, https://www.indiewire. com/2020/07/sundance-layoffs-cut-staff-budgets-labs-1234570905/. 12 In a post COVID-19 world, greening of international film festivals with their heavy trafficking of guests and visitors, could emerge high on the agenda, and pose the 132 Pandemic Media side of the earlier sketched continuum of film festivals that receives support. Will the rest bounce back as well, or will COVID-19 constitute the turning point after an age of festivalisation? It is too early to tell. What we can say is that moving towards the festival pole this question becomes more and more inter- twined with the resiliency and resources of festivals’ support communities. The proliferation of film festivals has been described and analyzed by scholars positioning themselves as part of a new subfield of film festival studies (see de Valck and Loist 2009; de Valck and Loist 2013; Iordanova 2013).13 In the context of COVID-19 I want to draw special attention to the conceptual frames that elucidate the appeal of festivals as physical events. Following Janet Harbord (2009) and Odile Goerg (1999), Lindiwe Dovey, for example, emphasizes fes- tivals’ liveness in her reading of the popularity of festivals. She argues: “It is the participants at film festivals who bring the possibility of the contingent with them, and with this human contingency and face-to-face collectivity also comes the possibility of disruption and, thus, perhaps some kind of change to the status quo” (Dovey 2015, 15). Ethnographic studies of festival audiences too, emphasize the attraction of being there, live; the physical pleasure of watching films together and favored experience of “coming closer” to industry professionals (Dickson 2015; Xu and Reijnders 2018). Understandings of fes- tival encounters have been further refined by including attention to the role of friendships and collaborations (Damiens 2020). When we take a cue from these scholars and concentrate our perspective on the possibilities generated at festivals through their enabling of social contact and affective labor we may get a good sense of what type of resources can be tapped into, in addition to the much needed economic support to face the challenges posed by COVID-19. Friends and funding, that is in short what film festivals need more than ever in pandemic times. In what proportions heavily depends on each festival’s individual situation and needs, which is to be observed on a case by case basis. Film festival studies has a strong tradition in case-study-based research and is well equipped to take on the task of monitoring what happens at individual film festivals. Assessing how the film festival ecosystem as a whole may be impacted by COVID-19, however, requires a new set of tools. A few scholars have begun the work of collecting larger sets of data to map film festival landscapes regionally and historically (e.g. van Vliet 2018; Peirano 2020; Vallejo 2020) and study film circulation through festivals (Loist and Samoilova 2019). It is such work that will enable the tracking and tracing of mutations in regional contexts and confirm or contradict expectations about diverging vulnerabilities. Anno 2020 the film festival ecosystem is dotted challenge of lowering festivals’ footprint while sustaining their crucial networking function. 13 Updates on the 2009 and 2013 annotated bibliographies of film festival research are pro- vided at www.filmfestivalresearch.org. Vulnerabilities and Resiliency in the Festival Ecosystem 133 with small festival organizations that rely on volunteer labor, community encouragement, eclectic support networks, and creative fundraising. Typ- ically, these are festival-driven events. I would not be surprised if, consid- ering their strong dependence on human capital, the effect of COVID-19 on such events is temporary. The longing for “real” contact will not disappear as the first Screen Talks alluded to and people are likely to reassume their affective investments in cultural encounters when opportunities arise. It is also clear that developments on the opposite side of the continuum will be couched in a power play of economic, geopolitical, and cultural interests. It is the space in between—the mid-sized festivals that have professionalized their organizations but are devoid of solid financing and depend on incidental sponsoring and funds—that may be most at risk; they need a lot of friends to make up for a lack of funds. For the moment, this remains speculation. By combining the wealth of case-study based contextual knowledge with large- scale projects that map and analyze the long-term impact of COVID-19 our film festival landscapes, film festival scholars will have a solid base to rethink festivalization in pandemic times. References Andrew, Dudley. 2010. “Foreword.” In Global Art Cinema: New Theories and Histories, edited by Rosalind and Karl Schoonhover, v–xi. New York: Oxford University Press. Bachmann, Gideon. 2000. “Insight into the Growing Festival Influence: Fest Vet Discusses ‘Wholesale’ and ‘Retail’ Events.” Variety.com, August 28, 2000. Bart, Peter. 1997. Cannes, Fifty Years of Sun, Sex & Celluloid: Behind the Scenes of the World’s Most Famous Film Festival. New York: Hyperion. CBC News. 2020. “Toronto International Film Festival Group Lays off 31 Full-time Staffers.” Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Accessed December 20, 2020. https://www.cbc.ca/ news/entertainment/tiff-layoffs-1.5623910. Chaudhuri, Shohini. 2005. Contemporary World Cinema: Europe, the Middle East, East Asia and South Asia. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Damiens, Antoine. 2020. “Film Festivals of the 1970s and the Subject of Feminist Film Studies: Collaborations and Regimes of Knowledge Production.” Journal of Film and Video 72 (1–2): 21–32. Dickson, Lesley-Ann. 2015. “‘Ah! Other Bodies!’ Embodied Spaces, Pleasures and Practices at Glasgow Film Festival.” Participations, Journal of Audience and Reception Studies 12 (1): 703–24. Dijk, van José, Thomas Poell, and Martijn de Waal. 2018. The Platform Society: Public Values in a Connective World. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Dovey, Lindiwe. 2015. Curating Africa in the Age of Film Festivals. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Elsaesser, Thomas. 2005. “Film Festival Networks: The New Topographies of Cinema in Europe.” In European Cinema: Face to Face with Hollywood. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. English, James. 2008. The Economy of Prestige: Prizes, Awards and the Circulation of Cultural Value. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Erbland, Kate. 2020. “Sundance Layoffs: Institute Cuts 13 Percent of Staff, Reduces Budgets, and Will Consolidate Labs Programs.” Indiewire. Accessed December 20, 2020. https://www.indie- wire.com/2020/07/sundance-layoffs-cut-staff-budgets-labs-1234570905/. Frohlick, Susan. 2005. “‘That Playfulness of white masculinity’: Mediating masculinities and adventure at mountain film festivals.” Tourist Studies 5: 175–93. 134 Pandemic Media Goerg, Odile. 1999. “Introduction.” In: Fêtes urbaines en Afrique: espaces, identitiés, et pouvoirs, ed. Odile Goerg, 5–13. Paris: Karthala Harbord, Janet. 2009. “Film Festivals-Time-Event.” In: Dina Iordanova and Ragan Rhyne, eds. Film Festival Yearbook 1: The Festival Circuit. St. Andrews: St. Andrews Film Studies: 40–46. Iordanova, Dina, ed. 2013. The Film Festival Reader. St. Andrews: St. Andrews Film Studies. Iordanova, Dina, and Stuart Cunningham. 2012. Digital Disruption: Cinema Moves On-Line. St. Andrews: St. Andrews University Press. Jungen, Christian. 2014. Hollywood in Cannes: The History of a Love-Hate Relationship. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. Loist, Skadi. 2016. “The Film Festival Circuit: Networks, Hierarchies, and Circulation.” In Film Festivals: History, Theory, Method, Praxis, edited by Marijke de Valck, Brendan Kredell, and Skadi Loist, 49-64. New York: Routledge. Loist, Skadi, and Zhenya Samoilova. 2019. “Open Media Studies und Digitale Methoden: Zur Erforschung von Filmfestivalruns.” Accessed December 20, 2020. https:// zfmedienwissenschaft.de/online/open-media-studies-blog/digitale-methoden. Nora, Pierre. 1989. “Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de Memoire.” Representations: Special issue Memory and Counter-Memory 26 (Spring): 7-24. Ooi, Can-Seng, and Jesper Strandgaard Pedersen. 2010. “City Branding and Film Festivals: Re-Evaluating Stakeholder’s Relations.” Place Branding and Public Diplomacy 6 (1): 316–32. Pascal, Michel. 1997. Cannes: Cris & Chuchotements. Paris: NiL editions. Peirano, María Paz. 2020. “Mapping Histories and Archiving Ephemeral Landscapes: Strategies and Challenges for Research Small Film Festivals.” Studies in European Cinema 17: 170–84. Peranson, Mark. 2008. “First you Get the Power, Then Your Get the Money: Two Models of Film Festivals.” Cineaste 33 (3): 37-43. 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Srnicek, Nick. 2016. Platform Capitalism. Oxford: Polity Press. Tryon, Chuck. 2013. On-demand Culture: Digital Delivery and the Future of Movies. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. Valck, de Marijke. 2006. Film Festivals: From European Geopolitics to Global Cinephilia. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. — — — . 2016. “Fostering Art, Adding Value, Cultivating Taste: Film Festivals as Sites of Cultural Legitimization.” In Film Festivals: History, Theory, Method, Praxis, edited by Marijke de Valck, Brendan Kredell, and Skadi Loist, 100–16. New York: Routledge. Valck, de Marijke, and Antoine Damiens, eds. 2020. Special Dossier: Film Festivals and Covid-19. NECSUS_European Journal of Media Studies, #Method 18. Valck, de Marijke, and Skadi Loist. “Film Festival Studies: An Overview of a Burgeoning Field.” In Film Festival Yearbook 1: The Festival Circuit, edited by Dina Iordanova and Ragan Rhyne, 179–215. St. Andrews: St. Andrews Film Studies. — — — . 2013. “Festivals.” In Oxford Bibliographies in Cinema and Media Studies, edited by Krin Gabbard. New York: Oxford University Press, added January 28, 2013. www.oxfordbib- liographies.com. Vulnerabilities and Resiliency in the Festival Ecosystem 135 Vallejo, Aida 2020. “The Rise of Documentary Festivals: A Historical Approach.” In Documentary Film Festivals Vol. 1: Methods, History, Politics, edited by Aida Vallejo and Ezra Winton, 77–110. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Vliet, van Harry, 2018. “The Dutch Film Festival Landscape: A Walk-Through.” NECSUS_European Journal of Media Studies, 18 #Mapping. Accessed November 23, 2020. https://necsus-ejms.org/ the-dutch-film-festival-landscape-a-walk-through/. White, Patricia. 2015. Women’s Cinema, World Cinema: Projecting Contemporary Feminisms. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Willman, Chris. 2020. “SXSW Lays Off One-Third of Employees in ‘Heartbreaking’ Step.” Variety. Accessed 20, 2020. https://variety.com/2020/music/news/sxsw-lays-off-one-third-of- employees-in-heartbreaking-step-1203528553/. Xu, Min, and Stijn Reijnders, 2018. “Getting Close to the Media World? On the Attraction of Encountering Film Industry Professionals at Shanghai International Film Festival.” Participations, Journal of Audience and Reception Studies 15 (1): 84–104. THEME PARKS FANDOM THEMED ATTRACTIONS MEDIA TOURISM [ 1 3 ] Theme Parks in the Time of the COVID-19 Pandemic Rebecca Williams This piece explores the impact of the coronavirus in 2020 on theme park spaces and their fans. It outlines the ways that fans maintained connections to favorite physical sites, even when they were unable to visit these places. It also considers the debates surround- ing the reopening of themed spaces, and how these mapped onto pre-existing political allegiances and highlighted divisions surrounding civil liberties and the concept of freedom. When the COVID-19 pandemic began to sweep across the world, one of the first industries to be affected was the tourism sector. As museums, galleries, and leisure sites began to close, the impact on one specific form of tourist site—the theme park—became clearer. From national theme parks such as Denmark’s famous Tivoli Gardens, Hong Kong’s Ocean Park, and Efteling in the Netherlands through to the international giants of Disney and Universal, gates to theme park spaces were shuttered around the globe. Indeed, for the first time in history, there was a period when every one of the six Disney theme parks in the world (in California, Florida, Paris, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Shanghai) were closed. Whilst these sites have slowly begun to reopen (Dis- ney’s Shanghai Disneyland reopened in May 2020, with its France, Florida, and Japan parks following in July 2020), the temporary closure of themed spaces 138 Pandemic Media that have a dedicated fan base and frequent visitors offers a unique chance to consider how connections to such spaces were continued during the lock- downs of the coronavirus pandemic. Broader “media or participatory fandom refers to loosely interlinked inter- pretive communities, mainly comprising women and spanning a wide range of demographics in terms of age, sexuality, economic status, and national, cultural, racial and ethnic backgrounds, formed around various popular cultural texts” (Pande 2019, 2). Such fans typically form communities with one another, often through online platforms, and produce “fan works including fan fiction, fan art, meta commentary, and fan videos” (Pande 2019, 2). For many fans, there is a spatial element to their fandom and “media fans often have strong emotional interests in finding and visiting sites related to their favorite films, TV shows or celebrities. … Engaging in acts of tourism can offer fans opportunities to learn more about fan objects, immerse themselves in fictional worlds, and make connections with others who share their interests” (Williams 2019, 98). For other fans, however, it is specific places or locations that are the source and focus of their fandom and “it is possible to be a fan of a destination, location or place and considers the resultant fan practices and discourses when it is particular places or spaces themselves that are the focal point for fandom” (Williams 2020, 49). Theme park fans fall into this group. There are many fans of Disney more broadly, for example, who undertake fan practices such as writing fanfiction (Maier 2017) or engaging in cosplay (the act of dressing in costumes that represent certain characters) (Winge 2019, 169). For theme park fans, however, it is the act of visiting the physical sites themselves that is central to their engagement, as well as planning for these visits, recording photos and experiences, and discussing the parks online with others on message boards and social media sites. For such devoted theme park fans, the advent of the coronavirus caused an inevitable rupture in these fan activities. For many dedicated visitors this instigated a sense of mourning and collective loss, especially for those living in the local areas near to the California and Florida Disney sites and who visited frequently. Theme parks fans have typically become used to such feelings of loss when favourite attractions or rides have been replaced or removed. They may find themselves “entrenched in a perpetual and oftentimes nerve- wracking sense of physical evolution … the landscape of Walt Disney World [and all theme parks] is always changing, and remains unstable and forever ‘incomplete’” (Kiriakou 2017, 105). This can pose a threat to fans’ identities or sense of security in the spaces that they love (Williams 2020) since these can change at any time. In moments of heightened global uncertainty such as the pandemic, such threats may be felt even more intensely; if one cannot visit their favourite places such as theme parks (or more broadly, any physical location that has meaning) they may become anxious and unsure. The pandemic thus Theme Parks in the Time of the COVID-19 Pandemic 139 offers the chance to examine reactions to temporary closures or lack of access to favourite spaces. For those who are fans of sites that are closed during the pandemic, attempts to recreate the experience of being there offer a way to maintain a sense of closeness and, also, to try to deal with any anxieties that may arise from the temporary loss of being able to visit. In response, some Disney fans attempted to recreate rides and shows at home, to cook their favourite recipes from the parks, and to reminisce about their previous visits. The theme parks themselves sought to maintain connections with visitors, posting official recipes for classic foods such as Disney’s Beauty and the Beast ‘grey stuff’ des- sert (McClintock 2020) or cakes from Woody’s Lunch Box in Toy Story Land (Dunlap 2020). Universal Orlando Resort also sought to engage its absent fans with recipes from around the parks and hotels on its official blog (2020). The ability to make food and drink associated with a place that was unattainable enabled fans to maintain connections through familiar tastes, smells, and textures and to try to recreate physical embodied experiences in their own homes during lockdown. Indeed, as one online article noted, “a near-universal sentiment is that what people are missing isn’t a specific attraction, or their favorite snack, but an emotional connection that’s impossible to replicate” (Ren- shaw 2020). In trying to recreate attractions and experiences in their domestic spaces, these fans attempted to keep that emotional connection alive. However, the reopening of themed sites also offered interesting and perhaps unexpected chances to explore the links between fan attachments and more political debates. Such examples work against the commonly held belief that theme park sites are frivolous or even “a force for social ill” (Kokai and Robson 2020, 6) and that those who frequent them are no more than “con- sumption-driven cultural dupes” (Williams 2020, 12). For instance, when the reopening of both Universal Orlando Resort and Walt Disney World in Florida was announced, visitors on social media were divided. The strict social dis- tancing rules that theme parks needed to enforce, alongside a requirement for wearing face masks, were welcomed by those who accepted the inevitability of a change in behaviour and experience in “the new normal” of the post-pan- demic theme park. However, others rejected these demands, arguing that such limitations would adversely impact the enjoyment of the theme park experience, that such a reduced experience (lacking, for example, fireworks, parades, and character meetings) was poor value-for-money and, in some extreme cases, that such requests were an infringement of an individual’s civil liberties. In these examples, the social media channels and Facebook groups usually devoted to planning tips or sharing experiences became hotly con- tested sites of political discourse, with posters often fiercely disagreeing with one other and dividing across partisan lines. 140 Pandemic Media As journalist Dan Kois summarizes: As has happened in many discussions about safety precautions during the pandemic, the comments [on theme park websites] were soon over- whelmed by visitors who viewed safety precautions as an impingement on their personal liberty: “Masks?? Temperature readings before entering?? Sounds to me like you’re pushing New World order kind of things and I’m not here for it.” Some annual pass holders declared they were finished with Disney forever. Others swore they’d attend but pro- claimed they wouldn’t be wearing face masks. Wrote one commenter: “I do care about other people and safety, the issue is that I care about free- dom more.” (Kois 2020) Universal Orlando Resort was one of the first to re-open in Florida on 5 June 2020, with Walt Disney World beginning a phased reopening from 11 July 2020. Despite not being the first to throw open its gates to guests, WDW has attracted the majority of the criticism for restarting operations during the ongoing pandemic. This has been especially pertinent since the state of Florida witnessed a wave of new infections and a steady rise in cases and deaths from COVID-19 as the resort reopened (Wisel 2020). Whilst both UOR and WDW have taken a number of health and safety precautions, including increased sanitation, mandatory masks, removing character meet-and-greets, and eliminating high-crowd events such as parades and fireworks shows, criticisms remain. Many have voiced their disapproval via social media, others in more creative ways; when WDW released an apparently reassuring video to welcome guests ‘home’ to their resort, online critics were quick to edit the clip with foreboding music from horror movies or with voiceover soundtracks instead imploring visitors to ‘stay away’ and that the resort was ‘not safe’ (UMICL 2020). As the arguments over the parks’ responses to the pandemic make clear, theme parks are not apolitical sites and fan/guest discussions over the practices and behaviours that are enacted within them cannot be divorced from broader socio-political viewpoints and structures. In fact, there are other cases of Disney’s parks in particular, appearing as vectors for political and cultural discussion including protests and counter-protests over the inclusion of the 45th US President Donald Trump in the Magic Kingdom’s Hall of Presidents (Ian R. 2017), and the inclusion of imagery from Disney’s Song of the South film (widely critiqued for its racist depictions) in its Splash Mountain attraction (Sperb 2012). This latter issue became especially intensified when the global Black Lives Matter protests in June 2020 coincided with the pan- demic and sparked discussion of racism and racial inequalities. Theme Parks in the Time of the COVID-19 Pandemic 141 The architectural spaces of the Disney parks have been seen to reinforce historical erasure and injustice. Participants enjoy staging themselves around the facades at US Disney parks, the design of which often owes its origins to colonialism or Victorianism. The non- everyday life that fans admire in the parks are colonial throwbacks, painting nonwhite cultures as exotic and Euro-American culture as mainstream. (Lantz 2020, 1350) For example, attractions including “the Jungle Cruise (a light-hearted boat ride through savage country), … [includes] spear-wagging natives with bones through their noses dancing on the shores” (Wood 2020) whilst the original Disneyland Haunted Mansion is designed in antebellum-era architecture which has an obvious visual correlation with the Deep South and its history. In particular, however, the BLM movement focused attention back on the Splash Mountain attraction which had been critiqued “as a racially sanitized commercial venture ready for popular consumption” (Sperb 2005, 935). When Disney announced its intention to renovate the ride to be themed around its animated movie The Princess and the Frog, many fans read this as a direct response to these criticisms and the impact of the BLM moment (Frank 2020). Although not a direct response to the coronavirus, it is, as Alison Hearn and Sarah Banet-Weiser note, difficult to read the pandemic’s cultural impact without also considering the context of the BLM movement in the summer of 2020, since “the conjuncture of Black Lives Matter activism and the material inequities exposed by the global pandemic has provided … [a] kind of ontological shattering” (Hearn and Banet-Weiser 2020, 5). The discussions over fans’ acceptance or rejection of health and safety measures post-COVID, and how the parks responded to the BLM movement, were thus mapped onto broader political debates over civil liberties, freedoms, and pre-existing political inclinations. For those of us who research theme park spaces, the pandemic offers new methodological challenges as well. Indeed, “there is no ‘back to normal’ and there is no knowing or predicting a way ‘forward’ either; external events move at breakneck speed, and yet also, in the different lived realities of lockdown, unbearably slowly” (Hearn and Banet-Weiser 2020, 2). We are facing a world where global travel can perhaps no longer be taken for granted, and where the future of tourism looks set to be less affordable, less accessible, and less spontaneous than we are used to. This poses questions about how we can continue to examine the lived practices and behaviours that occur within theme park spaces, especially since much research has urged that “getting ‘on the ground’—and on the rides—provides a different set of insights, immersed in the experiences of managing, working in, visiting and thinking about the 142 Pandemic Media theme park” (Bell 2007, ix). If the post-pandemic landscape restricts our ability to visit the sites of our research objects (whilst ongoing concerns over the impact of international travel on the environment also play a role), we need to reimagine how such work can take place. As researchers across media and cultural studies consider the methodological and ethics implications, the use of digital and virtual media may become more integral to how we conduct our work. Many tourist sites embraced the use of virtual exhibitions during lockdown, allowing visitors to see sites other- wise unavailable to them due to geographical distance or other limitations to access. For example, the Studio Ghibli Museum in Japan (which is notorious for limiting its daily guest numbers) offered rare online clips of its artefacts and spaces (Weiss 2020). Online visits to theme parks (especially if new technologies such as virtual reality can be harnessed) may be one way for both fans and researchers to keep up with developments and new attractions in these spaces. There are also emerging debates in fan studies around ethical consumption (Wood, Litherland, and Reed 2020), and the need to travel to sites such as theme parks can be critiqued from an environmental perspective. One way forward for those who research mediated places or fan tourism is to reimagine a more ethical and ecologically friendly way of conducting this work, ensuring that such journeys are made carbon-neutral or that potential environmental harm is offset. In this landscape, physical visits to sites of fan tourism and pil- grimage (whether theme parks, museums, filming locations, and beyond) may no longer be possible, for both environmental and health reasons. How we research these spaces will need to be reimagined in the coming months and years in the post-pandemic cultural, and scholarly, landscape. References Bell, David. 2007. “Preface: Thinking About Theme Parks.” In Culture and Ideology at an Invented Place, edited by Zhang Pinggong, ix-xii. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars. Dunlap, Alex. 2018. “Cooking up the Magic: An Exclusive Recipe from Woody’s Lunch Box.” Disney Parks Blog, May 9. Accessed August 2, 2020. https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2018/05/ cooking-up-the-magic-an-exclusive-recipe-from-woodys-lunch-box/. Frank, Allegra. 2020. “Disney is Overhauling Splash Mountain to Remove the Ride’s Ties to a Racist Film.” Vox, July 26. Accessed August 2, 2020. https://www.vox.com/ culture/2020/6/26/21303247/disney-splash-mountain-redesign-racist-song-of-the-south. Hearn, Alison and Sarah Banet-Weiser. 2020. “Future Tense: Scandalous Thinking during the Conjunctural Crisis.” European Journal of Cultural Studies Online First. Kois, Dan. 2020. “Virtual Queues, Empty Rides, and a “Social Distancing Skunk Ape.” How amusement parks plan to keep visitors safe.” Slate, May 28. Accessed May 28, 2020. https:// slate.com/human-interest/2020/05/amusement-parks-reopening-gatorland-legoland-six- flags-disney.html. Theme Parks in the Time of the COVID-19 Pandemic 143 Kokai, Jennifer A. and Tom Robson. 2019. “‘You’re in the Parade! Disney as Immersive Theatre and the Tourist as Actor.” In Performance and the Disney Theme Park Experience: The Tourist as Actor, edited by Jennifer A. Kokai, Tom Robson, 3–20. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Lantz, Victoria Pettersen. 2020. “Reimagineering Tourism: Tourist-Performer Style at Disney’s Dapper Days.” The Journal of Popular Culture 52 (6): 1334–54. Maier, Kodi. 2017. “Camping Outside the Magic Kingdom’s Gates: The Power of Femslash in the Disney Fandom.” Networking Knowledge: Journal of the MeCCSA Postgraduate Network 10 (3): 27–43. Accessed August 5, 2020. doi: https://doi.org/10.31165/nk.2017.103.514. McClintock, Karen. 2020. “#Disney Magic Moments: Try This New Easy at Home Grey Stuff Recipe.” Disney Parks Blog, May 9. Accessed August 2, 2020. https://disneyparks.disney. go.com/blog/2020/05/disneymagicmoments-try-this-new-easy-at-home-grey-stuff-recipe- its-delicious/. Pande, Rukmini. 2018. Squee From the Margins: Fandom and Race. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press. R., Ian. 2017. “Fight Over Donald Trump at Disneyworld Hall of Presidents.” YouTube, December 27. Accessed May 20, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=11&v= gwjOe5TK0BM. Renshaw, Scott. 2020. “Happy Place, Interrupted.” Medium, April 30. Accessed June 5, 2020. https://madnesskingdom.com/happy-place-interrupted-c9f3540f40c5. Sperb, Jason. 2005. “‘Take a Frown, Turn It Upside Down’: Splash Mountain, Walt Disney World, and the Cultural De-rac[e]-ination of Disney’s Song of the South (1946).” The Journal of Popular Culture. 38 (5): 924–38. Sperb, Jason. 2012. Disney’s Most Notorious Film: Race, Convergence and the Hidden History of Song of the South. Austin: University of Texas Press. UMICL. 2020. “STAY HOME – It ’s Not Safe.” YouTube, July 14. Accessed August 7, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAf-uGUIc_8. Universal Orlando Blog. 2020. “Universal Orlando Resort.” Accessed August 3, 2020. https://blog.universalorlando.com/. Weiss, Hannah. 2020. “You Can Now Take a Rare Virtual Tour of the Studio Ghibli Museum in Japan for Free.” Insider, May 14. Accessed August 8, 2020. https://www.insider.com/ how-to-take-free-virtual-tour-studio-ghibli-museum-japan-2020-5. Williams, Rebecca. 2020. Theme Park Fandom. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. Winge, Theresa M. 2019. Costuming Cosplay: Dressing the Imagination. London: Bloomsbury. Wisel, Carlye. 2020. “Should Disney World Even Be Open?” Vox, July 30. Accessed August 7, 2020. https://www.vox.com/the-goods/21346476/disney-world-reopening-magic-kingdom- covid-florida. Wood, Graeme. 2020. “I Went to Disney World.” The Atlantic, July 27. Accessed August 10, 2020. https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2020/07/disney-world-during-pandemic- extremely-weird/614617/. Wood, Rachel, Benjamin Litherland, and Elizabeth Reed. 2019. “Girls Being Rey: Ethical Cultural Consumption, Families and Popular Feminism.” Cultural Studies 34 (4): 546–66. T E C H N O L O G I E S / M A T E R I A L I T I E S MACHINE VISION COMPUTER VISION ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE MACHINE-READABLE IMAGES VISUAL MEDIA VISUAL CULTURE [ 1 4 ] Machine Vision in Pandemic Times Antonio Somaini ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE This article is about the social and political implica- tions of the different uses of machine vision technol- ogies during the COVID-19 pandemic. After arguing that the phenomenon of machine vision should be tackled from a media-archaeological standpoint, one that highlights the lines of continuity and the moments of discontinuity that define its position within the wider history of images and visual media, the article analyzes the different applications of machine vision systems within the context of the social measures taken in order to contain the spread of the virus: from the enforcement of social dis- tancing and the wearing of masks, to the strategies of positive case detection and contact tracing, all the way up to the diagnostic examination of medical imaging. If machine vision systems and the machine- readable images they are applied to raise the question of what we mean by “vision” and by “image” in the 148 Pandemic Media age of algorithms, the COVID-19 pandemic, with the increasing presence of such a non-human gaze within the public space, has further underlined the current relevance of this question. Since­its­beginning,­the­COVID-19­pandemic­has­triggered­a­double,­apparently­ contrasting­dynamic:­physical­distancing,­and­data­aggregation.­As­bodies­ were­instructed­to­stay­apart­and­even­self-isolate,­data­about­bodies­began­ to be collected and aggregated in order to monitor and contain the spread of­the­virus.­Technologies­of­machine­learning­and,­more­broadly,­artificial­ intelligence,­have­been­deployed­across­the­board­as­part­of­this­effort,­ their clinical and societal applications ranging from the study of the genetic structure­of­the­virus­to­the­prediction­of­the­number­of­positive­cases,­ICU­ hospital­beds­availability,­ventilator­use,­and­expected­deaths;­from­the­ analysis­of­Google­searches­concerning­terms­related­to­COVID-19­symptoms­ as­a­way­to­predict­the­infection­rate,­to­the­diagnostic­examination­of­med- ical imaging and the enforcement of measures of physical distancing through drones,­heat­cameras,­and­machine­vision­techniques.­As­several­observers­ have­noted,­the­new­coronavirus­SARS-CoV-2­and­AI­seemed­to­be­destined­to­ meet­one­another­(Larousserie­2020;­Bullock­et­al.­2020),­with­the­viral­spread­ of­artificial­intelligence­technologies­finding­an­ideal­accelerator­in­the­viral­ spread­of­the­COVID-19­pandemic. Machine­vision­technologies,­in­particular,­have­been­the­object­of­a­wide­ range of applications: their capacity to deal with huge image datasets in order to­recognize,­identify,­store,­and­process­data­has­been­used­to­analyze­X-rays­ of­patients,­to­monitor­movements­across­public­spaces,­to­identify­bodies­ with­higher­temperatures­that­might­be­a­sign­of­infection,­to­identify­those­ who do not respect the guidelines of physical distancing and the wearing of­masks.­The­COVID-19­pandemic­has­further­increased­and­accelerated­ a deployment of machine vision technologies that was already happening at­various­levels,­highlighting­even­more­the­significant­rupture that such technologies introduce in the history of visual cultures and visual media. This history is periodically marked by the sudden appearance of new images and new technologies of vision: images that introduce new forms of­representation,­and­technologies­of­vision­that­introduce­new­ways­of­ seeing,­extending­and­reorganizing­the­field­of­the­visible,­while­redrawing­ the­frontiers­between­what­can­and­what­cannot­be­seen.­For­a­few­years,­ this has been the case with the new technologies of machine vision and with the machine-readable images they can be applied to. Considered from the perspective of the longue durée­of­the­history­of­visual­media­and­images,­the­ Machine Vision in Pandemic Times 149 impact of both is so profound that it leads us to raise the question of what we still­mean­by­“vision”­and­“image”­in­the­age­of­algorithms.­What­is­“seeing”­ when­the­process­of­vision­is­reduced­to­the­acts­of­identifying­and­labeling,­ and when such acts are entirely automated? And can we still use the term “image”­for­a­digital­file,­encoded­in­some­image­format,­that­is­machine- readable­even­when­it­is­not­visible­by­human­eyes,­or­that­becomes­visible­on­ a­screen­as­a­pattern­of­pixels­only­for­a­tiny­fraction­of­time,­spending­the­rest­ of its lifespan circulating across invisible networks? Machine-readable images that can be processed by systems of machine vision are everywhere today. Everywhere in the sense that any digital image— whether produced through some kind of lens-based optical recording of a profilmic­event,­or­entirely­computer-generated,­or­a­mix­between­the­two,­as­ it is often the case—may potentially be analyzed by a machine vision system based on technologies of machine learning and neural networks such as the Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN). By processing the several trillions of­fixed­and­moving­images­that­exist­on­the­internet­and­that­keep­on­being­ uploaded­every­day,­reaching­also­the­ones­that­are­not­on­the­internet­but­ are­stored­in­our­networked­devices,­machine­vision­systems­are­turning­the­ contemporary­iconosphere­into­a­vast­field­for­data­mining­and­aggregation.­A­ field­in­which­faces,­bodies,­gestures,­expressions,­emotions,­objects,­places,­ atmospheres,­and­moods­may­be­identified,­labeled,­stored,­organized,­ retrieved,­and­processed­as­data­that­can­be­quickly­accessed­and­activated­ for­a­wide­variety­of­goals:­from­surveillance­to­policing,­from­marketing­ to­advertising,­from­the­monitoring­of­industrial­processes­to­military­ operations,­from­the­operations­of­driverless­vehicles­to­that­of­drones­and­ robots,­all­the­way­up­to­the­study­of­climate­change­through­the­analysis­ of satellite images. Even disciplines that might seem to be distant from the applications­of­machine­vision­technologies,­such­as­art­history­and­film­his- tory,­are­beginning­to­test­the­possibilities­introduced­by­such­an­automated­ gaze,­and­we­may­legitimately­ask­ourselves­what­it­would­have­meant­for­a­ cultural historian of images such as Aby Warburg to study the spatio-temporal migrations­of­“formulae­of­pathos”­[Pathosformeln]­through­machine­vision­ systems­capable­of­taking­the­entire­corpus­of­art­history­as­a­dataset,­and­ then­to­identify­and­aggregate­movements,­gestures,­and­expressions. Even though machine vision technologies and machine-readable images do introduce­a­moment­of­rupture­within­the­history­of­optical­media­and­images,­ the­very­idea­of­a­non-human­“machine­vision,”­in­itself,­is­not­new.­Con- sidered­from­a­media-archaeological­standpoint,­it­runs­through­the­entire­ history­of­mechanical­optical­media.­Reactions­to­it,­and­attempts­to­theorize­ its­nature­and­its­impact,­can­be­traced­back­to­the­early­years­of­photography,­ with the physicist François Arago and the geographer and naturalist Alexander von Humboldt praising the extraordinary visual exactitude of daguerreotypes 150 Pandemic Media in­1839,­and­the­poet­Charles­Baudelaire­condemning­it­twenty­years­later­ as­“art’s­most­mortal­enemy”:­a­form­of­sheer­mechanical­reproduction­that­ should­not­“encroach­upon­the­domain­of­the­impalpable­and­the­imaginary”­ (Baudelaire­1859).­During­the­1920s,­1930s,­and­1940s,­in­the­writings­of­film- makers,­film­theorists,­artists,­and­cultural­critics­such­as­Dziga­Vertov,­Jean­ Epstein,­László­Moholy-Nagy,­Walter­Benjamin,­and­Siegfried­Kracauer,­we­ find­different­ways­of­analyzing­the­aesthetic,­epistemological,­and­political­ potential­of­images­produced­by­a­mechanical­optical­medium,­the­camera,­ capable­of­extending­vision­beyond­the­limits­of­the­human­eye,­and,­at­the­ same­time,­introducing­a­new­way­of­seeing­from­a­decentered,­non-human­ point­of­view.­Traces­of­the­idea­of­a­“machine­vision”­can­be­found­in­the­ “kino-eye”­[kino-glaz]­that­captures­and­reorganizes­the­visible­world­through­ the­two­operations­of­optical­recording­and­montage­(Vertov­1923),­in­the­ “metal­brain”­[cerveau metallique]­of­a­camera­that­is­“a­non-human­eye,­ without­memory,­without­thought”­capable­of­“escaping­the­egocentricm­of­ our­personal­viewpoint”­(Epstein­1921;­1926),­in­the­“new­vision”­[Neue Vision]­ and­the­“impartial­optics”­[unvoreingenommene Optik]­produced­by­the­“pro- ductive”­uses­the­camera­(Moholy-Nagy­1927),­in­the­“new­image­worlds”­and­ the­“optical­unconscious”­[Optisch-Unbewußt]­revealed­by­photography­and­ cinema­(Benjamin­1928­and­1935-36),­and­in­the­“unfeeling­camera”­that­gives­ us­access­to­the­“alienated­phenomena”­of­an­“inert­world­…­in­its­independ- ence­from­human­beings”­(Kracauer­1927;­1949).­ Beginning­with­the­1970s,­the­idea­of­a­non-human­“machine­vision”­is­ tackled in the writings of Paul Virilio on the intertwinings between military technologies­and­optical­media­(Virilio­1984­and­1988),­in­Vilém­Flusser’s­ speculations­on­“technical­images”­and­the­“telematic­society”­(Flusser­1985),­ in Friedrich Kittler’s radically non-anthropocentric vision of the history of optical­media­(Kittler­1986;­2002),­as­well­as­in­Harun­Farocki’s­explorations—in­ video installations such as Eye Machine I, II and III­(2001–03)­and­Counter Music (2004)—of­the­realm­of­“operational­images”­that­are­“devoid­of­social­intent”:­ images­that­are­“not­for­edification”­nor­“for­reflection”­(as­Farocki­writes­ in the textual commentary that runs along the images of the Eye Machine series),­but­are­purely­conceived­and­produced­as­active­means­for­technical­ operations. Machine vision systems and machine-readable images need to be tackled within­such­a­historical­perspective,­without­erasing­the­radical­discontinuity­ that they introduce due to their connection with technologies of machine learning capable of dealing with data sets of unprecedented dimensions. The rupture that such systems introduce in the history of optical media is such that­the­very­terms­of­“vision”­and­“image”­run­the­risk­of­becoming­purely­ metaphorical,­since­“vision”­is­here­a­form­of­algorithmic­processing­of­dif- ferent­kinds­of­pixel-based­pattern­recognition,­while­the­term­“image,”­when­ Machine Vision in Pandemic Times 151 it­refers­to­a­machine-readable­image,­designates­what­is­actually­a­digital­file,­ encoded­in­a­specific­file­format­(.jpg,­.tiff,­.png,­.mp4,­.mov,­.avi,­etc.)­that­can­ be accessed and processed even when it is not visualized onto a screen in the form­of­an­image­visible­for­human­eyes­(Paglen­2016).­ Even though mostly invisible,­machine-readable­images­are­nevertheless­ active and operational,­and­in­this­sense­they­may­be­considered­to­be­the­ latest variations within a history of active images that has been explored by­art­historians­and­image­theorists­such­as­David­Freedberg­(1991),­W.J.T.­ Mitchell­(2006),­and­Horst­Bredekamp­(2010). Through operations such as pixel­counting,­segmenting,­sorting­and­thresholding,­pattern­recognition­and­ discrimination,­color­analysis,­object­detection­and­motion­capture,­machine­ vision­systems­introduce­new­kinds­of­“image-acts”­(Bredekamp­2010)­that­ participate­in­the­“feed­forward”­dynamic­that­Mark­Hansen­has­suggested­as­ a­defining­trait­of­“twenty-first-century­media”­(Hansen­2015).­ As­we­have­already­noted,­the­COVID-19­pandemic­has­further­accelerated­the­ deployment of such systems in the public sphere. Heat cameras have been installed in public spaces in order to quickly identify bodies with unusually high temperatures. Unmanned vehicles such as drones and robots have been equipped with cameras connected to machine vision systems in order to enforce social distancing and the wearing of masks: speaking drones appeared­first­in­China­and­then­in­various­other­countries,­while­a­sinister­ robot-dog,­which­had­already­made­its­first­appearances­in­various­TV­series­ such as Fox’s War of the Worlds­(2019,­episode­4)­and­Netflix’s­Black Mirror­(2017,­ season­4,­the­episode­entitled­Metalhead),­has­been­roaming­through­public­ parks in Singapore. Matrix barcodes have been integrated into mobile phone apps­meant­to­facilitate­contact­tracing,­and­in­China­red,­orange,­or­green­ QR codes appearing on mobile phones were used in order to discipline the movements­of­the­population,­allowing­or­prohibiting­traveling­and­access­to­ specific­places.­ The social and political implications of the wide-ranging uses of machine vision technologies during the COVID-pandemic cannot be overestimated. In countries that had already adopted massive measures of social surveillance— such­as­China,­with­its­famous­Social­Credit­System,­first­tested­in­2009,­and­ then­increasingly­expanded­since­2014—the­pandemic­has­given­the­perfect­ excuse­to­further­increase­the­means­of­surveillance­and­repression,­even­ though­the­actual­effectiveness­and­pervasiveness­of­such­means­still­needs­ to­be­assessed.­In­most­other­countries,­reaching­an­equilibrium­between­ respect for personal privacy and management of the health crisis—with all that­it­means­in­terms­of­positive­cases­detection,­contact­tracing,­and­the­ surveillance of quarantines—has proven arduous and is still the object of political­negotiations­that­differ­from­country­to­country. 152 Pandemic Media A­century­ago,­during­the­1920s­and­1930s,­the­non-human,­non-anthropocen- tric­“machine­vision”­of­the­camera­was­hailed­as­an­instrument­of­liberation:­ a means for the exploration of a visible world that could be reinterpreted and­reorganized­from­a­revolutionary­standpoint­(Vertov),­rediscovered­with­ its­vitalism­and­animism­(Epstein),­detached­from­its­connection­with­the­ structures­of­the­human­mind­(Moholy-Nagy),­penetrated­within­layers­that­ are­inaccessible­to­the­human­eye­(Benjamin),­caught­in­its­uncanny­indif- ference­to­the­existence­of­human­beings­(Kracauer).­Half­a­century­later,­ during­the­1970s­and­1980s,­the­rise­of­automation­within­both­the­indus- trial and the military domain brought to the foreground another aspect of the idea of machine vision: the possibility of using techniques of automated image analysis within complex sequences of operations that did not require any human agency. It was this turn that Farocki highlighted with his video installations­of­the­early­2000s­and­with­the­highly­influential­concept­of­the­ “operational­image.”­ A­further­step­leads­us­from­the­early­2000s­to­the­current­uses­of­machine­ vision: the connection between digital technologies of image analysis and the immense datasets that are accessible through the internet and that can­be­processed­through­artificial­intelligence­and­machine­learning.­This­ last step transforms the very idea of machine vision into a complex set of operations­capable­of­turning­the­digital­iconosphere­into­a­vast­field­for­ data mining. The present and future applications of such an algorithmic gaze­are­extremely­varied­and­still­to­be­discovered,­and­one­should­resist­ the temptation to see the increasing deployment of machine vision systems as the sign of yet another step in the direction of a condition of panoptic surveillance. The easier access to machine vision technologies might promote new,­unpredictable­applications.­To­give­an­example,­we­can­mention­the­way­ in­which,­at­the­2019­Whitney­Biennial,­the­London-based­agency­Forensic­ Architecture led by Eyal Weizman used computer vision systems in order to automatically­detect­the­use­against­civilians­of­a­tear­gas­grenade,­the­Triple- Chaser,­produced­by­the­company­Safariland,­whose­CEO,­Warren­B.­Kanders,­ happened to be vice-chair of the board of trustees at the Whitney Museum of­American­Art.­This­use­of­machine­vision­technologies­by­an­independent,­ non-governmental­investigative­agency­showed­us­how­such­technologies,­ when­openly­accessible,­could­serve­political­goals­that­are­far­from­those­of­ policing,­surveillance,­or­the­extraction­of­data­from­social­media­platforms.­­­­­­­ The­COVID-19­pandemic­has­confirmed­once­more­the­plasticity­of­machine­ vision­systems,­triggering­a­wide­spectrum­of­applications,­ranging­from­ social surveillance to diagnostics. The invisible spread of the virus has been countered­through­a­non-human,­algorithmic­gaze­capable­of­seeing­and­ processing vast quantities of images that human eyes could never handle. In the context of a health crisis that required bodies to be distanced and data Machine Vision in Pandemic Times 153 about­bodies­to­be­aggregated,­machine­vision­systems­participated­in­a­vast­ effort­of­data­collection­and­analysis­that­will­definitely­leave­significant­traces­ in­the­foreseeable­future,­and­whose­consequences­are­still­hard­to­predict. References Baudelaire,­Charles.­1955­[1859].­“On­Photography.”­In­The Mirror of Art. London: Phaidon Press. 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(English translation: Gramophon Film Typewriter.­Redwood­City.­CA:­Stanford­University­Press,­1999).­ —­—­—­.­2002.­Optische Medien. Berlin Vorlesungen 1999. Berlin: Merve. (English translation: Optical Media.­Cambridge:­Polity­Press,­2010). Kracauer,­Siegfried.­1985­[1927].­“Photography.”­In­The Mass Ornament: Weimar Essays. Cambridge,­MA:­Harvard­University­Press. —­—­—­.­1996­[1949].­“Tentative­Outline­of­a­Book­on­Film­Aesthetics.”­In­Siegfried Kracauer – Erwin Panofsky, Briefwechsel 1941–1966,­with­an­appendix:­Siegfired­Kracauer­“Under­the­spell­ of­the­Living­Warburg­Tradition,”­edited­and­with­an­afterword­by­Volker­Breidecker.­Berlin:­ Akademie-Verlag. Larousserie,­David.­2020.­“Coronavirus:­comment­l’intelligence­artificielle­est­utilisée­ contre­le­Covid-19.”­Le Monde,­May­18.­Accessed­July­19­2020.­https://www.lemonde.fr/ sciences/article/2020/05/18/comment-l-intelligence-artificielle-se-mobilise-contre-le- covid-19_6040046_1650684.html. 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AMATEUR MEDIA MEDIA AND MOBILITY SURVEILLANCE APPARATUS SMART CAR [ 1 5 ] The Car as Pandemic Media Space Alexandra Schneider Based on some personal observations or anecdotes, this article engages with the car as a site of confession and the driving mirror as a screen of both control and evasion. It argues that that pandemic media space is a space of displacement where established dichotomies perish: the amateur and the professional, the private and the public, the here and there, as well as the past and the present. Maybe it says something about cinema that its history has so often been told in parallels. There are the parallel tracks of cinema and the railway (Kirby 1997),­the­parallel­and­intertwining­trajectories­of­cinema­and­psychoanalysis­ (Bergstrom­1999),­and­the­parallel­histories­and­experiences­of­cinema­and­ the­automobile.­The­cinema­and­the­car­are­both­inventions­of­a­significant­ period­of­technological­innovation,­the­period­of­the­1870s­through­the­1910s,­ which,­among­other­things,­brought­the­world­dynamite,­the­telephone,­the­ gramophone,­electricity,­airplanes,­and­industrial­chemistry­(Smil­2005).­ Cars­have­been­featured­in­films­since­the­earliest­days­of­cinema,­often­as­ vehicles­of­a­joint­experience­of­viewing/seeing­and­driving,­and­sometimes­ SMART CAR of­being­driven­over,­as­in­Cecil­Hepworth’s­1900­short­film­How It Feels to Be Run Over.­As­Jeffrey­Ruoff­argues,­cinema­itself­can­be­understood­as­“an­ audiovisual­vehicle,”­which­opens­up­the­“filmic­fourth­dimension,”­an­emblem­ 158 Pandemic Media of the multifaceted constellations of transportation and media devices in the twentieth­century­(Ruoff­2006,­1ff.).­Particularly­in­the­first­half­of­the­twentieth­ century­cinema,­an­image­of­movement­and­an­image­in­movement,­aligned­ with­the­automobile­in­western­imperialist­scenarios­of­global­mobility,­as­for­ instance­in­the­documentary­films­sponsored­by­French­automobile­manufac- turers­in­the­1920s­“that­served­as­potent­symbols­of­the­French­automobile­ industry­and­France­geopolitical­[colonial]­ambitions”­on­the­African­Con- tinent­during­the­interwar­period­(Bloom­2006,­139).­On­a­more­granular­level,­ the automobile became closely intertwined with the emerging practice of bourgeois­amateur­filmmaking­from­the­1920s­onwards,­with­the­automobile­ serving­as­a­privileged­subject,­preferred­mode­of­transportation,­and­occa- sional­substitute­tripod­for­those­who­could­afford­not­just­an­automobile,­but­ a­small-gauge­camera,­too.­ Today’s­media­and­transportation­ecologies­are­even­more­interdependent,­ and­their­specific­constellations­have­multiplied­and­become­more­diverse.1 Travel is highly mediatized2 while digital screens as such have become mobile and­ubiquitous;­cars­are­now­devices­for­mobility­and­mobile­computer­ systems generating data about mobility in order to both facilitate and control movement. In the following I will argue that that pandemic media space is a space of displacement where established dichotomies perish: the amateur and the pro- fessional,­the­private­and­the­public,­the­here­and­there­as­well­as­the­past­and­ the present. My contribution uses two personal observations about the car as a pandemic media space in order to engage with the idea of the pandemic media space as a space of displacement: the car as a site of confession and the driving mirror as a screen of both control and evasion. 1­ See­also­Lindsey­B.­Green-Simms:­Postcolonial Automobility: Car Culture in West Africa. Minneapolis:­University­of­Minnesota­Press,­2017.­ 2­ See­the­contributions­in­the­“Pacing­Airports”­dossier­of­Social Text online,­edited­by­ Marie­Sophie­Beckmann,­Rebecca­Puchta,­and­Philipp­Röding,­June­2019.­https://social- textjournal.org/periscope_topic/pacing-airports/. The Car as Pandemic Media Space 159 # The Car as a Site of Confession [Figure­1]­A­Car­Confession­(Source:­Natalie­Bookchin: Laid Off, 2009­https://vimeo. com/19364123) As Natalie Bookchin’s thought-provoking video installation Laid Off­(USA­2009)­ shows,­YouTube­has­become­a­confessional­platform­on­which­to­share­a­ crisis. Bookchin’s video installation consists of a montage of video confessions of people who share their shock after losing a job. One important pattern Bookchin manages to reveal in her careful choreography is that quite a few of­these­videos­are­shot­in­private­cars,­presumably­in­a­parking­lot,­more­or­ less­immediately­after­the­firing­(fig.­1).­The­inside­of­the­car,­recorded­with­a­ camera­more­or­less­in­the­position­of­a­rear-view­mirror,­figures­as­a­generic­ space­of­shared­intimacy,­a­space­that­is­both­private­and­public,­and­in­which­ we­can­talk­to­ourselves­and­simultaneously­to­others,­our­friends­as­well­as­ an anonymous public who might potentially share our concerns. The­car­confessional­is­now­firmly­established­as­a­template­of­contemporary­ visual cultural and social and political articulation. It is perhaps no coincidence that­the­car­confessional­also­produced­one­of­the­first­viral­videos­of­the­ COVID-19­crisis,­the­passionate­rant­of­a­mother­of­four­from­Israel­who­ complains­about­the­absurdities­of­homeschooling,­a­challenge­and­a­sen- timent many parents went through and could relate to.3 Her car confessional went­viral­because­of­its­topical­subject­matter­and­its­raw,­unfiltered­appeal.­ However,­as­the­woman’s­YouTube­channel­indicates,­this­was­not­her­first­ car­confessional:­she­had­already­tried­out­this­specific­setting­and­role­as­a­ potential­genre­for­herself­before,­but­the­pandemic­helped­her­find­her­voice,­ so­to­speak.­She­failed­to­establish­herself­as­a­YouTube­star,­however;­her­ 3­ The­video­is­availible­at­Youtube:­https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7_wvQHMGOI. 160 Pandemic Media subsequent videos reached a considerably smaller audience than the home- schooling video rant. What made that rant so poignant was that it highlighted the­car’s­double­role­as­a­safe­space­during­the­pandemic,­thus­adding­new­ layers of meaning to the car confessional: a private space away from the living quarters­of­the­family,­a­room­of­her­own­on­four­wheels,­but­also­a­safe­space­ protected­from­the­risk­of­infection,­as­I­will­argue­in­the­following­section. # The Rear-view Mirror as a Screen [Figure­2]­The­rear-view­mirror­as­screen­(Source:­Alexandra­Schneider,­2020) The night after the lockdown I decided to go on a car ride. Strangely enough it­felt­like­“freedom”­and­“being­safe”­by­riding­a­car­“for­fun.”­Feelings,­I­ have­to­admit,­I­had­never­before­associated­with­riding­in­a­car­but­had­ projected­onto­others:­libertarian­individualists,­climate­change­deniers,­ heteronormative­patres­familias,­and­posers.­But­that­is­how­I­felt:­safe­ from­potential­contagion­by­this­new­virus,­absolved­from­having­to­practice­ physical distancing and free to move around the city wherever I wanted. Usually I would prefer to commute and travel by public transportation. But the pandemic made the privilege of being able to choose became apparent. But then it was also something else about this car ride that was rather new to me. Shortly before the pandemic the old car which I usually drove had been replaced with a brand new car with a wide range of data-based driving support­technologies.­As­I­quickly­learned,­this­was­not­a­mere­car­but­an­ audiovisual media device on wheels. The car obviously has the usual displays and­screens­to­provide­information­about­speed,­directions,­the­state­of­the­ engine,­etc.­According­to­one’s­preferred­media­genealogy,­these­screens­ serve­to­“filter”­or­to­“project,”­to­display­(to­“show,”­to­“exhibit”)­or­monitor­ (to­“observe,”­to­“check”­or­“control”).­However,­as­a­film­and­media­scholar­I­ The Car as Pandemic Media Space 161 was especially struck by realizing that this car features almost a dozen small cameras,­which­are­not­detectable­by­merely­looking­at­the­car­and­which­ turn­this­new,­but­not­particularly­fancy­car­into­a­kind­of­mobile­CCTV­device.­ The­“parking­assistance,”­which­is­now­more­or­less­standard­in­new­cars,­of­ course­relies­on­cameras,­but­this­particular­car­also­detects­and­decodes­ road­signs,­translating­these­readings­into­information­for­the­driver—such­as­ indications of the current speed limits—but also into decisions that the car’s electronic­system­makes­regardless­of­the­driver­and­often­against­the­driver,­ such­as­adjustments­to­the­car’s­trajectory,­deceleration,­etc.­One­gadget­ especially­struck­me:­a­nearly­invisible­flash­light­which­serves­to­illuminate­ road­signs­at­night,­a­machine­vision­device­which­turns­the­car­into­a­“seeing­ thing”­that­“looks”­with­its­headlights,­raising­echoes­of­the­anthropomorphic­ vehicles of Pixar’s CARS universe. Finally,­this­car­has­one­feature­that­particularly­resonated­with­me­after­a­ semester of remote teaching and endless videoconferencing: the rear-view mirror­that­is­connected­to­a­camera­at­the­back­of­the­car,­so­that­the­mirror­ image­(fig.­2)­can­be­replaced­with­a­live­transmission­from­that­camera­ showing the road behind the car as if in a cinemascope framing. It was indeed Christian­Metz­who­pointed­out,­in­his­last­book­L’ enonciation impersonelle ou le site du film (1991),­that­the­windshield­of­a­car­often­materializes­as­a­kind­of­ second­screen­in­films.­ This new kind of mirror-screen-device serves to maintain a clear view of the­back­of­the­car­for­the­driver­when­the­loading­area­is­fully­packed,­with­ luggage or other items blocking the view to the rear. If the camera in the car confessional serves as a kind of rear-view mirror that is also a recording device and­instantly­creates­a­sense­of­proximity­and­intimacy,­this­rear-view­mirror­ projection­has­a­rather­uncanny­effect­because­it­erases­the­presence­of­the­ other­people­in­the­car­(who,­in­the­case­of­Marion’s­flight­from­Phoenix­in­ Hitchock’s Vertigo haunt her as voices of absent bodies on the rear windshield). If the car confessional can be said to be modelled on the kind of conversation the driver could be having with his passengers in the back seat even while she­is­looking­at­them­in­the­rear­view­mirror,­the­screen-mirror­fed­by­the­ rear-view camera eliminates the passengers from the driver’s immediate vis- ibility. They persist as accousmetric voices even as the viewer has a splendid widescreen view of the area behind the car. This visibility gap created by the machine­vision­devices­of­the­car­is,­perhaps,­an­apt­reminder­of­the­fact­that­ the purported safe space of the car can never be quite safe and always retains something uncanny about it. As much as we may communicate with the out- side­world­through­various­looking­devices,­we­are­never­quite­at­home­in­it.­ The car as pandemic media space is always a space of displacement. 162 Pandemic Media # The Screen as a Monitoring Device [Figure­3]­The­screen­as­monitor­(Source:­Alexandra­Schneider,­2020) But­then,­at­home,­the­laptop­screen­echoes­the­fake-mirror-screen­in­the­ car:­if­the­rear-view­devices­in­the­car­are­a­mirror­turned­screen,­the­video- conferencing­screen­serves­as­both­a­screen­and­a­mirror­(fig.­3).­Like­a­driver­ restlessly controlling her own behavior and adjusting to a constantly changing environment,­the­videoconference­tools­make­me­monitor­and­adjust­myself­ to my own self-perception and my perception of the other participants. While participating­in­a­videoconference­from­home,­I­may­be­at­home,­but­I­am­not­ safe from the pandemic media space of constant displacement. In a footnote in his second article on the apparatus (le dispositif ) Jean-Louis Baudry­proposes­distinguishing­between­the­apparatus­as­a­specific­dis- position of the viewing situation and the basic cinematographic apparatus (or l’appareil de base­in­French),­which­for­him­“concerns­the­ensemble­of­ the­equipment­and­operations­necessary­to­the­production­of­a­film­and­ its­projection­….”­For­Baudry,­the­“basic cinematographic apparatus involves the­film­stock,­the­camera,­developing,­montage­considered­in­its­technical­ aspects,­etc.,­as­well­as­the­apparatus­(dispositif )­of­projection”­(1986,­317). In­approaching­the­new­configurations­of­viewing­devices­and­operative­sub- jectivities,­from­driving­to­videoconferencing,­it­may­be­useful­to­return­to­ this­distinction­and­analyze­the­configuration­of­car,­camera,­and­platforms­ both in terms of the basic apparatus and the viewing disposition. It may help us­understand­how­the­difference­between­home­and­not-home­can­easily­ be overruled and erased by continuities of the viewing dispositions of two seemingly­clearly­distinct­spaces.­As­pandemic­media,­they­rephrase­the­con- nections between outside and inside, public and private, but also between the amateur and the professional. The Car as Pandemic Media Space 163 # Beyond the Screen [Figure­4]­Beyond­the­screen­(Source:­Gilbert­Meylon,­1939­/­Fonds­Ella­Maillar,­Musée­de­ L’Elysée,­Lausanne;­1939) As­soon­as­my­screen­fatigue­goes­away,­I­will­revisit­Ella­Maillart’s­and­ Annemarie­Schwarzenbach’s­books,­photos,­and­films,­in­particular­Nomades Afghans (Auf abenteuerlicher Fahrt durch Iran und Afghanistan,­Ella­Maillart,­ 1939/40),­a­film­that­resonates­with­both­the­professional­and­the­amateur.­ Both­Maillart­and­Schwarzenbach­were­pioneers­of­transgression,­professional­ travelers who crossed lines and bent the norms and expectations of their time.­They­traveled­through­Central­Asia­by­car,­and­with­a­camera­(fig.­4).­In­ light­of­our­recent­experiences,­I­expect­to­find­in­their­work­something­that­ can help us unhinge the normalizing aspects of what is now consolidating into the pandemic media space of car and camera. A past that imagines the future. References Baudry,­Jean-Louis.­1986.­“The­Apparatus:­Metapsychological­Approaches­to­the­Impression­of­ Reality­in­the­Cinema,”­in­Narrative, Apparatus, Ideology: A Film Theory Reader, edited by Philip Rosen,­299–318.­New­York:­Columbia­University­Press.­ Beckmann,­Marie­Sophie,­Rebecca­Puchta,­and­Philipp­Röding,­eds.­2019.­“Pacing­Airports.”­ Dossier of Social Text online.­Accessed­December­20,­2020.­https://socialtextjournal.org/ periscope_topic/pacing-airports/. Bergstrom,­Janet.­1999.­Endless Night: Cinema and Psychoanalysis, Parallel Histories. Berkeley: University of California Press. Green-Simms,­Lindsay­B.:­Postcolonial Automobility: Car Culture in West Africa. Minneapolis: University­of­Minnesota­Press,­2017. 164 Pandemic Media Kirby,­Lynne.­1997.­Parallel Tracks: The Railroad and Silent Cinema.­Durham,­NC:­Duke­University­ Press. Metz,­Christian.­1991.­L’enunciation impersonelle ou le site du film. Paris: Meridiens Klicksieck. Ruoff,­Jeffrey.­2006.­Virtual Voyages: Cinema and Travel,­Durham,­NC:­Duke­University­Press. Smil,­Vaclav.­2005.­Creating the Twentieth Century: Technical Innovations of 1867–1914 and Their Lasting Impact.­Cambridge,­MA:­MIT­Press. DRONES LOCKDOWN UNMANNEDNESS TELEPRESENCE [ 1 6 ] “Covid-dronism”: Pandemic Visions from Above Ada Ackerman The numerous drone flyovers of deserted cities have become one of the highest-circulating media pro- ductions during the COVID-19 crisis and objects of sheer fascination. In this paper, I explore the trou- bling and unprecedented conjunction they articulate between an unmanned device and the policy of emptying places from human presence that they record. As­the­COVID-19­virus­was­propagating­and­countries­were­fighting­to­stop­its­ progression,­drones­would­be­endowed­with­new­functions,­which­were­reg- ularly­broadcasted­on­news­and­vehemently­discussed:­disinfection­actions,­ surveillance­patrols­during­lockdowns,­identification­of­new­cases­thanks­ to thermal cameras... This proliferation of drones’ practices in a pandemic context­once­again­confirms­our­time­to­be­a­“Drone­Age”­(Anderson­2012).­If­ initially­developed­as­surveillance­and­military­devices­raising­ethical,­moral,­ and­epistemological­issues­(Chamayou­2015),­drones­have­been­provided­ with­an­expanding­array­of­new­applications­in­several­areas­(entertainment,­ science,­delivery...),­which­rely­upon­an­increasing­blurring­and­overlapping­of­ civilian-consumer and military-industrial applications and networks (McNeil and­Burrington­2014,­58–59 ;­Stubblefield­2020,­2–4;­159–63). 168 Pandemic Media From­a­media­perspective,­however,­one­is­not­so­much­struck­by­the­pro- liferating images of drones in action—no matter how chilling and dystopic they might look—than by the images produced by­drones­during­these­specific­ pandemic­times.­As­a­matter­of­fact,­drone-made­images­and­films­of­emptied­ capital cities and touristic places became one of the most prominent and circulating­visual­objects­born­out­of­the­pandemic­period,­especially­in­news­ broadcasting,­and­to­such­an­extent­that­they­became,­so­to­speak,­a­visual­ topos of­the­COVID-19­situation.­As­surveillance­apparatuses­able­to­cover­ vast­areas­in­a­panoramic­fashion,­drones­have­proved­paramount­in­turning­ the­notion­of­lockdown­into­efficient­and­spectacular­visual­representations,­ in­which­extreme­freedom­of­flight­contrasted­sharply­with­the­movement­ restrictions­imposed­upon­citizens.­Benefitting­from­exceptional­shooting­con- ditions,­impossible­in­normal­times,­drones­recorded­the­unprecedented­situ- ation­of­stopped­cities,­stirring­feelings­of­wonder,­of­melancholia­as­well­as­of­ uncanniness—features­shared­by­“ruin­porn”­(Lyons­2018).­Since­redistribution­ of­human­presence­in­cities­is­at­stake­in­the­lockdown­situation,­it­is­not­by­ chance that these drone videos mainly revolve around urban structures such as­churches,­roads,­stadiums,­city­halls,­squares,­and­so­on,­that­is,­places­that­ have historically contributed to politically and economically organizing the human occupation of urban space. Among the numerous circulating drone videos­of­lockdown­cities,­one­can­quote­the­representative­film­La France en absence [Absent France],­made­by­HOsiHO­Drone­Network,­a­grand­tour­of­ twenty-one­French­cities­during­the­COVID-19­lockdown­in­March­and­April­ 20201. I suggest that one of the peculiarities of those images lies in their troubling conjunction of two levels of unmanned-ness: made by drones—“unmanned aerial­vehicles”­according­to­their­military­designation—which­are­equipped­ with­a­mechanical­eye­disentangled­from­a­human­body,­these­images­unravel­ usually­crowded­spaces­as­almost­devoid­of­people­and­with­significantly­ reduced­human­activity.­To­be­more­accurate,­these­images­show­places­that­ should be­empty­according­to­the­lockdown­agenda,­but­that­are­still­pop- ulated­by­a­few­individuals­walking,­running,­or­cycling­in­deserted­streets­ and­that­display­scarce­urban­traffic.­This­persistence­of­rare­manifestations­ of human presence can be ontologically construed as a kind of humanist resistance to the radicality of the lockdown cleansing policy—a symptom of mankind’s­vitality­that­cannot­be­so­easily­contained.­Besides,­many­of­the­few­ remaining moving elements in these images—and most of all vehicles—reveal supply and labor circulations that cannot be stopped, even in and especially during a pandemic outbreak.2­If­not­totally­void­of­people,­those­urban­ 1­ https://www.hosiho.net/en/blog/hosiho-drone-network-s-news/66-covid-19-cities-lock- down-france-view-by-drone-network-hosiho.html.­Accessed­June­10,­2020. 2 This articulation is made clear in Paris confiné 2020, shot by Skydrone and Futuria Pro- duction.­After­having­focused­on­an­emptied­Paris­thanks­to­drone­cameras,­the­video­ "Covid-dronism" 169 landscapes shot by drones nevertheless convey a strong sense of human absence on a scale not hitherto experienced. These images appear thus as the result of a puzzling correlation between the expelling of human presence and an increasing non-human agency in the production of visibility. What better device­than­a­drone,­which­is­a­medium­whose­high­maniability­provides­the­ viewer­with­a­supra-human­gaze,­to­register­and­account­for­drastic­sanitizing­ policies consisting of emptying places of human activities and manifestations? While the emphatic and spectacular quality conveyed by the totalizing and sweeping eye of the drone invites one to marvel at the beauty of the sites viewed,­at­the­“purity”­of­their­design­and­architecture,­since­almost­no­human­ presence­is­obstructing­the­view­anymore­and­thanks­to­a­significant­decrease­ in­pollution,­it­is­precisely­this­beauty­that­appears­not­only­as­paradoxical­but­ also­as­problematic.­It­is­conditioned­by­a­radical­removal­of­human­elements,­ a­beauty­fostering­a­feeling­of­a­terrifying­sublime­among­the­viewer,­accord- ing­to­Kant’s­definition­of­a­feeling­of­amazement­mingled­with­dread­(Kant­ 1794,­25).­ These images of ghost cities awaken numerous memories of apocalyptic films­with­which­they­share­their­sensationalism­and­dazzling­perspectives­ (Twenty-eight days later, 2002,­Contagion, 2011...).­These­images­thus­turn­visual­ tropes­usually­associated­with­fiction­into­testimonies­of­real­times,­in­a­puz- zling interlacing of dystopia and reality. These images not only register how emptied­cities­look­because­of­the­lockdown;­they­also­inevitably­convey­the­ threatening­potential­scenario­of­humanity­wiped­out,­that­is,­an­extension­ and a radicalization of this human-presence clearing principle. This would not be possible without their attracting and spectacular quality. As a matter of fact,­in­order­to­shoot­urban­desolated­landscapes,­TV­channels­hired­drone­ companies­specialized­in­advertising­and­in­the­film­industry­such­as­HOsiHO,­ a­worldwide­network­created­in­2014,­for­which­a­fleet­of­200­pilots­captures­ “the­world­seen­from­the­sky.”­Its­database­provides­4,852­videos­related­to­ COVID-19­(HOsiHO­2020).­In­the­case­of­France,­most­lockdown­videos­broad- cast­on­channels­were­provided­by­the­company­Skydrone­created­in­2010,­ whose­motto­is­to­“bring­wings­to­images”­while­ensuring­stable­and­high- resolution­aerial­shootings­(Skydrone­2020).­ Like much thrilling and exciting imagery produced by civilian and commercial drones,­these­emptied-city­films­derive­their­power­from­a “technogene­ sensuality,”­a­“virtual-somatic­feeling­of­presence­in­spaces­where­human­ begins­at­01:06­to­insert­actions­of­different­workers­whose­labor­proved­paramount­for­ the­capital­city’s­organization.­As­stated­by­Christophe­Lyard,­one­of­the­filmmakers:­“we­ were­aware­that­behind­these­images­of­emptied­monuments,­life­was­going­on;­people­ were­of­course­working­in­order­to­maintain­the­city’s­activity:­caregivers,­postmen,­ garbage­collectors,­delivery­persons...’ ’­(my­translation)­https://vimeo.com/415263660.­ Accessed­June­10,­2020. 170 Pandemic Media bodies cannot (or almost cannot) be and move” ( Jablonowski 2020, 4). As Maximilian Jablonowski suggests, one can connect the pleasure and the inten- sity of experience provided by drone vision to a form of “telepresence,” a term with which Martin Minsky labels the ability for a body to remotely and safely experience a dangerous or an unreachable environment thanks to a media apparatus (Minsky 1980). In the case of drone views of locked-down cities, this telepresence acquires a singular quality as the drone brings the perceptive subject not so much to risky and barely accessible sites than to locations of forbidden access. These videos provide the viewer with an exploration of loca- tions in which he is, due to his very human condition, persona non grata. Hence a paradoxical experience of telepresence, which demands nothing more from the perceptive subject than his absence as well as the absence of his human congeners. A good illustration of this can be found in La France en absence for instance at 02 :42, when the drone camera climbs a flight of deserted stairs in Lyon’s old district. These images appear as a doubling of the official lockdown instructions, being caught within a feedback loop in which images enhance the requirements to remove human presence from public space. Therefore, by documenting the lockdown state, the drone’s unmannedness finds the ultimate development of its original goal, which was to be able to watch and strike a target from afar without being exposed: not only is the human object henceforth already removed from its gaze, but by the same token the viewer is also reminded of the necessity for himself to vanish from the public scene. Never has the label “phantom shot,” coined for films “taken from a position that a human cannot normally occupy” (Farocki 2004, 13), sounded so literal than today. References Anderson, Chris. 2012. “How I Accidentally Kickstarted the Domestic Drone Boom.” Wired Magazine June 22. Accessed June 10, 2020. https://www.wired.com/2012/06/ff-drones/. Chamayou, Grégoire. 2015. A Theory of the Drone. Translated by Janet Lloyd. New York: The New Press. Farocki, Harun. 2004. “Phantom Images.” Public 29: 12-24. HOsiHO. 2020. Accessed June 10, 2020. https://www.hosiho.com/en/search?q=Covid-19&ob= date&ow=DESC. Jablonowski, Maximilian. 2020. “Beyond Drone Vision: The Embodied Telepresence of First-Person-View Drone Flight.” Senses & Society, forthcoming. Kant, Immanuel. 1794. “Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime.” In Anthropology, History and Education, edited by Günter Zöller and Robert B. Louden, 23–62. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Lyons, Siobhan. 2018. Ruin Porn and the Obsession with Decay. New York: Springer. McNeil, Joanne, and Ingrid Burrington. 2014. “Droneism.” Dissent 61 (2): 57–60. Accessed June 10, 2020. https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/droneism/. Minsky, Martin. 1980. “Telepresence.” Omni, June 1980. Accessed June 10, 2020. https://web. media.mit.edu/~minsky/papers/Telepresence.html. "Covid-dronism" 171 Skydrone.­2020.­Accessed­June­10,­2020.­https://www.skydrone.fr/reportage-drone- documentaire-drone-tv/. Stubblefield,­Thomas.­2020.­Drone Art: The Everywhere War as Medium. Oakland: University of California Press. MOLECULAR VISUALIZATION SPECULATIVE IMAGE HIV-1 MACROMOLECULE CELLPACK VITAL FLUX [ 1 7 ] Of Liquid Images and Vital Flux Bishnupriya Ghosh Every epidemic emplaces us in molecular visuali- zations where iconic spiked orbs circle host cells. As we become accustomed to SARS-CoV2, my essay returns to visualizations of the HIV-1 macromolecule to explore the role of dynamic images in scientific research. The fact that scientists are still building models of HIV-1, after four decades, should give us pause in our impatience about “knowing” SARS-CoV2 fully. The liquid image built on a synthetic-biologic continuum, I argue, provides a clue to the essentially CELLPACK speculative nature of visualizing and modeling virus- host vital relations. Malleable, dynamic, and always emergent, the liquid image races to visualize and predict the vital flux of parasitic relations, and to keep abreast of fast-paced research. I trace editable models and simulations of HIV through an analysis of cellPACK, a software suite developed at the Center for Computational Structural Biology at the University of 174 Pandemic Media California, San Diego. Integrating crowd-sourced data, the platform enables an image composed at one scale to continuously liquidate and reassemble into another (perhaps larger) whole, and vice versa. Such scal- able images are creative actualizations of scientific hypotheses based on mathematical possibilities. And yet. Even as they render the capacities and tendencies of complex systems calculable, the partially known haunts the liquid image. We encounter an ominous spiked orb almost on a daily basis in reportage on the­COVID-19­pandemic.­Those­spikes­attach­with­ease­to­the­ACE2­receptors­ of­human­respiratory­cells,­we­are­told,­enabling­a­deadly­viral­takeover­of­ host­resources.­But­we’ve­heard­this­story­before:­SARS-CoV2­does­to­res- piratory­cells­what­HIV­once­did­to­CD4­cells­of­the­immune­system.­An­abiding­ accompaniment to every pandemic is the visualization of virus macro- molecules,­their­approach­and­entry,­bloom­and­blast­in­host­cells.­Despite­the­ intense­desire­to­separate­and­isolate­an­“invisible­enemy,”­we­have­come­to­ regard pathogenic particles in their vital relation to the hosts that they occupy. Moving images based on structural data plunge us into wondrous voyages in­which­orbed­bodies­circle­and­encounter­each­other­(fig.1).­As­they­morph­ and­dissolve,­we­watch­virus-host­co-emergences­in­the­twenty-first­century­ “molecular­fantastic.”1­Operating­on­a­synthetic-biologic­continuum,­these­ moving­images­are­vital­media,­whose­irreducible­vitality­is­most­evident­in­ their liquid­character.­Plastic,­dynamic,­and­speculative,­the­liquid­image,­I­ argue,­races­to­visualize­and­predict­the­vital­flux­of­parasitic­relations.­ We­see­this­in­the­ongoing­technical-aesthetic­mediation­of­the­HIV-1­macro- molecule,­still­under­construction­after­four­decades­of­the­viral­pandemic.­ On­the­one­hand,­malleable,­constantly­editable­images­are­necessary­for­ processing­volumes­of­new­data­in­fast-paced­scientific­research.­The­“image”­ makes­large­volumes­of­data­cohere­as­a­single­insight,­a­process­that­statis- tician­and­artist­Edward­Tufte­(2001)­named­“de-quantification.”2 Scientists 1­ With­advanced­imaging­technologies,­in­scientific­edutainment,­we­are­in­the­ domain of the marvelous: a molecular fantastic of the same order as Akira Lippit ’s “optical­fantastic”­in­the­first­half­of­the­20th­(triangulating­the­development­of­X-ray­ technologies,­the­splitting­of­the­atom,­and­psychoanalysis,­see­Atomic Light (Shadow Optics),­Minnesota­University­Press,­2005).­See­my­account­of­the­cellular­agon­in­ “Animating­Uncommon­Life:­U.S.­Military­Malaria­Films­(1942-1945)­in­the­Pacific­The- ater,”­in­Beckman­2014. 2­ Edward­Tufte,­The Visual Display of Information­(Graphics­Press,­2001). Of Liquid Images and Vital Flux 175 can keep abreast of structural data from multiple sources in contributing to editable­models­of­living­systems.­On­the­other,­the­speculative­nature­of­ the­liquid­image­is­strategic­in­keeping­up­with­vital­flux.­One­might­consider­ how genetic mutations that change instructions for protein assembly will impact the entry of viral biomolecules into host cellular receptors—an under- standing­critical­to­drug­design.­For­the­“best­understood­of­any­organism,”­ as­illustrator­David­Goodsell­puts­it,­HIV­clocks­over­90­drug­resistant­genetic­ mutations.3 Scientists continue to visualize and simulate HIV “molecular docking­events”­at­host­cellular­sites­that­enable­the­design­of­new­drugs— molecules which can sit in the docking site and block viral entry.4 Dynamic speculative images keep pace with evolving virus-human emergences in these molecular-cellular contexts. [Figure­1]­Screenshot­from­“HIV­Life­Cycle”­5 The­mediatic­capture­of­HIV-1­emerges­at­the­intersection­of­basic­science­ laboratories and creative media industries. While media histories starting from­the­first­capture­of­the­tobacco­mosaic­virus­under­the­electron­micro- scope­in­1938­reveal­a­shift­from­morphological­preoccupations­to­decoding­ viral­genomes­in­the­mid-twentieth­century,­biomolecular­models­of­virus­ 3­ Stanford­University­HIV­Drug­Resistance­Database­(https://hivdb.stanford.edu/). 4­ Scientific­visualizations­that­model­crowd-sourced­data­play­a­critical­role­in­anti- viral strategies of epidemic mediation. The histories of SciVis are vast because they include­material­practices­obtaining­across­computer­graphics,­bioscience­laboratory­ techniques,­and­virtual­art.­I­discuss­their­conjugation­further­in­my­current­book­ project,­The Virus Touch: Theorizing Epidemic Mediation. 5­ For­the­animation,­see­https://vimeo.com/260291601. This was made collaboratively with the Department of Biochemistry at the University at Utah and the CHEETAH consortium (https://biochem.web.utah.edu/iwasa/projects/HIV.html).­Janet­Iwasa­(Animation­Lab),­ whose­scientific­animations­I­have­explored­elsewhere,­headed­the­project­with­data­ sourced­from­researchers­globally.­See,­Ghosh­2016. 176 Pandemic Media macromolecules remain critical to integrative research.6 No doubt the push arrives with the turn to complex systems thinking in the life sciences that made computation central to the study of living organisms. In attempting to understand­the­effects­of­vital­processes­at­one­scale­(e.g.­biochemical­cellular­ reactions)­on­another­(e.g.­folding­of­protein­molecules),­scientists­of­different­ cloth­increasingly­share­structural­data­and­test­competing­hypotheses,­com- municate and educate on new media platforms such as (Maxon’s) Cinema 4D­or­(Autodesk’s)­Maya.­The­“molecular­movies,”­as­they­are­dubbed,­are­ robust­collaborations­between­academic­researchers,­biotech­corporations,­ and digital animators.7­Making­the­unseen­visible,­as­the­SciVis­mantra­goes,­ moving images integrate structural data and simulate possible molecular events in this post-cinematic context. With new data inputs come new possibilities. In­liquid­images,­“life”­as­vital­process­appears­as­“life­itself.”­As­shorthand,­ “life­itself”­refers­to­the­mediatic­appearance of vital processes.8 Life “emerges with”­matter:­bodily­media­like­blood­or­respiratory­mucosa­sustain­the­virus.­ Technical-aesthetic mediation detects and composes the interactions of viral particles­in­bodily­fluids­as­the­numeric­distribution­of­x copies in y milliliter blood­(à­la­the­viral­load­test).­Sarah­Kember­and­Johanna­Zylinska­(2010)­name­ this­mediatic­capture­a­“cut”­in­the­flow­of­living­processes—a­slice,­a­snap- shot—so­that­“life”­makes­an­appearance­as­“life­itself.”­In­liquid­images,­life­ appears­vibrating,­morphing,­changing.­Animations­of­dynamic­processes­ make­vital­flux­legible­and­palpable­in­multisensory­environments.9 6­ 100-500­times­smaller­than­bacteria,­viruses­were­the­microbes­that­passed­through­ Louis­Pasteur’s­porcelain­filters­and­remained­unobservable­under­ordinary­light­ microscopes.­When­the­powerful­electron­microscope­made­optical­capture­possible,­ research on identifying viruses began in earnest. The focus on virus morphologies soon­gave­way­to­the­romance­with­genomic­codes­in­the­mid-20th century as molecular biologists­drilled­down­to­genomic­fingerprints­of­viruses­in­host­DNA.­The­latter­ remains­the­bedrock­of­virological­research,­even­as,­still­later­in­the­20th­century,­the­ onus fell on integrating research with the rise of systems biology. 7­ The­mantra­is­associated­with­SciVis­practices­which­begins­to­commercially­cohere­ in the late eighties (the precedents in molecular graphics go back much further). The first­SciVis­congregation­(the­Visualization­in­Scientific­Computing­Conference),­in­ 1987,­brought­together­industry,­academics,­and­government­officials.­Thus,­began­the­ industrial enterprise of new media platforms that allowed scientists and animators to produce images based on experimental data necessary for designing source materials (digital­files­for­synthetic­compounds)­that­could­be­actualized­as­marketable­“bio- logicals”­(biotechnological­products).­See,­introduction­to­Pickford­and­Tewksbury­1994. 8­ We­might­remember­that­“emergence,”­which­is­a­key­concept­for­large-scale­ecological­ disturbances­such­as­new­pathogenic­species­relations,­comes­from­the­Latin­root­ emegere­signifying­“to­appear.”­In­this­regard,­studying­viruses­in­an­agar­plate­under­ the­electron­microscope­is­an­epistemic­cut­that­makes­virus-human­relations­legible,­ readying them for other interventions such as gene-splicing or drug therapy. 9­ ­For­the­multisensory­dimension­of­building­protein­macromolecules,­one­of­the­best­ studies­is­Natasha­Myers’­(2015)­ethnography­of­protein­crystallography.­Myers­traces­ Of Liquid Images and Vital Flux 177 The point is better made with brief illustration: I focus on the making of HIV macromolecules at the Center for Computational Structural Biology (formerly,­Molecular­Graphics­Lab)­at­the­Scripps­Research­Institute,­Univer- sity­of­California,­San­Diego.­Its­chief­biologist,­Arthur­Olson,­was­a­pioneer­ in the computer graphics foundational to molecular visualizations. Founded in­1981,­the­“Olson­Lab”­(as­it­is­nicknamed)­sources­its­data­from­molecular­ biologists­(studying­gene­transcriptions),­biochemists­(studying­chemical­ interactions),­and­structural­biologists­(studying­protein­assemblies)­to­build­ integrative crowd-sourced models which allow researchers to move beyond their silos of expertise.10­Until­now,­the­lab­has­made­six­models­of­the­HIV-1­ macromolecule on media platforms so that researchers can manually move molecules­around,­watch­for­folds,­accelerate­or­decelerate­motion.­While­the­ game industry’s VR platforms provide inspiration for analyzing biomolecular structures­in­3-D,­sophisticated­toolkits­specifically­tailored­for­biological­ research­are­now­available;­some­of­these­have­been­developed­at­the­Olson­ Lab.11­A­biology-specific­extension­of­the­better-known­AutoPACK­is­a­suite­of­ programs­called­cellPACK,­which­was­developed­in­collaboration­with­med- ical-illustrator-turned-software-designer­Graham­Johnson­(Mesoscope­Lab,­ University­of­California,­San­Francisco).12 Structural biologist and illustrator David­Goodsell’s­legendary­“zoomable”­watercolors,­which­magnified­cellular­ structures­into­their­molecular­components,­are­the­methodological­and­aes- thetic­bases­for­building­unified­hybrid­models­on­cellPACK­(fig.­2a).13 the haptic and kinesthetic qualities of modeling proteins to argue for a sensuous engagement­with­scientific­molecular­structures. 10 Arthur Olson has been envisioning HIV from the start of the epidemic in the United States.­Studying­the­structural­dimensions­of­HIV,­the­Olson­Lab’s­“AIDS-Related­Struc- tural­Biology­Program”­is­an­NIH-funded­operation.­The­team­at­the­lab­includes­a­range­ of scientists from David Goodsell (on the technical-aesthetic end) to Stefano Forli (on the biotech­industry­end).­The­lab­developed­at­least­one­thousand­structures­of­protease,­ one of the three important HIV enzymes in the viral replication cycle. Research on HIV enzyme­biostructures­has­everything­to­do­with­the­life-saving­protease­inhibitors,­ placing­the­Olson­Lab­squarely­within­ongoing­efforts­to­develop­pharmacological­ solutions­to­“managed­HIV”­(as­it­is­now­called). 11­ In­the­area­of­software­programs,­the­lab’s­successes­are­many.­“Autodock,”­a­program­ for­biomolecular­structure­analysis,­has­been­adopted­by­four­thousand­laboratories­all­ over the world. 12 cellPACK was developed at the Olson Lab (with Ludovic Antin) while Johnson was finishing­his­post-graduate­work.­The­open-source­program­integrates­structural­biology­ and­systems­biology­data­with­packing­algorithms­to­assemble­comprehensive­3D­ models­of­cell-scale­structures­in­molecular­detail.  13­ David­Goodsell­is­a­central­figure­who­is­well­known­for­his­watercolor­illustrations­ based­on­real­data­sources­and­magnification­specifications;­these­are­available­on­the­ Protein­Data­Bank.­Goodsell­has­not­only­led­on­the­scientific­front,­but­his­books, The Machinery of Life­(1993)­and­Atomic Evidence­(2016),­are­widely­considered­exemplars­of­ science­communication.­Based­on­his­aesthetic­protocols,­the­Olson­Lab­has­produced­ as­many­as­6­HIV-1­models­to­date­(HIV-1­1.2,­1.3…),­each­manually­curated­with­widely­ sourced data. 178 Pandemic Media [Figure­2a–b]­Watercolor­of­HIV­in­Blood­Plasma,­1999;­HIV-in-Blood­Plasma­Visualization,­2015 The idea is to combine data from all branches of biology into a compre- hensive­mesoscale­model­ranging­from­0.1­micron­to­10­nanometers.­“Artistic­ depictions­of­cellular­environments”­built­on­the­cellPACK­suite­can­integrate­ data­from­ultrastructural­(light­and­electron­microscopy),­infrastructural­ atomic­(x-ray­crystallography­and­NMR­spectroscopy),­and­biochemical­ (for­concentrations­and­interactions)­sources­( Johnson­et­al.­2015,­85-91).­ “Ingredients”­from­these­data­sources­produce­scientific­“recipes”­(as­the­lab’s­ extended­cooking­metaphor­runs)­for­various­parts­of­the­model.­Fig.­2b­is­an­ image,­HIV-in-Blood Plasma,­made­up­of­seven­different­recipes­(each­with­a­ different­color­coding)­that­are­unified­into­a­single­model.­Endless­updates­to­ the­“editable­model­of­HIV”­become­possible­in­these­plastic,­malleable­liquid­ images.­The­Olson­Lab’s­HIV-1­ultrastructure­(the­HIV­envelope)­functions­as­ the­polyhedral­“mesh”­or­Euclidean­“state­space”­(adding­time­to­geometric­ coordinates)­for­packing­ingredients­(De­Landa­2011).­This­is­accomplished­by­ cellPACK’s­virtuoso­“packing­algorithms”­that­determine­how­the­mesh­is­filled­ out­to­produce­a­scalable­image­(see­fig.­3).­ Of Liquid Images and Vital Flux 179 [Figure­3]­Packing­the­HIV-1­mesh Such a drive toward consistent precision in modelling biomolecular structures enables­the­study­of­“active­sites”­on­cellular­surfaces­that­drug­therapies­ target­to­block­the­successful­“docking”­of­HIV.­Stefano­Forli,­who­is­the­bio- tech­interface­at­the­lab,­explained­how­animating­3-D­models­on­new­media­ platforms­not­only­provided­the­opportunity­to­circle,­view,­and­analyze­ cellular­structures,­but­it­also­enabled­calculating­the­densities,­forces,­and­ propensities of molecules as they interacted with each other. Real-time video- tracking­allowed­for­moving­molecules­around,­accelerating­or­decelerating­ molecular­motion.­As­the­molecules­vibrated­in­Brownian­motion,­Olson­ noted,­scientists­could­better­understand­the­electrostatic­complementarity­ and hydrogen bonding that forms molecular structures. They could zoom into specific­sites­of­structural­uncertainty­and­then­out­to­the­bigger­picture—the­ HIV-1­viral­capsid­in­the­extracellular­environment.­ This­example­of­liquid­images­discloses­their­infinite­malleability.­To­be­sure,­ these­“technical­images,”­to­recall­Vilém­Flusser­(1985),­concretizing­a­“universe­ of­particles­moving­toward­dissipation,”­are­as­plastic­as­are­all digital images. Each­image­liquidates­and­reconfigures­the­previous­trace.­And­yet,­the­point­ of the constant update is to keep up with high volumes of incoming data: the­Olson­Lab’s­release­of­HIV­1.6­demonstrated­the­possibility­of­integrating­ crowd-sourced structural data at speeds commensurate with the fast pace of 180 Pandemic Media research­( Johnson­et­al.­2014,­23-44).­Further,­when­animated,­scientists­were­ able to experiment with multiple outcomes for the molecules in motion— colliding,­adhering,­separating.­Such­dynamism­is­critical­to­simulating­the­ changeful­interactivity­of­parasitic­relations.­As­obligate­parasites,­bits­of­ nucleic­acid­with­a­protein­coat­and­without­cell­walls,­we­know­that­viruses­ “come­alive”­as­secondary­organisms­always­in­vital­relation­to­a­host;­they­ need host resources to replicate.14 But this biological partnership is con- stantly negotiated as virus-host vital relations continue to emerge.15 Computer animations­can­simulate­the­processualities­of­emergences,­predicting­a­range­ of probable outcomes for the form and evolution of vital relations. Investigating­simulations­of­living­systems,­Manuel­De­Landa­(2011)­examines­ the computational rendering of biologic “possibility­spaces”—the­space­of­ genes,­the­space­of­structural­proteins,­the­space­of­spatial­structures—into­ synthetic possibility­spaces.­The­efficacy­of­the­scalable liquid image lies in rendering biological possibilities as calculable mathematical probabilities. In­this­enriched­mechanistic­account­of­life,­De­Landa­asks:­What­“individual­ singularities”­arise­in­interactions­between­agents­within­a­possibility­space?­ Defining­individual­singularities­as­new properties,­De­Landa­argues­that­ hydrogen­and­oxygen­produce­a­liquid­state­more­than­the­sum­of­its­parts,­a­ state whose properties (such as the temperature at which water boils) are dis- tinct from the two gaseous entities. Secondary mutations of HIV that evolve as 14­ Ever­since­its­discovery­in­the­late­19th­century,­the­virus­has­always­been­a­border­ object,­in­the­sense­that­it­lacks­an­important­definitive­feature­of­living­organisms—the­ capacity­to­metabolize­what­it­needs­to­regenerate.­One­of­the­most­influential­def- initions­of­“life”­hearkens­to­physicist­Erwin­Schrödinger’s­simple­but­lasting­distinction­ of­living­things­as­irritable,­and­capable­of­reproduction­and­metabolism.­As­opposed­to­ crystals,­living­things­were­defined,­Schrödinger­maintained,­by­their­capacity­for­self- regeneration­(to­grow,­repair,­and­reproduce)­and­their­fight­against­dissipative­entropy­ (“What­if­Life?”­1941).­An­obligate­parasite­is­an­organism­that­cannot­live­without­a­host,­ as opposed to a facultative parasite that can live independently but becomes parasite under­certain­conditions.­The­virus­can­only­live­within­hosts.­It­literally­“comes­alive”­ from dormant crystalline states when it senses a host. 15­ One­of­the­foremost­scholars­of­parasitism,­Angela­Douglas­characterizes­symbiosis­as­ a derived state: a gradual evolutionary transition from antagonism (including virulent pathogenesis)­to­mutually­beneficial­relations­including­a­stable,­managed­partitioning­ of resources. One­partner,­usually­the­host,­takes­control­of­resource­distribution­over­ time,­imposing­sanctions­and­controlling­transmissions­for­both­partners,­even­as­both­ organisms­develop­novel­capacities­(a­lateral,­not­hereditary,­transfer­of­properties)­in­ order to live with the perturbations that the other generates. Symbiosis-at-risk is one step­on­a­spectrum­of­relations­between­parasites­and­hosts;­and­some­relationships­ (e.g. human-Ebola) never move past that point. Symbiotic relations are those that are mutually­beneficial­to­the­participants­for­the­major­duration­of­their­lifetime.­This­does­ not­mean­that­parasitism­is­not­symbiotic,­but­that­pathogenic­parasitism­is­not.­Less­ virulent­parasites­are­at­a­selective­advantage­in­this­regard,­since­they­do­not­deplete­ the­resources­of­the­host.­We­can­“live­with”­virulent­pathogens­like­HIV­only­with­the­ technological­mediation­of­drug­therapies.­See,­Angela­Douglas,­The Symbiotic Habit (Princeton­UP,­2010),­Symbiotic Interaction­(1994),­and­The Biology of Symbiosis­(1987). Of Liquid Images and Vital Flux 181 drug resistance are examples of such individual singularities: these properties emerge­at­negotiations­between­host­resources,­viral­particles,­and­chemical­ drug­molecules.­While­such­new­properties­can­be­decoded­and­documented,­ what remains speculative are the capacities and tendencies that come into play within living systems. Enter liquid images: the attempt to predict outcomes of new individual singularities arising in cellular environments. As­an­image­composed­at­one­scale­liquidates­to­reassemble­into­another,­ perhaps­larger,­whole,­or­vice­versa,­liquid­images­not­only­present­variable­ trajectories but they also predict what is not yet known. They are crucial sites for­creative­actualizations­of­scientific­hypotheses­based­on­mathematical­ possibilities. Whether those hypotheses concern envisioning the capacities and­tendencies­of­complex­systems,­or­tracking­evolving­changes­in­new­ singularities,­the­partially­known­haunts­the­liquid­image.­That­said,­decades­ of­research­on­HIV­forms­a­baseline­for­imaging­SARS-CoV2.­We­are­indeed­ ahead­of­the­game,­even­as­it­may­not­seem­like­it.­The­famous­David­Ho,­ innovator­of­the­protease­inhibitors­of­the­anti-retroviral­therapies,­has­been­ tapped­for­Joe­Biden’s­team­on­COVID-19­for­a­reason.­But­to­expect­definitive­ findings­in­a­matter­of­months­is­to­live­in­a­fool’s­paradise.­We­know­scientific­ agreements­on­particular­outcomes­proposed­in­scientific­visualizations­come­ after years of study. Even though HIV is relatively simple in its composition (made­of­just­eight­structural­proteins),­the­“HIV­trimer”­was­on­the­“most­ wanted”­list­of­protein­macromolecules­until­2013,­when­the­scientific­com- munity­could­agree­on­its­definitive­crystalline­structure.­The­liquid­image­is­ an object lesson in patience. We­will­have­to­inhabit­the­molecular­fantastic­of­SARS-Cov2­for­the­fore- seeable­future,­watching­as­this­increasingly­familiar­orb­circles­and­enters­ its­new­hosts,­leaving­cellular­ruin­in­its­wake.­­The­liquid­image­is­always­at­ a­lag­for­vital­flux­continues­to­exceed­all­synthetic­transcription.­Delving­ deeper,­moving­faster,­these­speculative­images­remain­in­hot­pursuit­of­ever- emergent virus-host vital relations. References Beckman,­Karen,­ed.­2014. Animating Film Theory.­Durham,­NC:­Duke­University­Press.­ De­Landa,­Manuel.­2011.­Philosophy and Simulation: The Emergence of Synthetic Reason. New York: Continuum. Douglas,­Angela.­1987.­The Biology of Symbiosis.­Princeton,­NJ:­Princeton­University­Press. —­—­—­.­1994.­Symbiotic Interaction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. —­—­—­.­2010.­The Symbiotic Habit.­Princeton,­NJ:­Princeton­University­Press.­­ Ghosh,­Bishnupriya.­2016­“Toward­Symbiosis:­Human-viral­Futures­in­the­‘Molecular­Movies.’”­In­ Sustainable Media: Critical Approaches to Media and Environment,­edited­by­Nicole­Starosielski­ and­Janet­Walker,­232–47.­Durham,­NC:­Duke­University­Press. Johnson,­Graham­T.­et­al.­2014.­“3D­Molecular­Models­of­Whole­HIV-1­Virions­Generated­with­ cellPACK.”­Faraday Discuss,­Nov­23:­23–44. 182 Pandemic Media Johnson,­Graham­T.­et­al.­2015.­“cellPACK:­A­Virtual­Mesoscape­to­Model­and­Visualize­Structural­ Systems­Biology.”­Nature Methods­12­(1):­85–91. Kember,­Sarah,­and­Johanna­Zylinska.­2010.­Life after New Media: Mediation as Vital Process. Cambridge,­MA:­MIT­Press. Myers,­Natasha.­2015.­Rendering Life Molecular: Models, Modelers, and Excitable Matter.­Durham,­ NC: Duke University Press. Pickford,­Clifford,­and­Stuart­K.­Tewksbury.­1994.­Frontiers of Scientific Visualization.­Hoboken,­NJ:­ Wiley-Interscience Publication. Tufte,­Edward.­2001.­The Visual Display of Information.­Cheshire,­CT:­Graphics­Press. TRACING APPS SOCIAL GRAPH GOVERNMENTALITY GOVERNMEDIALITY [ 1 8 ] Pandemic Media: On the Governmediality of Corona Apps Christoph Engemann This article investigates the debate and implemen- tation of corona tracing apps in Europe as an example of a new form governmentality. Here the media of governing become the problem to be governed and subsequently this formation can be called govern- mediality. With corona apps the role of social graphs became a flashpoint for the emergence of such a governmediality. Based on a brief introduction on the history and context of social graphs, the article shows how coders, politicians, medical profes- sionals, and hacktivists debated the effects of social graphs on individual liberties as well as on pandemic management. The intellectual game of varying Carl Schmitt’s notion of “sovereign is he who decides­upon­the­state­of­exception”­whenever­a­crisis­occurs­reached­new­ heights­during­the­coronavirus­pandemic­in­2020.­Most­prominently­Giorgio­ Agamben­touted­in­this­vein,­framing­the­crisis­triggered­by­the­spread­of­the­ SARS-COVID-19­virus­as­the­final­revelation­of­the­true­core­of­modern­state- hood­(Agamben­2020).­What­lies­behind­the­liberal­and­democratic­façade­are­ 186 Pandemic Media not only the post-democratic procedures of faked deliberation and techno- cratic decision-making but also an unfettered desire to reign in the lives of people.­This­includes­altering­their­freedom­of­movement,­requiring­masks,­ triaging­access­to­health­care,­and­ultimately­digitally­surveilling­whole­pop- ulations and every individual at once: a digitally enabled normalization of a permanent­state­of­exception.­Statehood­in­the­twenty-first­century,­so­the­ underlying­tenor­of­these­debates,­was­awaiting­such­a­moment­to­fully­deploy­ its digitally advanced media of oppression.1 The development of corona tracing apps in Europe between roughly March 2020­and­mid-June­2020­paints­a­different­picture.­Launched­by­a­consortium­ calling­itself­DP3-T­standing­for­Decentralized Privacy Preserving Proximity Tracing,­the­resulting­smartphone­apps­were­developed­via­a­coordinated­ effort­of­an­international­group­of­computer­scientists,­epidemiologists,­epi- demic-modelers,­virologists,­and­lawyers.­The­apps­promised­to­facilitate­ the­mapping­and­notification­of­the­social­contacts­of­infected­persons­in­ epidemic­situations.­With­the­coronavirus­crisis,­manual­contact­tracing­had­ emerged as one of the most important tools to manage the course of the pandemic.­By­March­2020,­smartphone-based­tracing­apps­using­Bluetooth­ standards for proximity sensing came under consideration to accelerate the laborious­process­of­manual­contact­tracing.­Given­sufficient­acceptance­and­ adoption­within­a­given­population,­such­software­applications­promised­ faster­response­options­to­emerging­contact­chains­and­dynamic,­localized­ management of lockdowns and similar measures. With­their­launch­in­mid-June­2020­the­contact­tracing­apps­were­lauded­as­ prime examples of how societies should govern their digital re-mediation. Sur- prisingly­this­praise­was­offered­by­actors­typically­skeptical­about­any­govern- ment­IT­projects:­high­profile­hacker­groups­like­the­German­Chaos­Computer­ Club,­data­protection­officials,­privacy­advocates,­and­digital­activists.­ This praise was partially based on the use of open source developing practices,­making­the­codebase­of­the­apps­available­to­public­scrutiny­via­ GitHub. For the Bluetooth stack2 of the tracing apps the two dominant man- ufactures of smartphone operating systems Apple and Google participated in­the­development,­openly­providing­APIs3 to enable access at the level of the­operating­system,­contributing­code­and­privacy­consultancy.­The­code­ 1­ The­website­of­the­European­Journal­of­Psychoanalysis­has­collected­Agamben’s­original­ article,­“The­invention­of­an­epidemic,”­and­the­subsequent­discussion­with­con- tributions­by­Alain­Badiou,­Slavoi­Zizek,­and­Jean-Luc­Nancy­among­others.­For­a­critical­ discussion­see­also­Christiaens­(2020),­Sotiris­(2002),­and­Sarazin­(2020). 2­ Bluetooth­stack­refers­to­the­vendor­specific­implementation­of­the­set­of­protocols­ defined­for­the­Bluetooth­low­energy­short­range­communication­standard.­ 3­ API­stands­for­application­programming­interface­and­defines­how­an­application­inter- faces with other applications requesting data from it. Pandemic Media 187 repository GitHub4 was employed not only to publish code and protocols but to also invite discussions on the social and cultural dimensions of the application. A practice was thus established around the corona tracing apps that Chris- topher­Kelty­(2008,­27f.)­has­called­recursive­publics.­Based­on­research­in­ open­source­development­communities,­Kelty­described­recursive­publics­as­ contexts that simultaneously deliberate and build the tools that allow for their own deliberation. Such a dynamic was evident with the corona tracing apps too. Using GitHub as well as classical forms of publications in newspapers and journals,­a­recursive­public­for­building­a­privacy­preserving­digital­contract­ tracing emerged. In this process the corona tracing apps became a medium of liberalism.­Not­only­were­the­algorithms,­data­structures,­and­protocols­of­the­ tracing­apps­scrutinized­in­their­effects­on­liberal­values,­but­the­question­of­ how a digital liberalism could be implemented was raised. The pandemic was understood­as­a­challenge­of­liberalism,­and­the­techno-orientalist­(Tai­2020)­ imaginations­of­the­Chinese,­Taiwanese,­and­Korean­approaches­to­tracking­ and tracing were mobilized as negative examples. In opposition to these mostly­imagined­Asian­approaches,­the­European­tracing­app­was­to­preserve­ individual privacy and not provide any means for surveillance. The posture of the European tracing apps thus both included an international signal as well as messages to the European public. The latter was addressed as subjects of digital governing that they could self-govern by means of the openness of codebase and discussion. Members­of­the­DP-3T­consortium­highlighted­the­necessity­to­prevent­the­ emergence of social graphs within the data processing elements of the corona app stack. Graphs are mathematical structures describing linkages between entities­called­nodes­(fig.­1).­Despite­the­diagrammatic­connotations­of­the­ term­graph,­these­mathematical­entities­are­not­primarily­visual­media.­ Nonetheless­visualizations­of­graphs­are­common­and,­for­example,­part­of­ the­visual­branding­of­Facebook­events­(fig.­2).­Here­the­stage­backgrounds­ often show networks of nodes and edges. But when such stylized graphs are shown­or­graph­datasets­are­visualized­with­tools­like­Gephi,5 the use-value is comparably low. Visualizations are only viable for datasets with a relatively small number of entities. The function of these pictures is to depict complexity while­large­graphs,­like­Google’s­search­graph­with­a­trillion­nodes­and­edges,­ escape their visualization. 4 GitHub is a popular online source code repository allowing for distributed development of­software.­Founded­it­2008,­GitHub­was­acquired­by­Microsoft­in­2018.­See­github.org. 5­ Gephi­is­an­open­source­software­package­for­visualizing,­analyzing­and­exploring­ graph-data sets. See gephi.org 188 Pandemic Media [Figure­1]­NSA­Big­Graph­Experiment­(Source:­Technical­Report­NSA-RD-2013-056002v1)­ The­term­social­graph­used­by­the­DP-3T­consortium­was­originally­coined­by­ Mark­Zuckerberg­in­2008.­In­the­case­of­Facebook­the­nodes­are­individual­ people,­their­friendships­the­edges.­In­Zuckerberg’s­apt­notion­of­the­social­ graph it is evident that Facebook has nearly managed to monopolize the math- ematical representation of all digitally addressable individuals worldwide. [Figure­2]­Zuckerberg­Social­Graph­(Source:­Justin­Sullivan/Getty­Images)­ Pandemic Media 189 As the revelations by Edward Snowden as well as material from the War on Terror­shows­(Burkhard­and­Waring­2013;­Burkhard­2014;­Engemann­2016a/b;­ 2019;­2020;­Gellmann­2020),­acquiring­and­maintaining­a­social­graph­is­a­ core element of the NSA’s approach to surveillance. At the same time plat- form­companies­like­Google,­Amazon,­and­Uber­also­rely­on­acquiring­and­ monopolizing­graphs­of­specific­markets:­search,­consumption,­mobility­ (Valdes­2021;­Engemann­2016b;­2020;­Seemann­forthcoming­2021).­ Without openly discussing these dimensions it is apparent that within the DP-3T­consortium­and­a­larger­community­of­computer­science­informed­civil­ society actors it was a shared view that allowing nation states to appropriate social graphs via corona tracing pps would be detrimental to the goal of pre- serving liberal values within this infrastructure. In­decentralized­system­where­risk­is­processed­on­device­locally,­“this­comes­ with­the­important­benefit­that­the­server­cannot­learn­the­social­graph,­which­ is data that can easily be repurposed and misused in ways that individuals would­not­reasonably­expect­and­may­not­wish.”­(DP-3T,­4,­highlighted­in­the­ original C.E.)6 This point is stressed further in the accompanying Data Protection and Security­Paper­of­the­DP-3T,­published­in­May­2020:­“No­entity­can­observe­or­ keep­record­of­a­global­view­of­the­social­graph­of­a­population,­in­anonymized­ form­or­otherwise.”­(DP-3T,­3) In­a­joint­statement­of­researchers­associated­with­the­DP-3T­project,­the­ dangers of such graphs are further highlighted: “With access to the social graph,­a­bad­actor­(state,­private­sector,­or­hacker)­could­spy­on­citizens’­ real-world activities. Some countries are seeking to build systems which could enable­them­to­access­and­process­this­social­graph.”­(Veale­et­al.­2020,­2). In­centralized­approaches,­the­tracing­data­collected­by­the­smartphones­ could be interlinked and a graph of the contacts between devices would emerge­(fig.­3). 7 Due to the anonymous nature of the tracing data this graph itself would not allow surveillance of individuals. But since interlinking the graph­with­other­data­is­trivial,­the­existence­of­such­a­graph­would­pose­ a­significant­privacy­threat.­With­centralized­data­storage­and­processing,­ corona tracing apps thus would have become a means of graph appropriations (Engemann­2014;­2016­a/b;­2019;­2020;­Seemann­2021;­see­also­Chun­2020),­ allowing for the generation of a dynamic social map of the tracing population. 6­ See­also­the­Blue­Trace­Manifesto­from­Singapore­(Blue­Trace­2020). 7­ See­for­example­the­position­taken­by­German-Franko­PEPP-PT­consortium:­PEPP- PT Data Protection and Information Security Architecture Illustrated on German Implementation,­5,­8,­and­23. 190 Pandemic Media [Figure­3]­Contact­tracing­graph­visualization­in­Singapore­(Source:­https://co.vid19.sg)­ Initially­favored­by­the­German­and­French­governments­(see­PEPP-PT­2020),­ centralized­approaches­sparked­criticism­not­only­by­the­DP-3T­consortium­ but by the wider public. Germany eventually changed their stance to a decen- tralized­app,­which­delayed­the­rollout­by­six­weeks.­France­deployed­a­cen- tralized version in mid-May. By mid-June the centralized approach favored in Great Britain had been dropped and the decentralized model was adopted for the NHS app. From Governmentality to Governmediality The development of the corona tracing apps has given rise to a peculiar state of exception: the exceptional situation that those who are governed reject being graphed out. Given the prevalence of graphing for platform economies and­in­geopolitics­since­9/11,­such­rejection­could­be­called­naïve.­But­perhaps­ the corona crisis is a moment when contemporary societies began in earnest to muster and investigate the media of their governing. By this I mean the media­that­both­generate­the­data,­addresses,­and­orders­as­well­as­allow­ societies­to­store,­transmit­and­process­these­very­data,­addresses­and­orders­ to­govern­themselves.­Despite­romantic­inclinations­desiring­this,­unmediated­ societies have never existed.8 The current situation of the ongoing transition to digital media is a re-mediation. The scope of this re-mediation is no less than total: an outside of the digital mediality nowhere in sight. Quite the con- trary: we are witnessing how every aspect of life gets re-mediated as smart 8 Society as a modern phenomenon is the translocal and transtemporal interrelatedness of­individuals,­institutions,­and­entities­enabled­and­facilitated­by­and­with­media.­The­ critique of society often relies on calling for seemingly unmediated forms like face-to- face communication to overcome the indirectness and alienation ascribed to society. See­for­example­the­classical­dichotomy­between­society­and­community­as­offered­by­ Tönnies­(2019­[1897]). Pandemic Media 191 environments­(Sprenger­2019),­made­addressable­via­wearables­(Nosthoff­and­ Maschewski­2019),­and­how­ever­new­apps­are­proposing­to­digitize­the­as­ yet­undigitized.­Simultaneously­platform­infrastructures­allow­for­ever­finer­ granularity in processing and interlinking the resulting data. Graphs perhaps encapsulate this totalizing element of digital media: they are­datastructures­of­endless­aggregation,­never­complete­and­always­ open to incorporating and interlinking more and new data. This totalizing moment is furthermore inherent to the centrality measures that process the relative position of every node to every other node9 and power the graph- based­identification­techniques­employed­in­the­war­on­terror,­in­online­ advertisement,­as­well­as­in­epidemiological­interventions. [Figure­4]­Slide­from­the­Snowden­Archive­TREASUREMAP­Presentation­(Source:­https://www. spiegel.de/media/6442ce11-0001-0014-0000-000000034757/media-34757.pdf)­ What raised its head in Europe is perhaps not the state of exception as Agamben­envisioned­it.­Rather,­it­is­a­further­solidification­of­a­new­form­of­ governing in which what Michel Foucault had described as governmentality (Foucault­2004)­becomes­a­governmediality.­The­emergence­of­a­regime­ where­individuals,­hackers,­experts,­NGOs,­private­firms,­and­governments­ generate­recursive­publics­that­allow­them­to­study,­deliberate,­and­govern­ the mediality of their own conduct and of the conduct of conducts. The media of­society,­more­precisely­the­media­which­establish­and­enable­the­sociality­ of­a­given­population,­are­foregrounded­and­rendered­into­problems­of­ governing­(fig.­4).­A­process­which­is­inseparable­from­investigating­the­media­ of­self-governing­of­establishing­individuality,­privacy,­and­self-conduct­under­ digital­conditions.­In­the­emerging­liberal­governmediality­of­Europe,­enabling­ citizens to question digital media as tools of both enabling as well as threating liberal values constitutes a core dynamic. The corona tracing apps exemplify this­development.­In­the­future,­similar­developments­in­the­fields­of­digital­ identity­management,­eHealth,­eGovernment,­but­also­energy­conversation­ and food safety can be expected. None of these developments will rule out a­state­of­exception­in­Agamben’s­sense,­but­the­focus­of­critical­inquiry­into­ digital statehood could perhaps learn more by focusing on the permanent 9­ For­an­elaborate­discussion­on­the­historical­and­epistemological­contexts­of­cen- trality­measures,­see­the­excellent­overview­in­Bernhard­Rieder’s­“Engines­of­Order­–­ A­Mechanology­of­Algorithmic­Techniques”­(Rieder­2020,­268ff). 192 Pandemic Media mobilization of critical faculties enabling liberal implementations of digital media. References Agamben,­Giorgio.­2020.­“The­Intervention­of­an­Epidemic.”­European Journal of Psychanalysis,­ February­26.­Accessed­June­22,­2020.­http://www.journal-psychoanalysis.eu/ coronavirus-and-philosophers/. 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DP-3T.­2020.­DP-3T/Documents.­DP^3T,­GitHub,­Accessed­June­22,­2020.­https://github.com/DP-3T/ documents. Engemann,­Christoph.­2016a.­“Digitale­Identität­Nach­Snowden:­Grundordnungen­zwischen­ Deklarativer­und­Relationaler­Identität.”­In­Der Digitale Bürger und seine Identität,­edited­by­ Gerrit­Hornung­and­Christoph­Engemann,­23–64.­Baden-Baden:­Nomos­Verlag. —­—­—­.­2016b.­“Human­Terrain­System:­Social­Networks­and­the­Media­of­Military­ Anthropology.”­In­Social Media-New Masses,­edited­by­Inge­Baxmann­Timon­Beyes,­and­ Claus­Pias,­193–218.­Chicago:­University­of­Chicago­Press. —­—­—­.­2019.­“IGF­2019­-­Day­0­-­Raum­I­-­24­-­Otherwise­Salon:­Graphs­&­Sov- ereignty.”­YouTube,­Accessed­December­7,­2020.­https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=AizNWt1a2Ls&feature=emb_logo. —­—­—­.­2020­“In­Gesellschaft­der­Graphen.­Warum­der­Datenschutz­mehr­als­das­Individuum­ berücksichtigen­muss.”­Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung,­April­12. Engemann,­Christoph,­and­Boris­Traue.­2006.­“Governmediality­of­the­Life­Course.”­ Governmediality.Net,­Accessed­June­19,­2020.­governmediality.net. Foucault,­Michel.­2004.­Geschichte Der Gouvernementalität I: Sicherheit, Territorium, Bevölkerung. Vorlesung Am Collège de France; 1978–1979. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp. Gellman,­Barton.­2020.­“Inside­the­NSA’s­Secret­Tool­for­Mapping­Your­Social­Net- work.”­WIRED,­May­24.­Accessed­June­25,­2020.­https://www.wired.com/story/ inside-the-nsas-secret-tool-for-mapping-your-social-network/. Kelty,­Christopher.­2008.­Two Bits: The Cultural Significance of Free Software and the Internet. Durham,­NC:­Duke­University­Press. Nancy,­Jean-Luc.­2020.­“Communovirus (English­and­French­Text).”­European Journal of Psychoanalysis.­Accessed­June­19,­2020.­http://www.journal-psychoanalysis.eu/ communovirus-english-and-french-text/. Nosthoff,­Anna-Verena,­and­Felix­Maschewski.­2019.­Die Gesellschaft der Wearables: Digitale Verführung und Soziale Kontrolle. Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag PEPP-PT.­2020.­Data Protection and Information Security Architecture Illustrated on German Implementation,­April­20. Rieder,­Bernhard.­2020.­Engines of Order A Mechanology of Algorithmic Techniques. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. Pandemic Media 193 —­—­—­.­“PEPP-PT.”­PEPP-PT,­2020.­Accessed­June­22,­2020.­https://www.pepp-pt.org.­ Sarasin,­Philipp.­2020.­“Mit­Foucault­die­Pandemie­verstehen?”­Geschichte der Gegenwart,­ March­25.­Accessed­June­23,­2020.­https://geschichtedergegenwart.ch/mit-foucault-die- pandemie-verstehen/. Seemann,­Michael.­2021.­Die Macht der Plattformen – Politik im Zeitalter der Internetgiganten. Berlin: CH. Links Verlag. Sotiris,­Panagiotis.­2020.­“Against­Agamben:­Is­a­Democratic­Biopolitics­Possible?”­Critical Legal Thinking,­March­14.­Accessed­June­20,­2020.­https://criticallegalthinking.com/2020/03/14/ against-agamben-is-a-democratic-biopolitics-possible/. Sprenger,­Florian.­2019.­Epistemologien des Umgebens zur Geschichte, Ökologie und Biopolitik künstlicher Environments. Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag. Tai,­Katharin,­and­Tim­Pritlove.­2020.­UKW023 Corona: China, Taiwan und Hong-Kong.­Accessed­20­ June­2020.­https://ukw.fm/ukw023-corona-china-taiwan-und-hong-kong Tönnies,­Ferdinand.­2019.­Gesamtausgabe (TG) / Ferdinand Tönnies: Band 2. 1880–1935: Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft.­Edited­by­Bettina­Clausen­and­Dieter­Haselbach.­Vol.­2.­ Berlin: De Gruyter. Traue,­Boris.­2010.­Das Subjekt der Beratung: Zur Soziologie einer Psycho-Technik. Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag. Valdes,­Ray.­2012.­“The­Competitive­Dynamics­of­the­Consumer­Web:­Five­Graphs­Deliver­a­ Sustainable­Advantage.”­Gartner,­July­13.­Accessed­June­21,­2020.­https://www.gartner.com/ doc/2081316/­competitive-dynamics-consumer-web-graphs. Veale,­Michael,­et­al.­2020.­“Joint­Statement­on­Contact­Tracing:­Date­19th­April­2020.”­Giuseppe Persiano,­Accessed­December­7,­2020.­https://giuper.github.io/JointStatement.pdf. VIDEOCONFERENCING CLOSE-UP FACE WORK SELF [ 1 9 ] Zoom in on the Face: The Close-Up at Work Guilherme da Silva Machado Recent configurations of the workplace have revealed the face as an indispensable medium for the organi- zation of labor. An attempt will be made here to show how such configurations rely on a cinematic ideal of human expression to operate as a streamlined space of interfacial communication with perform- ance-regulating effects. The cinematic close-up, which historically embodied this ideal, then assumes a new function in contemporary organizations: that of pro- viding an expanded semiotic system of the face for an accurate communication of psychological traits and states of mind beyond verbal exchanges. The facial close-up, in this perspective, instead of a close range between the camera and the “facial object,” defines a relationship to the figurative space according to which its totality takes on a physiognomic significance. 196 Pandemic Media A­notable­effect­of­the­recent­pandemic­has­been­the­sudden­expansion­of­ public­presentations­of­self­at­work­by­cinematic­means.­For­a­significant­ number­of­workers­who­had,­up­until­the­pre-pandemic­period,­stood­in­the­ position­of­pure­spectators­of­cinematic­public­figures,­the­constraint­of­tele- working has compelled them to acknowledge the fact that techniques such as the­close-up,­which­usually­heighten­the­emotions­and­beauty­of­film­stars,­ TV­and­Internet­personalities,­are­now­tools­for­their­own­public­magnifi- cation.­What’s­more,­so-called­videoconferencing­apparatuses­used­for­work­ meetings generate situations where workers can both contemplate and be contemplated­by­all­of­their­interlocutors­at­will,­and­from­such­a­distance­ that the slightest reactions of each person can be equally distinguished by any other. The visual arrangement of these apparatuses enables everyone to enjoy a­voyeuristic­experience­of­their­colleagues,­collaborators,­and­clients­quite­ similar­to­that­one­enjoys­while­watching­a­film­character.­This­is­due­to­a­blind­ spot between cameras and screens that makes it possible for everyone to stare at whomever they want without anyone knowing exactly who’s watching whom.­From­this­perspective,­the­pandemic­has­hastened­a­reconfiguration­ of­human­interactions­at­work,­while­making­it­clear­that­one­indispensable­ medium of productivism today is—alongside the computer—the human face. Insofar­as­this­reconfiguration­of­work­interactions­is­part­of­a­regular­trend­ unexpectedly­brought­to­a­paroxysm­by­a­force­majeure,­one­can­draw­ evidence about a shift in aesthetic regimes sustaining labor organization and productive performance. If companies today can dispense with the body as an­object­of­knowledge—and­with­the­architectural,­ergonomic,­and­mon- itoring systems that make it visible in order to better control it (Rabinbach 1992;­Hediger­2009;­2013)—but­less­so­with­the­face,­this­suggests­that­inter- facial relations remain crucial for industrial productivity in many sectors. One could then argue that since at least the mid-twentieth century and the rise of technological­bureaucracies,­an­aesthetic­regime­of­work­discipline­focused­on­ the­body­and­the­scientific­gaze­seems­to­have­given­way­to­another­focused­ considerably on the face and the day-to-day interfacial gaze. While the convenience of facial observation in work interactions can be simply interpreted­as­a­matter­of­communicative­efficiency,­this­efficiency­is­arguably­ due­to­a­surfeit­of­events­perceived­on­faces­that­allows­workers­to­recognize,­ beyond­verbal­communication,­zones­of­psychological­resonance,­fluctuations­ in­the­mood­of­their­interlocutors,­reasons­for­admiration,­impatience,­dull- ness,­and­disappointment;­that­is,­a­series­of­conscious­and­unconscious­phys- iognomic­motions,­the­reading­of­which­enables­workers­to­identify­general­ expectations,­factors­of­satisfaction­and­discontent,­grounds­for­laudable­ performance,­and­their­own­levels­of­fitness. Such daily observation practices at­work­were­described,­from­the­1950s,­by­sociologists­like­Erving­Goffman,­ who was particularly interested in the way workers try to control and keep Zoom in on the Face 197 track of the impressions they convey to their co-workers and other audiences (Goffman­1956).­In­the­field­of­anthropology,­and­based­on­communication­ theory,­Gregory­Bateson­introduced­the­concept­of­“injunction”­in­1972­to­ refer­to­rules,­motivational­and­inhibiting­factors­transmitted­by­non-verbal,­ albeit­effective­means­in­what­he­called­secondary­levels­of­communication­ (Bateson­1987).­Following­Bateson’s­concept,­the­organizational­apparatus­of­ companies­can­be­seen­as­a­combination­of­different­layers­of­communication­ aimed at regulating performance. These layers are not all at the same level of­explicitness.­While­at­the­verbal­level­typical­cordialities­are­maintained,­a­ range­of­injunctions­can­be­routinely­deployed­through­non-verbal­channels,­ and­in­particular­through­dramaturgies­of­the­face.­Interfacial­exchanges­can,­ therefore,­be­understood­as­a­secondary­communication­channel­through­ which injunctions to daily productivity circulate. Its existence and its potential importance depend on both a certain knowledge to interpret faces as signifiers­of­concealed­judgments­and­feelings,­and­a­particular­concern­with­ the design of the public image of self. The importance granted to the face as a text of the individual soul has a long history. In its recent theoretical articulations—especially after the intervention of­photographic­snapshots,­which­have­significantly­reframed­the­debate­on­ physiognomy around issues of facial mobility1—one might consider the work of­Georg­Simmel­to­be­one­of­the­first­critical­accounts­on­the­modern­fas- cination with the face as the locus of visibility of personality and psychological processes.­In­a­famous­essay­on­Rodin­in­1911,­Simmel­argued­that­the­modern­ preference for the face over the body relies on the fact that the former shows “man­in­the­flow­of­his­inner­life,”­while­the­latter,­prioritized­by­the­Ancients,­ shows­man­rather­“in­his­permanent­substance”­(Simmel­1996,­103).­For­the­ Berlin­philosopher,­“…the­essence­of­the­modern­as­such­is­psychologism,­ the experiencing and interpretation of the world in terms of the reactions of our­inner­life,­and­indeed­as­an­inner­world,­the­dissolution­of­fixed­contents­ in­the­fluid­element­of­the­soul”­(103).­Simmel­saw­the­face­as­a­scene­with­ moving features forming countless units of meaning. On such meaningful and permanently­moving­surface,­the­restless­personality­and­emotional­life­of­ man­would­thus­find­their­privileged­expression:­“only­the­face­becomes­the­ geometric­locus,­as­it­were,­of­the­inner­personality,­to­the­degree­that­it­is­ perceptible.­…­The­face,­in­fact,­accomplishes­more­completely­than­anything­ else the task of creating a maximum change of total expression by a minimum change of­detail”­(Simmel­1965,­279). 1­ This­was­at­the­expense­of­essentialist­conceptions­of­the­soul,­which­favored­a­her- meneutics of stable features and human phenotypes.­For­a­survey­of­this­(significant,­ but not conclusive) reframing of the physiognomic debate during the nineteenth century,­see­Gunning­(1997).­For­a­good­overview­of­the­discourse­on­physiognomy­ before­the­nineteenth­century,­in­particular­since­the­Renaissance,­see­Magli­(1989). 198 Pandemic Media This modern fascination with the face as the revelatory space of the soul was not without an associated pursuit of technical means to reveal the face. Tom Gunning­called­the­“gnostic­mission­of­cinema”­its­“potential­for­uncovering­ visual­knowledge.”­For­many­early­film­theorists,­such­as­Bela­Balázs­and­Jean­ Epstein,­“the­gnostic­potential­of­the­cinema­was­especially­evident­in­the­con- junction of the cinematic device of the close-up and the subject of the human face”­(Gunning­1997,­1).­According­to­Gunning,­one­of­the­key­impulses­in­the­ nineteenth-century development of cinematic technologies was a multiple curiosity about the meanings of the face that propelled attempts to master its­reading­through­the­classification­and­archiving­of­its­signifying­moving­ features. These attempts were carried out by scientists like Duchenne de Boulogne,­Charles­Darwin,­Jean-Martin­Charcot,­and­Georges­Demenÿ:­“The­ desire to know the face in its most transitory and bizarre manifestations was stimulated­by­the­use­of­photography;­but­that­desire,­in­turn,­also­stimulated­ the­development­of­photography­itself,­spurring­it­to­increasing­technical­mas- tery­over­time­and­motion,­prodding­it­toward­the­actual­invention­of­motion­ pictures”­(Gunning­1997,­25).­In­the­early­days­of­the­motion­picture,­close-ups­ offered­the­spectacle­of­magnified­facial­expressions­whose­attraction­derived­ from­their­grotesquely­rendered­details.­The­“gnostic­impulse”­for­facial­reve- lation thus fueled the market of technological curiosities and entertainment. With­narrative­cinema,­the­close-up­came­to­be­theorized­as­a­technique­to­ give­the­spectator­a­clear­sense­of­the­moods­and­emotions­dominating­film­ characters,­potentially­inducing­empathetic­attitudes.­For­a­film­theorist­like­ Balázs,­a­former­student­of­Simmel­who­defended­the­art­of­filmmaking­on­ the premise of the movie camera’s capacity to see more and better than the human­eye,­this­mechanic­power­of­vision­was­truly­“artistic”­when­applied­to­ unveil the human soul. Balázs argued that facial close-ups communicate the psychological­complexity­of­characters­by­clear-cut­visual­means,­i.e.­by­mag- nifying minimal changes in detail that denote total changes in expression. This made cinema an ostensibly richer and more authentic form of expression than the conventional linguistic signs.­He­called­this­realm­of­cinematic­signifiers­ of­the­soul,­micro-physiognomy,­and­its­application­in­film­narratives,­micro- dramaturgy­(Balázs­1977).­Inspired­by­German­classical­idealist­aesthetics,­ he went so far as to extend the idea of physiognomy to the whole universe of­filmable­things­(Koch­and­Hansen­1987;­Iampolski­2010):­any­cinematic­ matter was subject to assume a facial function as long as it was stylistically elaborated­to­take­on­a­subjective­signification­on­the­screen.­A­glimpse­of­a­ city,­a­landscape,­or­an­object­may­all­express­a­personality­or­état d’âme. The close-up was the ideal technique to make these elements assume the expres- sive power of the face: “Close-ups … yield a subjective image of the world and succeed­…­in­showing­the­world­as­colored­by­a­temperament,­as­illumined­by­ an­emotion”­(quoted­in­Koch­and­Hansen­1987,­170).­ Zoom in on the Face 199 Balázs’s theories testify to a reliance in the superior authenticity of the cinematic image in communicating subjective attributes. Faced with the close- up,­the­spectators­are­plunged,­he­said,­into­a­purely­physiognomic­dimension,­ the­whole­screen­being­set­to­reflect­inner­movements­and­psychic­dramas.­ He claimed that the close-up was an artistically designed situation of specta- torial complicity with the characters’ mind states and personalities. The crucial thing about this technique was that it gives visual access to even the uncon- scious truth of film­characters,­beyond­any­representational­“make-believe”­ typical­of­bourgeois­theater.­Close-ups­of­human­faces,­because­of­their­ power­of­subjective­revelation­belying­any­role-playing­attitude,­make­the­per- sonalities of characters inseparable from those of the actors who play them: “The­film­actor­is­the­sole­creator­of­his­figures­[Gestalten],­which­is­why­his­ personality … means style and Weltanschauung. One sees in the appearance of­the­human­being­how­he­sees­the­world”­(quoted­in­Aumont,­1992,­86). Curiously,­one­of­the­most­influential­works­on­the­modern­“intimate­society,”­ Richard Sennett’s The Fall of Public Man,­also­speaks­about­a­demise­of­role- playing­in­favor­of­a­“more­authentic”­mode­of­individual­public­expression.­ According­to­Sennett,­public­expression­is­nowadays­experienced­as­an­idio- syncratic­and­spontaneous­manifestation,­a­direct­reflection­of­individual­ psychological­impulses.­The­expression­of­feelings,­for­instance,­no­longer­ reflects­impersonal­presentation­models;­it­is­no­longer­derived­from­con- ventional­morphologies­and­significations­characteristic­of­the­“public­life”­ which individuals learn to believe in and play with: “Expression in the public world­was­[once]­presentation­of­feeling­states­and­tones­with­a­meaning­ of­their­own­no­matter­who­was­making­the­presentation;­representation­ of feeling states in the intimate society makes the substance of an emotion depend­on­who­is­projecting­it”­(Sennett­2002,­314).­Insofar­as­any­public­ action­is­now­experienced­as­a­direct­reflection­of­singular­personalities,­ the­principle­of­“role-playing”­is­replaced­by­a­principle­governing­the­public­ life­that­Sennett­calls­“narcissistic.”­According­to­the­latter,­both­social­and­ material relations that an individual can have all bear a substantially deter- mined­relationship­with­the­self;­the­self­is­permanently­looking­for­its­ reflection­in­experience.­Writing­in­the­1970s­and­taking­white-collar­workers­ as­a­key­example,­Sennett­portrays­modernity­as­the­time­when­the­question­ of­personal­identity­has­pervaded­all­modes­of­action,­extinguishing­role- playing as an attitude that preserves a gap between forms of expression and the­self.­Modern­narcissists,­he­claims,­“treat­social­situations­as­mirrors­of­ self,­and­are­deflected­from­examining­them­as­forms­which­have­a­non- personality­meaning”­(327).­Instilled­by­modern­institutions­that­“mobilize­ 200 Pandemic Media narcissism”­(327),­they­see­all­public­attitudes­as­self-revelation,­as­expres- sions­of­their­singular­personality,­personal­ethics­and­motivations.2 The­“mobilization­of­narcissism”­typical­of­modern­institutions,­and­the­ “gnostic­impulse”­of­cinema­to­reveal­the­face,­have­good­reason­to­find­a­ privileged articulation in the current practices of self-branding at work. As practices designed to tie self-identities to personal potential for contribution to­business­achievements,­they­request­individuals­to­constantly­observe­ the judgment of others in order to assess personal fitness. In terms of rules for­personal­success,­self-branding­doesn’t­involve­the­adaptation­to­imper- sonal­models­of­good­work­performance.­Rather,­it­requires­an­ongoing­ self-revelation­attitude—revelation­of­one’s­creative,­charismatic,­motivated,­ responsible,­etc.­personality.­On­the­other­hand,­it ’s­a­practice­of­monitoring­ the­reception­of­“self”­by­others­(Hearn­2008).­If­such­practices­incite­narcis- sistic­concern,­it ’s­because­they­erase­the­boundaries­between­one’s­public­ expression­and­the­assessment­of­one’s­innate­abilities,­character­strengths,­ and other self-related attributes. Both from the point of view of self-exhibition and from the point of view of the inspection of impressions caused by the self,­self-branding­practices­require­a­network­of­signs­more­accurate­and­ more­“authentic”­than­verbal­signs.­For­these­too­are­filtered­by­conventional­ courtesy and decorum. It calls for a sign system that is able to communicate the­subtle­truth­of­inner­drives­and­personal­impressions,­to­provide­a­more­ faithful picture of singular personalities and judgmental thoughts. The fact that­the­cinematic­close-up,­with­its­promise­to­transform­the­screen­into­ a­space­of­pure­subjective­revelation,­is­now­substituting­interpersonal­ relations at work—this should therefore come as no big surprise. It provides self-branders­with­greater­control­over­their­powers­of­persuasion,­as­well­as­ greater visual accuracy in detecting meaningful expressions in their critical appraisers—they can thus become aware of the minute motives that trigger this expanded range of judgmental expressions. Communicational apparatuses operating through facial close-ups and enabling inconspicuous stares do nothing but enhance the same phys- iognomic practices they capitalize on in the contemporary workplace. By excluding­bodies­and­the­environment­from­the­scope­of­attention,­they­ intensify processes of facial scrutiny. They homogenize a scale of perception that­can­only­be­established­circumspectly­and­fitfully­in­ordinary­live­inter- actions.­Hence,­they­situate­groups­of­collaborators­in­spaces­of­more­rigid­ interfacial symbiosis. By setting aside signs that don’t have a revelatory function­of­the­selves,­they­compel­reciprocal­uninterrupted­readings­of­ intimacy.­Thus,­they­transform­spaces­of­human­interaction­into­spaces­of­ pure­psychological­resonance.­At­the­same­time,­they­subject­individual­ 2­ Boris­Groys­(2010)­has­recently­offered­an­insight­on­the­modern­aesthetics­of­the­soul­ close­to­Sennett ’s­ideas­in­his­interesting­essay­on­the­“obligation­of­self-design.” Zoom in on the Face 201 faces to a stricter and more meticulous responsiveness within micro- dramatic collective scenes. They sharpen and intensify meaningful corre- lations between faces. They cause faces to respond to each other in a more necessary,­urgent,­atomic­way,­because­of­the­proximity­of­their­reciprocal­ frontal­exposure.­Their­effect­is­to­ensure­the­duplication­of­official­exchanges­ complete with intense exercises of facial interpretation and dramaturgy. In this­way,­they­complement­the­regulatory­function­of­verbal­communication­ by­securing­an­efficient,­but­undeclared­(and­thus­secondary)­level­of­ communication. In­such­spaces­where­the­gaze­can­only­be­interfacial,3 being able to look at one’s own face among others is of prime importance. Videoconferencing mirror images link the presentation of self at work with the aesthetics of social­networks,­where­self-branding­practices­are­well­established.­They­ consequently­extend­to­the­daily­presentation­of­self,­one’s­view­of­one’s­own­ self as an aesthetic object. The gesture that the mirror image provokes is inevitably­that­of­examining­the­outward­appearance­of­self­and­its­meaning,­ for­verification­that­it­actually­signifies­what­it­is­supposed­to­signify—that­ its forms are in conformity with the circumstances. Such gestures attest that if video communication apparatuses prove useful as substitutes for the con- temporary­workplace,­this­is­not­simply­because­they­support­efficient­first­ level­team­communication,­but­also­because­they­support­processes­of­facial production.­They­are­efficient­faciality machines­(Deleuze­and­Guattari­1987):­ they multiply opportunities to create and address meaningful surfaces of self­to­others.­Close-up­mirror­images­make­faces­proliferate;­everyone­is­ given­the­chance­to­control­subtle­signs­emanating­from­the­self,­which­aim­ to persuade and constrain others to take into account messages that are never­explicit­enough­to­be­stated,­and­never­hidden­enough­to­discount­ their­effects.­The­space­constituted­by­the­close-ups­is­therefore­a­space­of­ intensified­inter-excitation,­with­multiple­semiotic­agents­of­interpersonal­ stress. But it ’s not just about the human head’s face. All the elements within the individual­image­frames­in­videoconferencing­act­as­faces,­i.e.­they­give­rise­to­ a view of the inner attributes and subjective states of their characters. In the context­of­the­home­office,­composing­one’s­video­background­and­choosing­ the­objects­likely­to­enter­the­frame­requires­reflection­on­the­signification­one­ wants to see attributed to one’s personality and psychological traits. All visual and sound forms become signs of inner features. At­this­level,­the­problem­ of­whether­or­not­these­images­are­“close-ups”­is­in­no­way­a­matter­of­ measuring­“shot­sizes”­of­the­human­body.­It ’s­the­fact­that­they­are­integrally conceived­as­signifying­surfaces­of­selves,­and­they­endow­their­figures­(even­ 3­ For­an­original­theory­of­the­interfacial­gaze­as­a­generative­force­field­of­the­self,­see­ Sloterdijk­(2011). 202 Pandemic Media their­background­details)­with­a­physiognomic­function,­which­links­them­to­a­ historical practice of the close-up. The cinematic close-up—the embodiment of an ideal of expression of the soul since the nineteenth century—after its drifts­in­the­market­of­attractions­and­film­narratives,­assumes­then­a­tele- pathic­function­in­the­world­of­labor,­where­its­new­configurations­become­the­ default setting for the public staging of self. In­pandemic­times,­companies­have­been­massively­testing­new­forms­of­ social interaction that don’t fail to strengthen their organizational networks of physiognomic injunctions. Communication networks built on physiognomic knowledge­manifest­a­disciplinary­power­unlike­that­of­specialized­(scientific)­ knowledge applied to bodies at work. They operate as opportunities of putting into practice a widespread hermeneutics that generates the voluntary normalization of productive behavior. One can always gauge the success or failure­of­videoconferencing­apparatuses­to­replace­live­work­interactions;­in­ any­case,­these­apparatuses­deal­with­the­problem­of­the­reconstruction­of­ an aesthetic regime that ensures productivity in contemporary bureaucratic systems of production. This regime is that of the interfacial gaze: a key channel for­the­practice­of­self-branding­and­the­reading­of­psychodynamic­effects­of­ individual­actions.­Workers­today­care­a­great­deal­about­faces,­they’re­con- stantly­decoding­and­encoding­faces.­The­recent­cinematic­configurations­of­ the workplace are the result of a situation of production where the body has been made disposable—accompanied by a demand for greater visibility of faces. They’re the ideal(istic) alternative for the production of a self-disciplined subject immersed in a physiognomic dimension. References Aumont,­Jacques.­1992.­Du visage au cinéma. Paris: l’Etoile. Balázs,­Bela.­2010.­Early Film Theory: Visible Man and The Spirit of Film. New York: Berghahn Books. Bateson,­Gregory.­1987.­Steps to an Ecology of Mind: Collected Essays in Anthropology, Psychiatry, Evolution, and Epistemology. Northvale New Jersey/London: Jason Aronson Inc. Deleuze,­Gilles­and­Felix­Guattari.­1987.­A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Minneapolis: University Minnesota Press. Goffman,­Erving.­1956. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh Press. Groys,­Boris.­2010.­Going Public.­Edited­by­Julieta­Aranda,­Brian­Kuan­Wood,­and­Anton­Vidokle.­ Berlin: Sternberg Press. Gunning,­Tom.­1997.­“In­Your­Face:­Physiognomy,­Photography,­and­the­Gnostic­Mission­of­Early­ Film.” Modernism/Modernity­4­(1):­1–29. Hearn,­Alison.­2008.­“Variations­on­the­Branded­Self:­Theme,­Invention,­Improvisation­and­ Inventory,”­In­The Media and Social Theory,­edited­by­David­Hesmondhalgh­and­Jason­ Toynbee,­194–210.­New­York:­Routledge. Hediger,­Vinzenz.­2009.­“Thermodynamic Kitsch: Computing in German Industrial Films 1928/1963.”­In­Films that Work: Industrial Film and the Productivity of Media,­edited­by­Vinzenz­ Hediger­and­Patrick­Vonderau,­127–49.­Amsterdam:­Amsterdam­University­Press. Zoom in on the Face 203 — — — . 2013.­“Body­Rebuilding:­Körper­und­Arbeit­an­der­Schwelle­zum­kybernetischen­ Zeitalter.”­In­Prometheische Kultur. Wo kommen unsere Energien her?,­edited­by­Claus­Leggewie,­ Ursula­Renner,­and­Peter­Risthaus,­195–222.­Munich:­Wilhelm­Fink­Verlag. Iampolski,­Mikhail.­2010.­“Profondeurs­du­visible:­à­propos­de­Der sichtbare Mensch de Béla Balázs.”­1895­62:­28–51.­doi:­10.4000/1895.3779. Koch,­Gertrud­and­Miriam­Hansen.­1987.­“Béla­Balázs:­The­Physiognomy­of­Things.”­New German Critique­40:­167–77. Magli,­Patrizia.­1989.­“The­Face­and­the­Soul.”­In­Fragments for a History of the Human Body: Part Two,­edited­by­Michel­Feher,­86–127.­New­York:­Zone­Books. Rabinbach,­Anson.­1992.­The Human Motor: Energy, Fatigue, and the Origins of Modernity. New York: University of California Press. Sennett,­Richard.­2002.­The Fall of Public Man. London: Penguin. Simmel,­Georg.­1965.­“The­Aesthetic­Significance­of­the­Face.”­1901.­Essays on Sociology, Philosophy and Aesthetics,­edited.­Kurt­H.­Wolff,­276–81.­New­York:­Harper­Torchbook. —­—­—­.­­1996.­Michel-Ange et Rodin.­Paris:­Payot­&­Rivages. Sloterdijk,­Peter.­2011.­Spheres. Volume I: Bubbles. Microspherology.­Cambridge,­MA:­Semiotext(e). AIDS HIV PANDEMIC BAREBACKING ILLNESS DISABILITY [ 2 0 ] Sex with the Signifier Diego Semerene The argument of this chapter is the shift from sex through bodies to sex through words, which the COVID-19 lockdown triggers. This shift is situated within a context of “autistic sex” which precedes the pandemic crisis, where the human subject doesn’t recognize the subjectivity of the other in their attempt to enjoy sex. The forms that sexual (non-) encounters must take during lockdown reminds us of the role of fantasy, supported and enacted by the apparatus of the signifier, or writing, in bringing forth pleasure for the subject—particularly in sparing them from the inevitably unsatisfactory encounter with the fleshly other. When crises make certain enjoyments impossible, we may thus rediscover the fundamental function of the signifier—whose materiality can be more reliant, and malleable in obeying the shapes dictated by one’s fantasy, than that of the body. 206 Pandemic Media A­man­from­Fabswingers,­a­British­hook-up­site­where­I­have­a­profile­as­a­ crossdresser,­sends­me­several­messages,­all­of­which­go­unanswered.­“Hi.­ What are you up to? Hello? Hello? Babe? I am close to you. If I’m just wasting my­time­with­you­will­tell­me.­Ok,­I­guess­I­am.”­He­finalizes­with­a­sad-faced­ emoji,­which­prompts­me­to­reply­with­a­“WhatsApp,”­also­the­name­of­the­app­ we are using to communicate. He then summarizes the reason for being of our interaction­with­astonishing­concision,­laying­bare­the­function­of­the­signifier­ in­enjoyment,­the­central­argument­of­this­essay:­“I­want­you­to­speak­to­me.”­ I­swear­I­am­a­much­quicker­texter­with­men­who­allow­me­time­to­respond.­I,­ too,­want­them­to­speak­to­me.­Particularly­when­I­can’t­invite­them­over.­But,­ when­I­think­of­it,­also­when­I­can.­I­often­turn­not­to­pornography­to­mas- turbate,­and­not­even­to­the­photographs­these­often­good-looking­strangers­ send­me,­but­to­the­sentences­they­wrote­me.­ I­scroll­back­on­WhatsApp­to­find­places­where,­for­instance,­a­Matthew­from­ Birmingham,­who­has­told­me­he­wants­to­marry­me,­says,­“Hope­you­have­a­ nice­sleep­princess,­wish­I­woke­up­next­to­my­angel.”­I­zero­in­on­“princess,”­ I­zero­in­on­“angel,”­even­imagining­a­“little”­preceding­each­noun­to­make­my­ coming­inevitable.­I­remember­his­face,­but­the­last­thing­I­want­to­do­before­ coming is read his words. On­Twitter­the­profile­DailyScally­offers­photos­of­supposedly­straight­and­ working­class­English­men­(“scallies”).­In­one­of­them­we­see­a­handsome­ young­man­in­a­blue­hoodie­with­a­shaved­head­and­a­disaffected­expression.­ He­is­made­“scally”­by­the­writing­on­top­of­the­image,­which­provides­his­sup- posed­age,­19,­and­his­supposed­name.­“Mason­cums­so­much­and­his­spunk­ is­so­potent­that­he’s­made­every­girl­he’s­ever­slept­with­pregnant…6­kids­and­ counting.” Words will be there to make claims about the body that the body itself cannot. They­pick­up­where­the­body­leaves­off.­Or­is­it­the­other­way­around?­In­any­ case,­without­the­signifier­there­is­not­even­a­way­of­approaching­the­body. Scrolling through my Finstagram,­where­I­follow­many­MMA­fighters­from­ Ukraine,­even­though,­or­precisely­because,­I­can’t­read­their­alphabet,­one­ of­them­posts­a­picture­of­a­tattoo­he­is­getting­across­his­chest.­There­it­is,­ written­on­the­body­as­anything­ever­was,­astonishingly­concise,­too:­ “I’ve­been­holding­back­tears,”­says­the­tattoo,­in­plain­old­English. Someone responds to an ad I post on the French site Annonces-Travesti. After the­pandemic,­my­plans­to­spend­the­summer­in­Paris­have­been­scrapped,­ but not my eagerness to see what French men have to say. This guy sends me­several­texts­claiming­to­want­to­be­my­boyfriend,­“to­walk­hand­in­hand,­ admiring­the­sun­going­down.”­His­description­is­so­vivid­I­almost­come­even­if­ Sex with the Signifier 207 I am yet to know what he looks like. It seems I am not alone. “The more I write to­you,­the­more­my­desire­is­only­one…to­see­you,”­he­writes. Someone­else­on­Fabswingers­reads­my­profile,­which­states­where­I­am­from,­ or­where­I­claim­to­be­from,­and­writes­not­to­ask­for­more­nudes­but­to­make­ an­acoustic­request:­“Sexy­would­love­to­hear­that­accent.” Matthew­from­Birmingham,­who­wants­to­marry­me­after­lockdown­and­will­ allow­me­to­read­all­his­text­messages­when­we­are­married,­“out­of­respect­ for­my­wife,”­disappears­for­a­few­days.­When­Matthew­resurfaces,­he­ apologizes. He is at risk of being furloughed and was swamped with work. I question­whether­he­is­serious.­He­writes,­“How­can­I­say­what­I’ve­said­and­ not­be­serious?” A­married­48-year-old­from­Grindr­says­he­used­condoms­“pre-corona,”­but­ that­he­is­“beginning­to­think­life’s­too­short­to­pass­on­real­pleasure.”­He­then­ tells­me­he­needs­a­mistress,­“a­real­lady,”­someone­who­can­give­him­what­his­ wife­can’t.­“Care­and­respect­offered­in­exchange­for­fantasy­fulfillment.”­ It is quite striking how I have so quickly managed to adapt my urge for copious sex with strangers to the constraints posed by the pandemic. Like the man from­Annonces-Travesti,­the­more­I­write­the­more­I­want­to­see­them.­But­ then­I­don’t.­In­clinging­on­to­the­efficiency­of­their­words,­so­competent­when­ compared­to­the­men’s­sexual­abilities,­I­find­pleasure­where­I­expected­to­find­ suffering.­There­is,­at­last,­something­there­where­there­was­supposed­to­be­ nothing.­Is­that­not­at­the­core­of­their­wanting­to­see,­or­write­to,­a­cross- dresser­in­the­first­place? I digress. The real question here is where the psychic labor devoted to symptoms that we judge to be fundamental to our everyday lives go when a crisis muzzles them. What do queer cruising subjects for whom a “post- AIDS”­world­has­been­governed­by­retroviral­drugs­and­bareback­sex­aimed­ at an endless profusion of partners do with their bodies when such diligently crafted­ecstasies­are­barred?­I­will­argue­that,­when­crises­make­age-old­ enjoyments­impossible,­we­seek­refuge­in­the­more­literal­registers­of­the­ signifier,­whose­materiality­can­be­more­reliant­than­that­of­the­body. French­gay­writer­Matthieu­Galey­suffered­from­a­terminal­illness­around­the­ peak of the HIV epidemic. The fact that his illness was not AIDS struck him as an­incredibly­funny­dissonance­with­the­times,­“as­though­I­had­caught­scarlet­ fever­during­the­great­plague”­(Galey­2017,­788).1 Galey’s symptoms were a particularly­demoralizing­blow­for­someone­for­whom­cruising,­for­sex­and­ ideas,­was­a­way­of­life.­At­first­he­develops­a­limp.­Then­he­must­use­a­cane­ to­be­able­to­walk.­Ultimately,­Galey­is­confined­to­a­wheelchair­and­loses­his­ hand­movement.­The­first­to­go­is­his­right­hand,­the­one­he­uses­to­write.­ 1­ All­translations­from­Galey’s­diaries,­which­remain­untranslated­into­English,­are­mine. 208 Pandemic Media And­write­he­does,­continuing­the­diary­he­began­in­1953,­at­18­years­old,­ until­the­day­of­his­death­in­1986.­Almost­one­thousand­pages­detailing­the­ inner­workings­of­Parisian­publishing­companies,­dinner­parties­and­nights­ at­the­theatre­with­the­likes­of­Françoise­Sagan,­Louis­Aragon,­Jean­Cocteau,­ and Roland Barthes. He also documents his long love stories and brief sexual encounters,­all­culminating­in­the­slow­breakdown­of­his­body.­ This is a breakdown made livable through the written word. For Hervé Guibert,­whose­entire­oeuvre­is­written­with­and­through­the­breaking­down­ of­the­AIDS-afflicted­body,­“one­of­AIDS’s­few­mercies­is­the­emphasis­it­places­ on­the­brief­time­it­gives­you.­What­to­do­with­the­unsaved­life?­Use­it,­Guibert­ implores­his­readers,­and­rage—or­write”­(Durbin­2020).­ At a time when apps dedicated to making sexual intercourse possible thrive it is striking that so many of these app-mediated interactions seem bound to­stay­within­the­realm­of­signifier-ness­in­its­more­literal­sense.­So­much­ cruising,­so­little­sex:­from­the­question,­“What­do­you­want­to­do­to­me?”­as­a­ strategy­to­fish­for­words­that,­unlike­the­body,­can­hit­the­fantasy­at­its­heart,­ to the exposition of exhaustive scenarios of how the sexual encounter should take­place­even­though,­or­precisely­because,­it­never­will.­It­can­be­quite­frus- trating­for­those­invested­in­real-life­meetings,­because­to­enter­this­digital­ sexual­economy­is,­too­often,­to­remain­in­it.­Although­the­cruising­subject­in­ this context can go back and forth between acting out the symptom through the­bodies­of­others­or­their­words,­one­can­find­very­quickly­that­there­is­ indeed­enough,­if­not­more,­enjoyment­in­the­scripting­of­the­event,­than­in­ the event itself. Bice­Benvenuto­refers­to­our­time­as­“not­that­of­eros”­(2020).­We­are­invested­ in­the­auto-erotism­of­the­sensorial,­predicated­on­thingness­and­surfaces,­in­ lieu­of­the­sensual,­predicated­on­actual­seduction.­She­calls­this­autistic­sex.­ The­subject,­who­is­only­interested­in­getting­off,­doesn’t­recognize­the­sub- jectivity­of­the­other.­That­is,­she­makes­do­with­the­fantasy,­with­the­words,­ with­the­signifier—the­most­stable­variables­given­the­other’s­tendency­to­ turn into spoiled objects once they become something other than ghostly apparitions. Galey writes of the blues that follow a particular night of orgies in Avignon­in­July­of­1984.­“A­pleasure­much­more­intense­prior­than­during.­Why­ act­things­out?­The­prologue­is­so­much­better­than­the­play”­(2017,­750).­When­ he­goes­to­Salzburg­to­meet­Peter­Handke,­the­Austrian­writer­tells­him:­“The­ realization­of­desires,­it ’s­always­a­bit­too­much.­Desiring­suffices”­(Galey­2017,­ 713). A lockdown that reduces the sexual encounter to the subject’s exchanging of images­and­words­with­one­hand­on­their­phone,­and­the­other­on­their­sex,­ is­a­rather­fitting­proposition­for­the­autistic­sex­non-partners­of­our­non- eros time. We don’t need to meet. We cannot meet. Meeting is conveniently Sex with the Signifier 209 barred.­For­some,­this­can­of­course­become­an­incentive­for­breaking­a­newly­ externalized law. An Adam from Fabswingers­writes­to­me,­“Hey,­total­top­here­ looking­to­make­love­during­lockdown.”­Someone­else­on­Grindr­says:­“Want­to­ get­slutty­tonight?­Fuck­this­lockdown…” We­are­in­the­era­of­autism,­Benvenuto­argues,­and­the­autistic­subject­is­ always already in lockdown. We can think of the supposed horrors of lock- down,­then,­as­the­culmination­of­a­path­we­were­already­on.­A­path­taken­by­ those who take all the pleasure and give out none. Enjoyment­from­the­signifier­obviously­predates­the­digital,­but­digital­sex­ without­sex­is­a­key­item­on­the­list­of­the­so-called­new­symptoms,­which­ have­to­do­with­technologies­of­instant­gratification:­panic­attacks,­attention­ deficits,­addictions,­hyper-activity,­and­eating­disorders.­When­it­is­the­mech- anism­of­sex­that­makes­us­come,­such­as­in­the­factory-style­dynamic­of­sex­ parties where dozens of bottoms await side-by-side on all fours for tops to fuck­them­without­seeing­their­faces,­there­can­be­all­sorts­of­pleasures,­but­ there is no eros. If­the­baby­wants­to­carry­on­living­it’s­because­of­pleasure,­Benvenuto­ reminds­us.­If­the­baby­asks­for­milk­it­is­not­milk­she­is­after­but­eros,­which­ can only be granted by a mother who takes pleasure in the baby. This can’t be a­one-way­mirror.­Milk­without­the­breast,­and­here­we­don’t­mean­the­organ,­ is­automation­(Benvenuto­2020).­In­our­autistic­times­the­body­of­the­other­ might­be­the­breast­but­it­is­the­signifier­that­warrants­lactation.­ It­is­useful­to­consider­Lacan’s­shift­in­theorizing­the­signifier­in­Seminar­ XX,­prior­to­which­the­signifier­was­what­represented­a­subject­for­another­ subject.­He­asks­us­to­forget­what­we­know­about­the­signifier,­explaining­it­ as­an­enjoying­substance:­“As­soon­as­we­turn­things­into­nouns,­we­presup- pose­a­substance­….”­(Lacan­1998,­21).­For­Lacan,­then,­there­is­a­materiality­ to­the­signifier,­perhaps­a­milky­one,­whereas­the­body­itself­is­a­symbolic­ creation­and­mere­consequence­of­signifier-ness.­Jouissance,­which­can­go­ from­a­pleasant­tickle­to­an­unbearable­explosion,­appears­as­an­effect­of­ the­signifier.­If­there­is­jouissance,­there­is­some­sort­of­writing­taking­place.­ A­sentence­is­being­written.­Bodies­affected­by­lethal­viruses­are­in­a­good­ position­to­know­what­kind­of­sentence­that­is…To­be­affected­by­the­virus,­in­ this­logic,­is­to­be­under­its­sign,­whether­one­suffers­the­consequences­of­the­ virus­physically­or,­for­now,­fantasmatically.­ A­great­part­of­what­we­enjoy­about­the­symptom­is­in­the­fact­that­we­find,­ in­the­words­of­poet­Nuno­Júdice,­“paths­without­exit­so­we­can­stay­inside­ them­for­a­while­(…)”­(2019,­74).­But­enjoyment­is­supple.­The­symptom­can­ cast­its­net­onto­newly­found­objects­because­it­is­ultimately­about­signifiers,­ not objects per se. When psychoanalyst Jamieson Webster volunteers at an Intensive­Care­Unit­for­COVID­patients­in­New­York,­she­finds­herself­yearning­ 210 Pandemic Media for­eloquence­from­patients­in­their­last­moments­but­only­finds­“desperate­ stuttering”­(2020)­and­fumbling.­There­is­writing­here­too,­but­of­a­different­ kind.­The­word­appears,­for­Webster,­as­the­go-to­defense­mechanism­for­ academics,­but­the­isolated­terminal­patients,­many­of­whom­in­states­of­ psychotic­delirium,­speak­nonsense­as­if­clinging­on­to­signifier-ness­instead­of­ meaning. For­Freud,­symptomatic­somatization­is­an­essentially­creative­act.­To­move­ something somewhere (i.e. the loss of a father to pain in the neck) is a metaphoric and productive act of representation akin to the dynamic between signifier­and­signified,­which­writing­and­speaking­engender.­In­this­sense,­ writing,­on­bodies­or­paper,­is­supposed­to­give­one­the­same­amount­of­ pleasure­as­fucking­(Webster­2020).­ Galey­refers­to­his­defiance­toward­death­as­an­“aesthetic”­resistance­(2017,­ 822).­Because­a­death­sentence­is­being­written­by­every­speaking­subject­the­ minute­they­come­into­the­world,­he­sees­a­confrontation­with­death­pred- icated­on­the­idea­of­a­cure­as­a­futile­proposition.­Instead,­he­is­interested­in­ “the­beauty­of­the­gesture”­(822)­that­emerges­from­writing­the­afflicted­body­ down­and­away.­“My­impression­is­that­I­am­writing­my­own­obituary,­except­ better”­(821). It wasn’t in his being spared from HIV that Galey carved himself a space out- side­illness.­AIDS,­like­COVID-19,­haunts­and­re-shapes­bodies­even­if­the­ virus­fails­to­enter­them.­In­other­words,­the­ravaging­or­emancipatory­con- sequences­of­viruses­are­not­contingent­on­infection,­but­on­infectiousness.­ Galey­resisted­the­crisis­by­writing­it,­“in­order­to­look­the­beast­in­the­eye.­ We­never­know;­we­might­intimidate­it”­(2017, 831).­He­claims­that­if­he­was­ surprised by the miracle of the cure he would be disappointed. The sudden opening­of­yet­another­50­years­to­be­lived­would­feel­like­a­catastrophe.­“It­ is the brevity of my current life that makes it so beautiful and so precious. Something to be consumed in situ…”­(757). Edmund White remarks the many intersections between AIDS and COVID- 19,­such­as­the­prevalence­of­misinformation­traversing­each­crisis,­while­ also­listing­their­differences.­For­instance,­the­fact­that­AIDS­posed­a­much­ lesser­threat­to­health­professionals,­and­that­it­“bore­a­badge­of­shame­ even in the gay community—if you were infected it was your own fault for not practising safe sex—whereas everyone feels sympathy for coronavirus victims”­(White­2020).­There­are­many­reasons­why­it­would­be­nonsensical,­ if­not­perverse,­to­compare­AIDS­to­COVID-19.­But­there­is­surely­a­way­to­ trace­a­relationship­between­them­that­escapes­equivalence,­but­finds­kinship­ in­certain­registers—such­as­fantasy.­The­signifier­is­surely­a­fundamental­ apparatus within fantasy as the interface that organizes jouissance and its objects.­Fantasy­is­that­which­allows,­for­instance,­some­to­think­of­masks­and­ Sex with the Signifier 211 condoms­as­equivalent­figures­in­that­they­can­both­expose­the­male­body­as­ vulnerable,­contradicting­phallic­claims­it­makes­about­itself.­Right-wing­YouT- uber Brenden Dilley recently said he will never wear a mask to protect himself from­COVID-19­“because­he­hardly­ever­wears­condoms­and,­so­far,­he’s­only­ produced­three­offspring”­(Gremore­2020).­ For­Guibert,­enjoying­the­atrocity­of­AIDS­is­a­gift­between­species­that­leads­ to­lucidity­and­inspiration­because­“it­was­a­disease­delivered­in­steps.”­The­ virus­“granted­death­time­to­live,­the­time­to­discover­life­at­last,­…­a­great­ modern­invention­that­green­monkeys­from­Africa­had­transmitted­to­us”­ (Guibert­1990,­193).2 Gifts that retroviral drugs have perhaps robbed from those­privileged­enough­to­live­in­a­“post-AIDS”­bareback­bubble­but­that­ COVID-19­has­offered­back,­like­a­heirloom.­Although­the­pace­of­COVID-19­ is­decidedly­different­than­that­of­HIV,­they­coincide­in­the­threat­they­come­ to­represent­as­signifiers­themselves.­The­possibilities­of­the­gift­lie­in­the­ potential usages the subject may make from the haunting that a destabilizing threat enacts. If AIDS was a gift because it allowed for an interim where death was­mulled­over­before­taking­over,­the­status­of­COVID­as­a­gift­is­perhaps­ contingent on its remaining in the horizon—neutered from pathogen into the fantasmatic­safety,­and­multivalence,­of­the­signifier. References Benvenuto,­Bice.­2020.­Child Analysis Working Group.­Webinar,­Centre­for­Freudian­Analysis­and­ Research.­London,­June­6,­2020. Durbin,­Andrew.­2020.­“Hervé­Guibert:­Living­Without­a­Vaccine.”­The New York Review of Books,­June­12.­Accessed­August­1,­2020.­https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2020/06/12/ herve-guibert-living-without-a-vaccine/. Galey,­Matthieu.­2017.­Journal Intégral: 1953–1986.­Paris:­Robert­Laffont. Gremore,­Graham.­2020.­“Antigay­Trump­Supporter­Says­He­Won’t­Wear­a­Mask­Because­He­ ‘Barely’­Wears­Condoms.”­Queerty,­August­5.­Accessed­August­5,­2020.­https://www.queerty. com/antigay-trump-supporter-says-wont-wear-mask-barely-wears-condoms-20200805. Guibert,­Hervé.­1990.­À l’Ami Qui Ne m’a Pas Sauvé La Vie. Paris: Gallimard. —­—­—­.­1982.­Les Chiens. Paris: Les Éditions de Minuit. Júdice,­Nuno.­2019.­“O­Labirinto­do­Amor.”­In­O Coro da Desordem. Lisbon: Publicações Dom Quixote. Lacan,­Jacques.­1998.­On Feminine Sexuality: The Limits of Love and Knowledge—Book XX: Encore 1972–1973. Edited by Jacques-Alain Miller. Translated and notes by Bruce Fink. New York: W.W. Norton­&­Company. Webster,­Jamieson.­2020.­“Why­We­Don’t­Want­People­to­Die­Alone.”­YouTube,­May­31.­Accessed June­10,­2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esQAQWij3qw&t=2252s. White,­Edmund.­2020.­“Fear,­Bigotry­and­Misinformation—This­Reminds­Me­of­the­1980s­ Aids­Pandemic.”­The Guardian,­April­6.­Accessed­August­1,­2020.­https://www.theguardian. com/commentisfree/2020/apr/06/1980s-aids-pandemic-coronavirus-gay-community- survive?fbclid=IwAR2VJScZWkfSOEICwDkNFZdLO7NrxTeFUiQuOheoLISXrVFMWXXh0iuAiT8. 2 Translation is mine from the original publication of Guibert ’s À l’Ami Qui Ne m’a Pas Sauvé La Vie. FACE MASK TEXTILE-OBJECT ALTERITY FASHION ETHICS FRAGILITY [ 2 1 ] Textile-Objects and Alterity: Notes on the Pandemic Mask Marie-Aude Baronian This essay looks at the pandemic mask as a material object, which—beyond a means of immunization— measures the global fragility we experience and the way we relate to and encounter radical otherness. The face mask embodies what I term a “textile-object”: a tangible medium that one wears and handles, but also that one reflects on and contemplates. Drawing on an ethical reading of the mask, the essay questions this pervasive item as both a fashion object that crystal- lizes our contemporaneity and an accessory that tackles and seizes instances of alterity. Ultimately, wearing a mask forces us to infuse fundamental ethi- cal thoughts into the way we inhabit the world and the way we engage with material objects. Nowadays,­the­mask­can­be­seen­as­the­ultimate­material­object,­and­it­is­ arguably one of the most widely and frequently used sartorial items: in such a­short­time­span,­the­face­mask­has­become­a­ubiquitous,­routine,­and­ enforced wearing practice. If the mask is a medial and prosthetic sartorial 214 Pandemic Media object,­protecting­the­body­from­inside-out­and­acting­as­a­barrier­and­a­ means­of­immunization,­it­also­measures­the­extreme­fragility­of­life,­in­its­ social­and­material­sense.­As­viral­as­the­virus­itself,­the­mask­is­not­only­ analogous­to­current­modes­of­investing­in­public­spaces­and­platforms;­it­ has come to circumscribe and dictate how we occupy and inhabit the world. Indeed,­masks­orient­the­way­we­perceive­and­feel­the­world,­others,­and­ ourselves,­and­define—affectively­and­socially—the­fragile­global­situation­we­ are experiencing. If the pandemic mask represents a material sign of vigilant precaution,­or­fin du monde,­it­concretely­reminds­us­that­behind­every­mask­ there­is­a­tangible­and­friable­life­and­world­at­stake,­waiting­to­be­un-masked. Undoubtedly,­the­viral­circulation­of­the­pandemic­mask­makes­us­face­a­ myriad­of­compelling­questions.­Here,­I­propose­some­brief­thoughts­on­the­ mask as a sartorial medium and fashion object that seizes and tackles certain modalities of alterity. Imposing­itself­as­the­most­globally­distinctive­sartorial­object,­the­face­mask­ had already been vividly considered by various fashion designers who—moti- vated by sociopolitical concerns1 and other inspirations—reimagined and worked with this accessory. One relevant example is to be found in a défilé by­French­designer­Marine­Serre,2 who dressed her models in masks in order for the fashion industry to meditate on the ecological crisis and apocalyptical matters. The­self-referential­mask­has­very­rapidly­transcended­the­medical­field­(as­ well­as­religious,­cultural,­cultual,­and­military­uses)­and­migrated­to­the­field­ of­fashion,­even­becoming­the­ultimate­object­in­fashion­since­it­concentrates­ the heart of our contemporaneity.3 The mask is exemplary of what I call a “textile-object”:­an­object­which,­by­and­through­its­very­materiality,­textures­ the­way­we­connect­to­ourselves,­to­others,­and­to­the­world.­The­textile- object­animates­the­body­in­its­physical­and­reflexive­gestures.­The­textile- object­is­simultaneously­matter­and­text;­it­is­the­medium­that­one­wears­and­ handles,­but­also­that­one­reflects­on­and­contemplates.­What­is­more,­the­ textile-object­traces­in­its­weft­what­happens­here­and­now,­and­also­serves­as­ a memory-object as it holds the imprint of the event. From­an­historical­and­sociological­point­of­view,­many­clothes­and­acces- sories­have­been­conceived­to­protect­the­self­from­others,­to­take­distance­ from­them,­or­to­extract­oneself­from­the­mundane.4 In the context of the 1­ See­Corinne­Jeammet’s­online­article,­“Sept­créateurs­de­mode­expliquent­les­raisons­ qui­les­ont­poussés­à­imaginer­des­masques,­bien­avant­la­pandémie­du­Covid-19”­(2020).­ 2­ Her­Autumn–Winter­2020–2021­collection­was­presented­during­the­fashion­week­in­Paris­ in­February­2020. 3­ See,­for­example,­Giorgio­Agamben’s­essay,­“What­Is­the­Contemporary?”­(2009). 4­ Let­us­think,­at­least­in­the­history­of­western­fashion,­of­the­crinoline,­hats,­and­veils­for­ women,­or­armor­and­doublets­for­men.­I­would­like­here­to­thank­Sophie­Kurkdjian­for­ Textile-Objects and Alterity 215 pandemic,­however,­the­mask­reveals­the­persistent,­undeniable,­and­striking­ frontality­of­the­Other.­This­accessory,­as­it­is­now­repetitively­stressed,­is­not­ only protecting the self from an epidemiological and invisible entity but also protecting others: it is protecting the lives of those we don’t know and who do not­belong­to­our­familiar­and­domestic­fields­of­vision.­The­mask­is­(following­ a Levinassian5 line of thought) both proximity and distance. It is not the prox- imity­akin­to­the­tangible­risk­of­contagion,­but­the­ineluctable­confrontation­ with­the­Other,­even­in­the­most­vacuous­and­unexpected­spaces.­Such­prox- imity­is­thus­not­to­be­understood­in­terms­of­physical­distancing,­but,­on­the­ contrary,­it­indicates­the­social­proximity­of­an­Other­who­is­always­already­ distant because the Other is not mastered or appropriated. Wearing a mask is more than an empathic gesture because empathy is always conditioned and generated by a certain sense of knowledge and delineation beforehand. Empathy­still­relies­on­principles­of­recognition­(of­certain­familiar­structures),­ of­choice­and­decision,­and­on­potential­identification,­wherein­the­Other­is­ not­perceived­in­its­otherness­but­as­an­“alter­ego.”­Wearing­a­mask­does­not­ translate­to­a­“good­conscience,”­but­it­disturbs­the­comfortable­and­con- tended­Self.­The­mask­is­exposition­to­the­most­unexpected,­fortuitous,­or­ enigmatic­encounter.­In­that­sense,­the­mask­is­more­than­a­signal­of­civility,­ solidarity,­or­benevolence­because­the­mask­can­always­be­confronted­with­a­ radical­Other,­who­will­cross­our­way­and­will­break­the­rules­of­the­consensual­ come-and-go. The mask makes us invisible (without hiding us) while opening up a new type of anonymity. It is therefore crucial that beyond the primary sanitary­function­of­the­mask,­a­non-serial­anonymity­emerges.­In­other­ words,­the­mask­should­not­turn­this­non-visibility­into­mere­statistical­data,­ which are controllable and which de-singularize. Within­the­specific­realm­of­fashion,­where­the­mask­has­so­quickly­found­its­ perfect­host­and­market,­such­an­accessory­condenses­“stylish­solidarity,”­cap- italist­opportunism,­and­disguised­wariness.­But­if­fashion­is­essentially­to­be­ understood­as­the­materialization­of­the­Self,­it­is­also­where­the­relationship­ with­others­and­the­“outside”­becomes­the­most­apparent.­What­is­more,­the­ mask­epitomizes­the­“other”­of­fashion,­since­it­implicitly­acts­as­the­magnify- ing­glass,­revealing­how­material­objects—valuable­or­futile—are­somehow­ necessary for accompanying the unpredictable and singular encounters of life.­Not­such­a­long­time­ago­the­mask­was­considered­suspicious,­offensive,­ and­synonymous­with­identitarian­closure,­at­least­in­the­western­part­of­the­ world.­While­altogether­a­marker­of­anxiety,­precaution,­discipline,­and­obedi- ence,­it­has­become,­without­irony,­the­most­indispensable—fashionable— accessory of the season. But might it also simply become the most tangible her helpful addition on this. 5­ Here­I­am­indebted­to­the­ethical­thinking­of­Emmanuel­Levinas,­such­as­in­his­seminal­ works Totalité et Infini: Essai sur l’extériorité­(1961)­and­Autrement qu’être ou au-delà de l ’essence­(1974). 216 Pandemic Media accessory­of­alterity?­Could­we­conceive­of­the­mask­as­urgency­without­fear,­ as solidarity without moralism? The mask is the textile-object that says: “we are­affected­by­what­is­to­come.” The mask indicates that we are no longer in control of the living. The physical body­is­to­be­protected­and­shielded­by­the­mask­in­order­to­defy­infection,­ and­also­to­face­and­confront­the­social­body­in­a­different­way.­The­seemingly­ trivial and unsophisticated object has suddenly become critical as it stands for our being-together and our relationship to the living. At once iconographic of­fear­and­hope,­the­mask­is­extra-ordinary­because­it­constantly­reminds­us­ that we are living through unprecedented moments in time. It is ordinary and always already prosthetic as it imposes on us a matter of indispensability. It is similarly­banal­and­exceptional,­common­and­subversive,­typical­and­atypical.­ Drawing some ethical thoughts from the pandemic mask does not exclude the important­fact­that,­as­Soncul­and­Parikka­(2020)­convincingly­explain,­“[f]rom­ gas­masks­to­surgical­masks,­the­covered­mouth­and­nose­has­become­a­sign­ of­affected­bodies”­that­are­regulated­technologically,­culturally,­politically: The­mask­is­a­regulatory­device­at­the­threshold­of­war,­illness,­the­clinic,­ belief­and­other­spatial,­temporal,­and­epistemological­arrangements­ where a body changes its status based on the mask one wears. … The martial and the clinical do not only relate to each other on a symbolic level but­also­approximate­procedurally:­how­the­body­is­protected,­exposed,­ regulated in a hostile environment. Therefore it seems even more decisive to rethink and to reinvest in—beyond the urgent necessity of elaborating alternative and viable socio-political configurations—elemental­approaches­of­alterity,­and­to­bring­these­in­close­ relation to everyday objects through which expressions and manifestations of vulnerability­do­not­engender­or­consolidate­forms­of­“co-morbidity,”­such­as­ the­juxtaposition­of­“the­virus­and­racism”­(Ronell­2020).­The­social­reduction­ that the coronavirus has brought about forces us to engage seriously with crit- ical modes of decolonizing our habits and senses of living. If the world seems organically­and­politically­disconnected­while­increasingly­digitally­connected,­ it­appears­conflated,­reflecting­the­fact­that­everything­is­so­closely­linked,­ such­as,­for­example,­“environmental­racism,”6­in­which­ecological,­medical,­ and­social­exclusion­can­no­longer­be­approached­separately.­In­that­respect,­ and­unsurprisingly,­the­mask­does­not­solely­symbolize­the­global­invasion­of­ the virus but also numerous invading paradigms of exclusion for which “Black 6­ This­term,­coined­by­African-American­civil­rights­leader­Benjamin­Chavis­(in­1981),­refers­ to­the­ways­that­waste,­pollution,­and­the­climate­crisis­disproportionately­impact­Black­ people,­indigenous­people,­and­other­people­of­color.­According­to­him,­there­is­a­direct­ correlation­between­racial­demographics­and­toxic­waste­locations,­racial­segregation,­ and land use policies. Textile-Objects and Alterity 217 Lives”­and­“other”7­affected­bodies,­for­instance,­are­distinctively­representa- tive­and­that,­therefore,­require­crucial­and­active­ethical-oriented­reflections. If my reading of the mask is guided by some central motifs at the heart of the ethical­metaphysics­of­Levinas,­there­are­certainly­further­perspectives­that­ offer­ways­to­debunk­stances­of­subjectivity­and­alterity,­and­to­overcome­and­ resist­the­idea­that­the­mask­conjures­the­end­of­sociality.­For­instance,­Lukáš­ Likavčan­states:­ By wearing­a face­mask,­you­publicly­announce­that­the­conditions­of your­ existence­do not­end­at the­tip­of your­nose.­…­Face­masks­do communi- cate­that­you­pose­some­limits­to yourself;­wearing­a face­mask­is a cul- tural­behavior­that­makes­vulnerability­socially­acceptable.­Once­we are­ here,­we can­open­vivid­debates­on how­to build­an ethical­framework­ around­politics­of vulnerability,­from­the­standpoint­of the­non-oppres- sive­governance­of bodies­we need.­(2020) More than a pervasive and over-depicted item in the public and media sphere,8­the­mask­itself­becomes­the­focal­material­object,­enabling­both­ proximity­and­distance.­It­differentiates­and­closes­off,­but­also­orients­and­ intrigues.­The­face­mask­is­simultaneously­“look­at­me,”­“look­at­others,”­“look­ at­us,”­and­“look­at­the­world­we­live­in.”­As­a­wearable­and­global­textile- object,­the­mask­signals­the­inextricable­close­link­between­intimacy­and­ publicity,­between­disguise­and­disclosure,­between­subjectivity­and­exterior- ity,­between­in­and­out. Such­an­identifiable­and­iconic­material­object­forces­us­to­reconsider­the­ contours of our social ethos. The mask crystallizes the frontality of otherness and,­as­a­material­object­itself,­also­invites­us­to­infuse­fundamental­ethical­ thought­in­the­way­we­produce,­handle,­and­experience­material­objects­in­ the­first­place.­Altogether,­the­mask­indicates­the­fragility­of­the­object­in­its­ current­historical­context,­the­fragility­of­the­systems­that­fabricate­and­dis- seminate­them,­as­well­as­the­fragility­of­life,­which­is­deemed­to­be­protected­ and­reinvented.­Be­it­taken­in­a­sociological,­consumerist,­or­symbolic­register,­ the­mask­is­a­textile-object­that­concretizes­the­time­we­are­caught­in,­in­its­ material and social sense. Even if the mask hinders us from fully recognizing one­another,­it­nevertheless­reveals­a­collective­singularity­and­the­vulnerable­ living. The virus does not limit itself to infection or to its media representation and propagation because it already lies at the heart of the object while bring- ing­us­so­close­to­a­non-virtual,­larger,­and­pressing­reality.­What­is­the­future­ 7­ In­a­comparable­vein,­Soncul­and­Parikka­(2020)­point­to­“the­stigmatisation­via­physical,­ visual cues such as masks builds up in relation to already existing racist infrastructures of­emotion­and­affect.” 8 One could also further and closely analyze and distinguish the various media instances and­depictions­of­the­pandemic­mask­(such­as­in­news­and­social­media,­in­instructional­ media­and­public­announcements,­as­well­as­on­retail­websites). 218 Pandemic Media of­this­material­object­that­will­take­residence­on­our­faces,­and­will­lodge­itself­ in­our­pockets,­bags,­and­drawers,­ready­to­“vitalize”­and­arm­the­affected­ body at any moment? In­migrating­from­the­surgical­realm­to­the­fashion­and­everyday­realm,­the­ mask does not obliterate the distress that it refers to: it discloses a wider and more­complex­field—that­of­the­exhausted­living­waiting­to­be­un-masked. References Agamben,­Giorgio.­2009.­“What­Is­the­Contemporary?” In­What is an Apparatus? and Other Essays,­ translated­by­David­Kishik­and­Stefan­Pedatella,­39–54.­Stanford,­CA:­Stanford­University­ Press. Jeammet,­Corinne.­2020.­“Sept­créateurs­de­mode­expliquent­les­raisons­qui­les­ont­poussés­ à­imaginer­des­masques,­bien­avant­la­pandémie­du­Covid-19.”­Franceinfo.fr.­Last­Modified­ April­27,­2020.­https://www.francetvinfo.fr/culture/mode/fashion-week/en-images-sept-cre- ateurs-de-mode-expliquent-les-raisons-qui-les-ont-pousses-a-imaginer-des-masques-bien- avant-la-pandemie-de-covid-19_3930435.html. Levinas,­Emmanuel.­1994­[1961].­Totalité et Infini: Essai sur l’extériorité. Paris: Le Livre de Poche. [Totality and Infinity : An Essay on Exteriority,­trans.­Alfonso­Lingis,­Pittsburgh:­Duquesne­ University­Press,­1969.] —­—­—­.­1996­[1974].­Autrement qu’être ou au-delà de l’essence. Paris: Le Livre de Poche. [Otherwise than Being or Beyond Essence,­trans.­Alfonso­Lingis,­Dordrecht:­Kluwer­Academic­Publishers,­ 1991.] Likavčan,­Lukáš,­in­discussion­with­Sofia­Irene.­2020.­“Face­Masks­and­the­Politics­of­ Vulnerability.”­Strelka Mag.­Accessed­June­12,­2020.­https://strelkamag.com/en/article/ face-masks-and-politics-of-vulnerability. Ronell,­Avital.­2020.­“Survival­Kit­for­the­Anguished:­Episode­9.”­PhiloMonaco.­Accessed­July­10,­ 2020.­http://philomonaco.com/2020/07/05/survival-kit-for-the-anguished-by-avital-ronell- episode-9/. Soncul,­Yiğit,­and­Jussi­Parikka.­2020.­“Masks:­The­Face­between­Bodies­and­Networks.”­ Paletten: Art Journal.­Accessed­June­12,­2020.­https://paletten.net/journal/masks- between-bodies-and-networks. CULTURAL TECHNIQUES POLITICS OF SPACE VISIBILITY DISABILITY LABOR [ 2 2 ] Glass, Adhesive Tape, Boom Mic: A City in Crisis in Three Acts Marek Jancovic This essay documents my experience of the pan- demic through three inconspicuous objects that it has driven into a new visibility. As Amsterdam grappled with COVID-19, glass, adhesive tape, and boom micro- phones became conspicuously present in its local news station’s reporting. These three objects, all vital to media industries, usually remain invisible. Their newfound presence allows us to ask how the politics of space and visibility is negotiated through media techniques. Each of the three stands for various aspects of a society—and a world—lingering under the threat of contagion. LABOR 222 Pandemic Media [Figure­1]­Drawing­boundaries­(Still­from­news­report.­Source:­AT5,­19­April­2020,­https://www. at5.nl/artikelen/201434/discussie-over-mondkapjeswinkel-jordaan-het-lijkt-de-oorlog-wel) Adhesive Tape Adhesive tape has been appearing on Amsterdam’s local news with increased frequency­during­the­crisis­(fig.­1).­What­would­the­film­industry­be­without­ adhesive­materials­like­gaffer­tape?­Gaffer­tape­is­the­ultimate­medium­of­ improvisation,­of­the­ad hoc­fix­meant­to­last­just­until­the­shot­is­in­the­can.­ We­urgently­need­a­media­archaeology­of­gaffer­tape:­of­the­productions­it­has­ saved,­of­the­film­sets­it­held­together,­and­of­the­visual­relations­of­proximity­ it­made­possible­by­garrisoning­actors­in­space.­How­many­legendary­film­ scenes­do­we­owe­to­tape­stuck­to­the­floor? Adhesive tapes are also a key medium of commerce and logistics. Online shopping­is­skyrocketing­during­the­crisis,­the­news­reports.­We­don’t­often­ think of the adhesive tape that seals our online purchases. It is single-use waste,­yet­it­is­so­central.­It­protects­our­commodities­in­transit,­“encrypting”­ the­packets­we­receive,­enclosing­and­occluding­their­contents­from­view­ during­their­passage­through­the­logistical­network.­In­this­moment,­gaffer­ tape represents to me enclosure and the disciplining of space. Never before have I had to pay so much attention to cultural techniques of shielding and demarcation. Supermarkets draw grids and tables onto the sidewalk with tape.­In­assigned­cells,­consumers­must­bide­their­time­before­they­are­ allowed­to­enter­and­shop.­To­plough­a­furrow­into­the­soil,­I­remember­ Bernhard­Siegert­wrote,­is­“to­engage­in­symbolic­work­because­the­gra- phein­serves­to­mark­the­distinction­between­inside­and­outside,­civilization­ and­barbarism,­an­inside­domain­in­which­the­law­prevails­and­one­outside­ in­which­it­does­not”­(Siegert­2015,­12).­Tape­on­the­ground­also­symbolically­ Glass, Adhesive Tape, Boom Mic 223 delineates­safe­from­contagious.­There­is,­Siegert­argues,­ultimately­no­dis- tinction­between­the­symbolic­and­the­material.­Even­adhesive­tape,­in­its­ sticky­ordinariness,­can­turn­into­a­complex­technique­of­inscription.­Arrows­ and lines and various textual instructions can be written on the ground in tape.­Suddenly,­entering­a­supermarket­requires­choreography­and­direction.­ The­ground­becomes­a­legible­medium,­dictating­how­we­must­orient­our­ bodies and what directions we have permission to take. A spontaneous system of diagrammatic governance emerges. The life-sized maps drawn in adhesive­tape­have­turned­the­city­into­a­film­set,­with­positional­cues­for­ its cast spread out everywhere. Local news reports that more surveillance cameras are being installed around Amsterdam because unruly youth keep defying the strict new proxemic regime and continue to congregate in various areas around the city. All of us have become Truman Burbank. [Figure­2]­Creating­barriers­(Still­from­news­report.­Source:­AT5,­20­March­2020,­https://www. at5.nl/artikelen/200803/met-een-lach-en-een-traan-een-feestje-voor-het-raam-van-de-jarige- oma-van-beersum-86) Glass Glass windows have been appearing on Amsterdam’s local news with increased frequency during the crisis. I am more used to seeing windows on the­news­when­they­are­destroyed­or­damaged,­due­to­a­shooting­or­explosion­ perhaps.­During­the­pandemic,­reporters­oddly­focus­on­glass­that­is­intact.­ Elderly­people­in­nursing­homes­are­not­allowed­to­receive­visitors­anymore,­ the­news­reports.­A­terminally­ill­man­is­only­allowed­to­bid­his­final­farewell­ through a window. Glass creates both access and its privation. “Maybe this is her­last­birthday,”­a­woman­says­with­tears­in­her­eyes­as­she­is­interviewed­in­ front­of­a­large­pane­of­glass.­Behind­it,­her­grandmother­remains­out­of­sight­ to­us­(fig.­2). 224 Pandemic Media Alexandra Schneider recently proposed that we should let glass and its many optical,­architectural,­and­tactile­uses­lead­our­inquiry­into­the­topologies­and­ histories­of­the­moving­image­(2020).­Glass­is­so­central­to­the­film­industry.­ The­lenses­of­cameras­and­projectors­are­made­of­it,­as­are­phone­screens­ and computer monitors. But glasses also connect the moving image to optical medical­instruments,­and­vaccine­vials­and­Petri­dishes.­Despite­its­ubiquity,­ glass­is­a­scarce­resource.­The­news­reports­on­a­looming­glass­shortage,­ caused­by­the­vicissitudes­of­global­supply­chains­and­the­difficulty­of­man- ufacturing­borosilicates.­In­this­moment,­glass­represents­to­me­impoverished­ social­contact.­Glass,­this­infuriating­form­of­materiality­that­creates­distance­ despite nearness. So cool and smooth are the glass screens we touch daily that­they­barely­make­a­tactile­sensuous­impression­at­all­(Schneider­2020).­ Glass is the antithesis of the textured shared surfaces and tactile forms of writing­that­many­people­rely­on­to­navigate­space­(Goggin­and­Ellis­2020,­171).­ It is the antithesis of those ways of inhabiting the world for which physical contact­and­nearness­are­vital,­and­for­which­distancing­is­not­an­option­(Shin­ 2020).­“Objects,­as­well­as­spaces,”­I­remember­Sara­Ahmed­wrote,­“are­made­ for­some­kinds­of­bodies­more­than­others”­(2006,­51).­Glass­is­terrifyingly­ good­at­marking­and­guarding­the­“for-ness”­of­spaces.­Spaces­that­are­for­ “the­elderly,”­“the­disabled,”­“the­vulnerable.”­By­being­contained­in­such­ spaces,­they­can­also­be­pushed­out­of­sight­(Lemos­Dekker­et­al.­2020).­In­a­ few­weeks’­time,­many­of­us­will­have­adjusted­to­remote­teaching­and­Zoom­ dinner dates behind glass screens. Many others will have died secluded behind glass screens. [Figure­3]­Crossing­distances­(Still­from­news­report.­Source:­AT5,­3­May­2020,­https://www.at5. nl/artikelen/201743/de-straten-in-de-zwanebloemlaan-thuis-krijg-ik-wel-minder-snel-straf-dan- op-school) Glass, Adhesive Tape, Boom Mic 225 Boom Mic Boom microphones have been appearing on Amsterdam’s local news with increased­frequency­during­the­crisis.­To­comply­with­distancing­rules,­TV­ reporters are forced to let go of the instrument so characteristic for their work and­improvise­new­interviewing­techniques­(fig.­3).­Never­before­has­the­labor­ of sound been so visible to me. The boom mic looks bizarrely out of place in news­reports.­It­is­heavy­and­cumbersome­and­belongs­to­a­different­tradition­ of­moving­image­production;­a­tradition­that­has­done­its­utmost­to­expel­it­ from­the­image.­The­boom­operator,­the­invisible­Atlas­of­the­film­industry.­ Hardly any other job on the set requires as much endurance as the boom operator has. Endurance has become a valued resource during the pandemic. Our­prime­ministers­ask­us­to­endure:­the­new­rules,­the­confinement,­the­dis- tancing.­We­must­endure,­we­are­told,­or­else­be­fined.­The­boom­operator­is­ so­central,­a­key­worker­of­the­film­industry,­and­yet­permanently­out­of­view.­ Key­workers,­as­the­Dutch­government­calls­them,­are­all­those­employed­ in­“vital­sectors”­whose­labor­simply­does­not­lend­itself­to­transmission­via­ glass­screens.­But­it­is­“sectors”­that­are­vital,­not­their­workers,­and­thus­ working bodies can be put to work at risk to their own vitality. Protected are corporations­and­infrastructure,­not­the­many­logistical­workers­and­seasonal,­ migrant,­and­undocumented­agricultural­workers.­Health­protection­is­also­ perversely­denied­to­health­sector­laborers,­a­large­portion­of­whom­work­ on­zero-hour­and­temporary­contracts,­since,­after­years­of­privatization,­the­ neoliberal remains of the Dutch healthcare system cannot sustain secure employment­(Brandon­2020). In­this­moment,­the­boom­represents­to­me­endurance­and­invisible­labor,­but­ also­a­model­of­sociality.­A­way­of­organizing­space­very­different­from­both­ adhesive tape and glass. The boom does not belong in the disciplinary order of partitioning that grids drawn in tape make possible. Nor is it comparable to media of containment and seclusion like glass. The boom mic produces spaces­that­are­permeable,­spaces­not­already­designated­“for”­someone­but­ necessarily­shared,­open,­and­traversable.­The­boom­mic­allows­voices­to­ commune and be heard. It creates nearness despite distance. Conclusion The­COVID-19­crisis­brought­to­my­attention­with­renewed­urgency­some­ of­the­peripheral­and­transparent­media­that­tend­to­be­pushed­from­view,­ and­with­them­some­cultural­techniques,­modes­of­political­governance,­and­ forms­of­labor­that­tend­to­do­the­same.­I­chose­to­focus­on­glass,­tape,­and­ boom mics not only because they persistently kept appearing as visual motifs on­my­local­news,­but­because­each­of­them­presented­itself­to­me­in­ways­ that­were­unsettling­and­unexpected;­their­material­and­affective­presence­ 226 Pandemic Media more piercing than usual. Following the local reporting at the peak of the crisis­and­observing­the­responses­to­it­on­the­streets­of­Amsterdam,­the­city­ appeared­to­me­like­the­refracted­image­of­a­film­set.­Its­gestures,­labors,­ and­techniques­performed­in­the­open,­in­an­improvisatory­but­remarkably­ forceful­and­effective­manner.­If­“space­is­political”­(Lefebvre­1976,­31),­then­ some of these mundane materials and techniques can help us understand how­it­becomes­such.­Objects­like­adhesive­tape,­glass­windows,­and­the­ boom­harbor­a­capacity­to­reconfigure­“the­intimacy­between­habits­and­ space”­(Ahmed­2006,­129)­that­far­exceeds­their­unassuming­existence­in­our­ lives. There may be other ways of encountering this capacity. What I experienced as techniques­of­containment­and­division,­others­might­view­as­reasonable,­safe­ modes of contact and socialization under exceptional circumstances. In either case,­the­pandemic­moment­is­a­lesson­on­how­instrumental­various­unseen­ media­are­to­the­production­of­specific­patterns­of­spatiality,­and­thus­to­the­ control­and­distribution­of­closeness,­visibility,­and­access.­Above­all,­the­crisis­ should make us vividly aware of how political power is articulated in our ges- tures,­movements,­and­in­the­textures­of­objects­we­both­touch­and­don’t­dare­ to.­The­tape­stuck­to­the­floor,­the­cold­glass,­and­the­heavy­boom­mic­remind­ us that our bodies are never our own. They extend beyond ourselves when they interface with others in networks constituted through the traces we leave behind,­the­surfaces­we­come­into­contact­with,­and­the­very­air­we­breathe. References Ahmed,­Sara.­2006.­Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others.­Durham,­NC:­Duke­ University Press. Brandon,­Pepijn.­2020.­“Coronavirus­and­the­‘Survival­of­the­Fittest’­in­the­Netherlands.”­No Borders­(interview),­April­12.­Accessed­April­30,­2020.­https://nobordersnews.org/2020/04/12/ pepijn-brandon-coronavirus-and-the-survival-of-the-fittest-in-the-netherlands/. Goggin,­Gerard,­and­Katie­Ellis.­2020.­“Disability,­Communication,­and­Life­Itself­in­the­COVID-19­ Pandemic.”­In­Health Sociology Review­29­(2):­168–76. Lefebvre,­Henri.­1976.­“Reflections­on­the­Politics­of­Space.”­Translated­by­Michael­J.­Enders.­ Antipode­8­(2):­30–37. Lemos­Dekker,­Natashe,­Laura­Vermeulen,­and­Jeannette­Pols.­2020.­“In­and­Outside­the­ Nursing­Home:­On­the­(Im)Possibilities­of­Meaningful­Contact­While­Being­Held­Apart.”­ Somatosphere,­July­20.­Accessed­August­3,­2020.­http://somatosphere.net/2020/in-and-out- side-the-nursing-home.html/. Schneider,­Alexandra.­2020.­“Zweimal­Hepburn.­Oder:­Das­Glas­und­der­Basis-Apparat­nach­ Baudry.”­(unpublished­manuscript). Shin,­Ji­Young.­2020.­“Standing­in­Solidarity­with­Those­Who­Must­Refuse­to­Keep­Social­ Distance:­Activism­in­South­Korea.”­In­Pandemic Solidarity,­edited­by­Marina­Sitrin­and­ Colectiva­Sembrar,­translated­by­Han­Gil­Jang,­71–89.­London:­Pluto­Press. Siegert,­Bernhard.­2015.­Cultural Techniques: Grids, Filters, Doors, and Other Articulations of the Real.­Translated­by­Geoffrey­Winthrop-Young.­New­York:­Fordham­University­Press. E D U C A T I O N / I N S T R U C T I O N CHRISTIAN DROSTEN ORAL MEDIA TRUST VISUAL MANAGEMENT VISUAL CULTURE [ 2 3 ] Media of Trust: Visualizing the Pandemic Florian Hoof This article looks at the media of trust that imme- diately started to fill the blank spaces of pandemic uncertainty. They are in a position to create trust because they are bound to a visual and oral culture the society is acquainted with. This includes visuali- zation devices such as dashboards that monitor the pandemic situation or podcasts that provide expert knowledge in a situation of extreme uncertainty. Media of trust are two-fold. The first dimension pro- vides an overview of the pandemic and gives orienta- tion in a situation of uncertainty. These visualization devices stem from a visual culture tied to managerial decision-making. The tensions that arise when such specific concepts are repurposed to visualize pan- demic situations lead to the second dimension of media of trust. This includes oral media aimed at the individual, personal level that become important in situations of isolation during lockdown. 232 Pandemic Media When­the­pandemic­hit,­what­disappeared­right­away­were­planes­and­cars,­ people­too.­What­appeared­were­blue­skies,­singing­birds,­COVID-19,­and­a­ nagging uncertainty. The latter emerged when existing modes of perception and orientation failed to account for the invisible dimension of aerosols and smear­infection.­As­a­result,­spaces­that­have­been­taken­for­granted­like­ supermarkets and cinemas became unsafe and potentially dangerous. They turned­into­“unmarked­spaces”­filled­with­non-knowledge.­This­article­focuses­ on­“media­of­trust,”­on­media­that­subsequently­tried­to­reclaim­these­blank­ spaces of uncertainty that arose within society: devices and aesthetics that visualize­the­pandemic­situation,­dashboards,­pandemic­graphs­and­curves,­ graphical­outbreak­maps,­images­that­offer­a­glimpse­of­what­might­lay­ahead­ as­well­as­voices­and­procedures­that­give­confidence­and­comfort.­Media­ of­trust­are­technological,­social,­and­aesthetic­devices­and­procedures­that­ give orientation and organize in a situation of extreme uncertainty because they are bound to a visual and oral culture that the society is acquainted with. They­tap­into­established,­well-known­forms­of­media­as­points­of­departure­ to­account­for­the­unknown­situation­of­a­pandemic.­Thereby,­they­provide­ for a mediated hypothesis between non-knowledge and knowledge that enables­social­action­by­reducing­the­“paralyzing­fear”­(Luhmann­1979,­4)­of­ uncertainty. Media of trust can be understood as two-fold in the way that the relations between non-knowledge and knowledge are expressed by and through dif- ferent­forms­of­media.­The­first­dimension­includes­visualization­devices­such­ as­the­Johns­Hopkins­COVID-19­Dashboard.­They­provide­an­overview­of­the­ pandemic­and­stabilize­systemic­confidence­and­trust­in­political­and­social­ institutions­and­procedures­(Lewis­and­Weigert­1985).­As­my­argument­has­it,­ the epistemological stance of this visual culture of trust is not so much rooted in the history of pandemics but can be linked to a managerial culture of deci- sion-making­that­appeared­on­the­shores­of­economic­management­from­1900­ onwards­(Hoof­2020).­Its­specific­rationality­and­epistemological­structure­ then­reappeared­during­the­recent­COVID-19­pandemic.­Tensions­and­mistrust­ that­arise­when­such­specific­concepts­are­repurposed­to­visualize­pandemic­ situations lead to the second dimension of media of trust that are aimed at­the­individual,­intimate­level.­This­includes­oral­media­such­as­podcasts,­ which­provide­working­knowledge­to­cope­with­the­situation,­for­example­in­ the­situation­of­isolation­during­a­lockdown.­Here,­I­use­the­German­case­of­a­ successful­COVID-19­science­podcast­to­exemplify­the­relations­and­tensions­ between­different­forms­of­pandemic­media­of­trust. Media of Trust 233 The Pandemic “At a Glance”: Aesthetics and Politics of Data Visualization On­January­22,­2020­the­Center­for­Systems­Science­and­Engineering­at­Johns­ Hopkins University launched the Coronavirus Resource Center and more specifically­the­COVID-19­Dashboard­(fig.­1).1 It was intended to “provide researchers,­public­health­authorities,­and­the­general­public­with­a­user- friendly­tool­to­track­the­outbreak­as­it­unfolds”­(Dong,­Du,­and­Gardner­2020,­ 533).­Simple­data­visualizations,­open­source­datasets,­the­concept­of­“live”­ data­broadcasting,­and­the­use­of­data­prediction­and­extrapolation­models­ made the system an immediate success. Within weeks it established itself as one of the most reliable monitoring systems of the pandemic. [Figure­1]­Johns­Hopkins­Dashboard,­March­27­( Johns­Hopkins,­2020) What­put­the­system­ahead­of­official­data­provided­by­the­various­national­ centers for disease control was its big data approach to monitor the crisis. The system­combined­various­data­sources­including­official­government­reports­ but­also­online­news­services,­or­monitored­twitter­feeds.2 These datasets were­aggregated­with­“a­semi-automated­living­data­stream­strategy”­(Dong,­ Du,­and­Gardner­2020,­533)­that­combines­automated­data­feeds­with­manual­ data­practices­such­as­the­verification­of­numbers.­The­system­harvests­ data from partly quite unreliable and random sources. This includes data that is altered or suppressed by political action but also data that is statis- tically­distorted­by­the­impact­of­different­structures­and­(testing)­practices­ 1­ The­system­was­built­by­Lauren­Gardner,­a­civil­and­systems­engineering­professor­at­ Johns­Hopkins­University­and­Ensheng­Dong,­a­graduate­student­of­hers. 2 A full list of the data sources of the Johns Hopkins Dashboard is available here: https:// github.com/CSSEGISandData/COVID-19/blob/master/README.md. 234 Pandemic Media within­national­health­systems.­When­such­data­is­gathered,­processed,­ and visualized the poor quality of the raw data disappears from sight. Con- sequently,­the­dataflow­of­such­a­live­casting­device­does­not­directly­relate­to­ single­COVID-19­cases­but­is­mediated­through­a­layer­of­media­technologies­ and practices that level and break down heterogeneous data sources into standardized items that can be cross referenced and mathematically combined­(Hoof­2016,­43–47). Built­to­“inform­modelling­efforts­and­control­measures­during­the­earliest­ stages­of­the­outbreak”­(Dong,­Du,­and­Gardner­2020,­534)­the­dashboard­ can­be­described­as­a­communication­device­that­brings­different­institutions­ and individuals literally onto the same page. It is a machine that synchronizes expectations­by­turning­a­situation­into­a­specific­visual­form.­The­dashboard­ creates its own history of the pandemic and gives orientation by placing the user on a time scale that incorporates the past and aims towards an unknown­future­of­a­perhaps­flattened­curve.­The­resulting­curves­and­data­ visualizations­are­phantasms­of­modernity­(Rieger­2009)­that­show­the­current­ pandemic­situation­“at­a­glance”­(Hoof­2016).­They­provide­for­an­abstract­ overall­impression­of­how­the­dynamics­of­the­pandemic­unfold­in­different­ parts of the world. Pandemic Aesthetics and the Visual Culture of Business Management In­the­following­section­the­text­shows­that­these­“at­a­glance”­procedures­ and­the­visual­aesthetics­of­the­COVID-19­dashboard­are­part­of­a­genealogy­ of­managerial­media.­They­are­not­specific­to­this­pandemic,­nor­to­medicine,­ epidemiology,­or­the­history­of­pandemic­outbreaks­in­general.­Referred­to­as­ “graphical­methods,”­such­visualization­practices­and­aesthetics­became­pop- ular at the beginning of the twentieth century and were widely adopted within business­management­as­visual­decision-making­practices­(Hoof­2020,­62–81).­ Like­the­COVID-19­dashboard­they­were­aiming­at­turning­heterogeneous­ events within corporations and economic markets into standardized data sets­that­could­be­accumulated,­compared,­calculated,­and­visualized.­This­ mode­of­“visual­management”­(Hoof­2020,­14–16)­created­a­wide­range­of­data­ visualizations­including­break-even­charts,­danger-line­charts,­or­hybrids­ between charts and tables. These­visualization­devices­were­aggregated­in­decision­environments,­such­ as­planning­departments­or­charting­rooms,­to­display­data­to­executives­ and­managers­(fig.­2).­A­visual­culture­of­decision-making­emerged­that­sep- arated everyday data from important trends that would help to anticipate the future.­The­latter­data­was­broken­down­into­abstract,­standardized­forms­ that­could­be­recombined­and­reshuffled,­allowing­different­scenarios­for­a­ given­situation­to­be­displayed­(Hoof­2016,­34–35).­The­data­that­became­part­ Media of Trust 235 of such decision environments in the end were pre-selected and restricted to information that could be converted into a graphic form. This gave rise to an epistemology of media-based decision-making that was not so much based on concepts such as truth and falsehood but on visual abstraction and data selection. While the images of such data visualizations are easily accessible to non-experts,­the­models­and­procedures­that­generate­the­images­in­the­first­ place remain partly obscured and can only be fully assessed by experts. [Figure­2]­Early­decision-making­environments­(Brinton­1919,­305) Modeling the Pandemic: Visual Suspicion and Mistrust Current­systems­such­as­the­COVID-19­Dashboard­and­its­big­data­approach­ are still built on this epistemology of visual management. They depend on complex practices of visual abstraction and data selection that generate an overview­of­a­given­situation.­Showing­data­“at­a­glance”­enables­orientation­ within­an­uncertain­situation,­thereby­stabilizing­trust­in­a­system­or­a­nation­ state. It suggests a model of political action that is oriented towards future developments of the pandemic and that rests on complex data interpolation procedures.­The­executive­character­of­the­COVID-19­Dashboard­gives­no­ explanation for the pandemic situation. The complex modes of data inter- polation­create­visualizations­that­are­aimed­at­fast­decision-making,­not­at­ public­debate.­As­a­result,­mistrust­and­tensions­arise­between­such­abstract­ forms of statistic data visualization and the subjective perception of pandemic events that unfold locally. What are the consequences when such dashboard aesthetics are approached by individuals that are not in a position to act in 236 Pandemic Media ways management or politicians are capable of; when they are confronted with an epistemology of decision-making that in a way permanently highlights their individual limited range of possible actions and that is based on data selection and modeling practices that are not well understood? Interestingly, this did not so much lead to mistrust towards the big data approach of the dashboard but it started to create a climate of suspicion towards its data sources. An exemplary case that shows the effects of this asynchronicity is the changing public perception of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the German national center for disease control. In February and March 2020, at the beginning of the first wave of the pandemic the daily numbers of COVID-19 cases were made public by the director of the RKI at daily press conferences. These numbers relied on physical reporting from local authorities, which takes time. Consequently, when compared to the Johns Hopkins Dashboard the numbers were always already outdated. As a result, the bureaucracy, which was able, at least in the case of Germany, to efficiently contain the COVID-19 situation during the first wave of the pandemic, looks slow, clumsy, old-fashioned, not trustworthy. This impression of inefficiency is only one aspect of a general uneasiness that I would argue is related to the managerial dashboard aesthetics and its data interpolation practices. Because it suggests modes of behavior and action that are not available to the public, this constantly fueled a feeling of powerlessness and creates mistrust towards the media devices and data practices used to manage the pandemic. A tendency that can be observed in a wide range of countries and that amongst others lead to ‘alternative’ explanations such as conspiracy theories. But it also shows that the form of a medium plays an important role as to how a situ- ation is defined, perceived, and understood. An Oral Irritation: (Mis)Trusting Media Forms To better understand how trust and mistrust relate to different forms of media, the case of Germany is particularly suitable. Here, quite unexpectedly, the pandemic, and as I would argue the tensions and uneasiness connected to visual media, led to the rise of oral media. Almost exactly one month after the COVID-19 Dashboard went online, the Corona Virus Update with Christian Drosten, a daily science podcast produced by the public radio broadcaster NDR, became the single most important source of first-hand information for politicians, journalists, and the public (fig. 3). Between the end of February and the beginning of May, a time that was characterized by lockdown measures and when the virus was still not well understood, this podcast series received 41 million downloads (Hennig 2020a). The series was basically an ongoing conversation between a science journalist and a virologist who specialized in Media of Trust 237 coronavirus­research­(Hennig­2020b).3­In­the­first­weeks­of­the­pandemic­this­ was­a­daily­format­of­about­30­minutes­that­explained­the­basics­of­virology­ and­epidemiology.­New­scientific­studies­were­discussed­that­would­help­ to­better­understand­how­COVID-19­spreads,­and­these­findings­were­then­ turned into immediate advice on how to minimize infection risks. In­a­situation­of­a­pending­crisis,­one­might­expect­fast,­real-time­media­such­ as­the­COVID-19­Dashboard­to­be­popular.­But­instead­a­rather­“old”­medium­ that referred back to the oral tradition of the radio drew much attention (McLuhan­1964),­a­medium­that­not­only­does­not­match­with­the­real-time­ concept,­but­a­podcast­that­you­even­have­to­wait­for­and­that­takes­time­to­ listen to. [Figure­3]­Corona­Update­with­Christian­Drosten­(Screenshot:­NDR­info,­2020) In­contrast­to­the­“at­a­glance”­dashboard­aesthetics­the­podcast­consists­of­ lengthy­explanations,­for­example­about­how­viruses­reproduce.­It­compares­ the­current­situation­with­other­pandemics­such­as­MERS­and­SARS,­or­ explains­in­detail­differences­between­certain­COVID-19­testing­procedures­ concerning test reliability. The reasons why this podcast was so successful are not­restricted­to­its­form­as­a­scientific­conversation.­It­is­moreover­a­result­of­ the­specificity­of­the­podcast­as­an­oral­medium.­Due­to­its­portability­as­an­ 3­ Between­February­26­and­June­23,­2020,­50­episodes­of­the­podcast­were­aired,­in­the­ first­weeks­of­the­pandemic­on­an­almost­daily­basis.­Later­the­frequency­was­reduced­ to two podcasts per week and later to a weekly podcast. Christian Drosten is a specialist on coronaviruses and head of the Institute of virology at Charité hospital in Berlin where­he­developed­the­first­COVID-19­test.­The­podcast­became­so­prominent­that­ Drosten­turned­into­a­public­figure.­He­received­death­threats­and­the­largest­German­ tabloid­paper,­Bild Zeitung­started­to­campaign­against­him­personally,­including­with­a­ frontpage­headline­that­falsely­accused­him­of­scientific­inaccuracy­in­a­study­in­preprint­ status. They were trying to link the study to the political decision to shut down schools and day care centers and to personally blame him for the decision. 238 Pandemic Media audio­file­it­is­a­medium­of­“intimacy”­that­“invades­…­private­spaces”­(Berry­ 2006,­148).­Furthermore,­the­“psychoacoustics”­of­compressed­digital­audio­ files­lead­to­a­certain­form­of­perception­that­not­only­consists­of­conscious­ listening to arguments but also of a “direct and sensuous interaction with an embodied,­sensing,­unthinking­subject”­(Sterne­2006,­836).­Consequently,­ the­podcast­not­only­explains­complex­scientific­facts­in­a­straightforward­ and­understandable­way,­but­also­incorporates­the­intimate­form­of­oral­ media.­An­aspect­that­gained­additional­significance­in­the­situation­of­the­ partial­lockdown,­when­people­were­kept­in­isolation­and­cut­loose­from­their­ regular­structures­and­rhythms­of­life.­Here,­the­podcast­offered­a­“regular­ and­dependable­event”­that­could­be­“integrated­into­the­routines­of­daily­ life”­(Horton­and­Wohl­1956,­216).­By­chance­Christian­Drosten­also­has­a­soft,­ radio­compatible­“beautiful­voice”­(Hagen­2005,­121-22),­which­was­able­to­ create­“personal­intimacy­at­a­distance”­(Horton­and­Wohl­1956).­Over­time­ this­turned­Drosten­into­a­“persona,”­a­projection­surface­for­para-social­inter- actions­of­the­listeners.­He­became­the­“nation’s­voice”­(Hilmes­1997,­xvii)­of­ scientific­reason.­His­listeners­even­formed­an­“imagined­community”­(Hilmes­ 1997,­11)­of­people­that­shared­the­perspective­of­a­scientific-based­approach­ to­handling­the­pandemic.­Consequently,­the­podcast­series­enabled­relation- ships­of­“bidirectional­trust”­between­producers­and­consumers­(Spinelli­and­ Dann­2019,­92).­ That a virologist became such a media personality shed light on the latent uneasiness that derives from dashboard media and its managerial “at a glance”­aesthetics.­As­a­consequence,­a­second­trope­of­oral­media­appeared:­ media that would be trusted because they would give precise advice on how to avoid being infected. But that also would give comfort and reduce uncertainty by­celebrating­scientific­methods­and­objectivity­as­a­proper­way­to­deal­with­ the­crisis;­and­by­providing­for­an­instance­of­para-social­interaction­as­a­way­ to­address­intimate­feelings­of­uneasiness­and­loneliness.­Here,­this­case­ blends seamlessly into the radio history of the twentieth century and its wide range­of­radio­broadcasts,­voices,­and­technology­that­became­significant­in­ situations­of­national­crisis­(Hilmes­1997;­Hagen­2005;­Birdsall­2012). Pandemic Media of Trust: A Two-Fold System So what are the consequences if we look at the relations between trust and the­different­forms­of­pandemic­media?­I­argued­that­pandemic­media­of­ trust­are­two-fold.­First,­visual­media­produce­systemic­trust­in­political­and­ social­institutions­and­procedures.­They­provide­an­overview­“at­a­glance”­ by­combining­a­huge­range­of­data.­Here,­visualizations­of­the­pandemic­ define­the­situation­and­thus­provide­for­orientation.­And­of­course,­these­ media­have­not­been­exclusively­created­for­this­specific­pandemic.­They­ were­tailored­for­this­event­because­they­were­at­our­fingertips,­only­waiting­ Media of Trust 239 to­be­used.­This­led,­as­I­have­argued,­to­the­adaptation­of­managerial­media­ and logics for pandemic management. The genealogy of those visualization devices­is­not­so­much­part­of­epidemiology­or­the­history­of­pandemics,­but­is­ based­on­a­visual­media­culture­of­managerial­decision-making.­Consequently,­ the current pandemic is mapped as an economic problem and interpreted by logics and devices that stem from the culture of visual management. Tensions­and­mistrust­that­result­from­this­“misuse”­of­economic­devices­and­ practices­led,­as­I­have­argued,­to­the­rise­of­a­second­dimension­of­pandemic­ media:­oral­media­aimed­at­the­individual,­intimate­level.­They­provide­for­ working­knowledge­that­offers­a­basic­sense­of­trust­about­how­to­act­within­ a pandemic. This trustworthiness is based on para-social interactions and the intimate character of oral media. The tensions I described as a two-fold system of media of trust are symptoms both for the relevance and the limitations of the epistemology of visual man- agement. It shows that the pandemic is predominantly understood through the­lens­of­economic­media.­This­in­turn­suggests­that,­as­others­have­argued­ (Sarasin­2020),­the­pandemic,­at­least­for­the­German­situation,­is­not­a­bio- political­state­of­emergency.­Rather,­I­suggest­that­it­needs­to­be­understood­ as­a­massive­allocation­of­economic­resources,­a­quite­radical­and­uncertain­ experiment towards the future that is administered by media of visual man- agement and that results in shifting bonds of trust. References Berry,­Richard.­2006.­“Will­the­iPod­Kill­the­Radio­Star?­Profiling­Podcasting­as­Radio.”­ Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies­12­(2):­143–62. Birdsall,­Carolyn.­2012.­Nazi Soundscapes: Sound, Technology and Urban Space in Germany, 1933–1945. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. Brinton,­Willard­C.­1919.­Graphical Methods for Presenting Facts. New York: The Engineering Magazine­Co.­First­published­1914. Dong,­Ensheng,­Hongru­Du,­and­Lauren­Gardner.­2020.­“An­Interactive­Web-based­Dashboard­ to­Track­COVID-19­in­Real­Time.”­The Lancet Infectious Diseases­20­(5)­533–34. Hagen,­Wolfgang.­2005.­Das Radio: Zur Theorie und Geschichte des Hörfunks. USA/Deutschland. München: Fink. Hennig,­Korinna.­2020a.­“Behind­the­Scenes­II.­Talk­mit­dem­Podcast-Team.”­Accessed­July­3,­ 2020.­https://www.ndr.de/nachrichten/info/Behind-the-Scenes-II-Talk-mit-dem-Podcast- Team,audio684596.html. —­—­—­.­2020b.­“Das­Coronavirus­Update­mit­Christian­Drosten.”­ndr.de.­Accessed­May­5,­2020.­ https://www.ndr.de/nachrichten/info/podcast4684.html. Hilmes,­Michele.­1997.­Radio Voices: American Broadcasting, 1922–1952. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Hoof,­Florian.­2020.­Angels of Efficiency: A Media History of Consulting. New York: Oxford University Press. —­—­—­.­2016.­“Medien­managerialer­Entscheidung:­Decision-Making­‘At­a­Glance.’”­Soziale Systeme­20­(1):­23–51. Horton,­Donald,­and­R.­Richard­Wohl.­1956.­“Mass­Communication­and­Para-Social­Interaction:­ Observations­on­Intimacy­at­a­Distance.”­Psychiatry 19­(3):­215–29. 240 Pandemic Media Johns­Hopkins­University­Center­for­Systems­Science­and­Engineering.­2020.­“COVID-19­ Dashboard.”­Accessed­May­2,­2020.­https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html. Lewis,­J.­David,­and­Andrew­Weigert.­1985.­“Trust­as­a­Social­Reality.”­Social Forces­63­(4):­967–85. Luhmann,­Niklas.­1979.­Trust and Power. New York: Wiley. McLuhan,­Marshall.­1964.­Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. New York: McGraw-Hill. Rieger,­Stefan.­2009.­Schall und Rauch: Eine Mediengeschichte der Kurve. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp. Sarasin,­Philipp.­2020.­“Mit­Foucault­die­Pandemie­verstehen?“­Geschichte der Gegenwart,­March­25.­Accessed­April­8,­2020.­https://geschichtedergegenwart.ch/ mit-foucault-die-pandemie-verstehen/. Spinelli,­Martin,­and­Lance­Dann.­2019.­Podcasting: The Audio Media Revolution. London: Bloomsbury. Sterne,­Jonathan.­2006.­“The­MP3­as­Cultural­Artifact.”­New Media and Society­8­(5):­825–42. LABORATORY ANIMALS HUMAN-ANIMAL DIVIDE HYBRID BODIES MEDIA THEORY [ 2 4 ] Mediating Disease: Scientific Transcriptions of COVID-19 into Animal Models Benjamín Schultz-Figueroa and Sophia Gräfe When the COVID-19 outbreak burst fully into the public’s eye in early 2020, it brought with it a menagerie of animal affects and images. The spreading virus seemed to activate preexistent threads of human/animal relationships with a new urgency, as many struggled to reimagine their place in relation to a newly alien “natural” world and sought certainty and stability in the midst of turbulent change. In this essay, we examine a specialized sub- section of this discourse focusing on the bodies of non-human laboratory animals, arguing that in the current public and scientific debate they are not only metaphorically becoming the scene of various mediations, but corporeally as well. We conclude that MEDIA THEORY such animal models have an ambivalent relationship to human/animal distinctions in an era of increasing pandemics, working as they do to shore up porous borders, while also creating new overlapping spaces between each category. 244 Pandemic Media When­the­COVID-19­outbreak­burst­fully­into­the­public’s­eye­in­early­2020,­it­ brought­with­it­a­menagerie­of­animal­affects­and­images.­Non-human­animals­ filled­our­screens­and­conversations,­from­speculations­over­the­bat­and­ pangolin­progenitors­of­the­virus,­to­worrying­that­domestic­pets­and­farm­ animals­were­possible­vectors,­to­debates­surrounding­the­ethics­of­testing­ zoo­animals­before­humans,­to­a­renewed­obsession­with­animal­memes­ while­sheltering-in-place­(Wrage­2020).­The­spreading­virus­seemed­to­activate­ preexistent­threads­of­human/animal­relationships­with­a­new­urgency,­as­ many­struggled­to­reimagine­their­place­in­relation­to­a­newly­alien­“natural”­ world and sought certainty and stability in the midst of turbulent change. In this­essay,­we­examine­a­specialized­subsection­of­this­discourse­focusing­on­ the­bodies­of­non-human­laboratory­animals,­which­in­the­current­public­and­ scientific­debate­are­not­only­metaphorically­becoming­the­scene­of­various­ mediations,­but­corporeally­as­well.­As­has­been­shown­in­studies­of­the­his- tory­of­science­and­the­scientific­use­of­media,­the­life­science­laboratory­is­ a site where bodies are not only altered but powerful signs and images are created. In the course of the pandemic’s disruption of an essentialized nature/ culture­divide,­these­laboratory­bodies­act­as­pandemic­mediums­that­are­ both uncomfortably close to humans and yet also too far in a material sense. Along­with­the­images­of­hospitals­or­sick­patients,­a­myriad­of­other­dis- cursive­threads­surrounded­COVID-19’s­introduction­to­western­audiences.­ Shortly before the colorful icon of the novel virus became the emblem of the infectious­disease,­statements­from­western­commentators—whether­epi- demiologists,­journalists,­politicians,­or­environmentalists—had­an­essential­ early­influence­on­the­image­of­the­pathogen.­Many­expressed­concern,­ horror­or­disgust­at­so-called­“wet­markets”­in­China,­street­markets­where­ “wild­animals”­are­being­traded­and­consumed.­Some­were­frightened­by­ the­consumption­of­‘bat­soups,’­some­warned­of­the­too­close­and­too­dense­ settlement of human and non-human habitats and thus invoked racist prej- udices and fears to blame the disease on impure relations with nonhuman animals­(Taylor­2020).­The­majority­of­European­and­American­audiences­ became­aware­of­COVID-19­not­as­a­purely­medical­problem,­but­as­a­cultural- civilizational shock. It appeared above all as a problem of unacceptable mixture:­of­decent­and­indecent­diets,­of­“cultural”­and­“wild­animals,”­of­ reasonable encounters with nature and foolish excursions into the epidemi- ologically­dangerous­wilderness.­Human­bodies­now­did­not­seem­to­be­safe,­ clean,­and­distinct.­Bats,­pangolins,­humans,­tigers,­dogs,­primates,­llamas­ were all imbricated with each other for a brief moment as simple biomass— both­infected­and­infectious.­The­ways­of­infection­were­unclear­(via­surfaces,­ body­fluids,­or­the­air?­through­the­hands,­nose,­or­mouth?)­and­therefore­ everywhere.­The­symptomatology,­pathogenesis,­and­spread­of­the­disease­ stood­against­efforts­at­localization,­tracking,­and­containment. Mediating Disease 245 Perhaps nowhere was this truer than in the use of non-human animals as models of the disease. Faced with a ballooning number of cases and the high mortality­rate­of­COVID-19­infections,­state-led­prevention­and­containment­ measures henceforth aimed at halting the intermingling of human and non- human­bodies;­working­to­stop­the­fl­ow­of­people­and­goods­in­cities­and­ around­the­world,­and­to­establish­barriers­between­bodies­and­their­environ- ments.­At­the­same­time,­animal­bodies­were­being­invasively­transformed­ in virology laboratories across the world to resemble human physiology and­microbiology­as­much­as­possible.­Here,­enduring­questions­about­the­ effi­­cacy,­best-practices,­and­applicability­of­animal­experiments­were­rein- vigorated under the intense pressure generated by the search for a treatment and­vaccine.­The­scientifi­c­community­underwent­a­moment­of­hectic­material­ scrambling­as­it­worked­to­produce­an­animal­model­of­COVID-19­(Eisenstein,­ 2020). [Figure­1]­Illustration­of­diverse­animal­test­subjects­(Source:­Yuan­et­al.­2020) Animal­models­have­long­been­essential­for­developing­new­treatments,­and­ each new virus requires an elaborate evaluation process in which the mani- festation of the disease in a particular animal must be compared to how it manifests­in­humans.­COVID-19,­with­its­long­list­of­possible­symptoms­and­ uncertain­eff­ects­on­the­body,­created­an­especially­diffi­­cult­challenge­for­ investigators.­In­some­ways,­it­is­similar­to­previous­coronaviruses,­like­severe­ acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS),­which­have­previously­been­modeled­with­civet­cats,­camelidaes,­ 246 Pandemic Media monkeys,­mice,­hamsters,­ferrets,­rabbits,­among­other­species­(fig.­1,­Yuan­ et­al.­2020,­950)­MERS-CoV­in­2012­and­SARS-CoV-2­in­2019.­Yet,­each­of­these­ models­had­to­be­hurriedly­reconsidered­if­they­were­to­be­used­to­fight­ COVID-19.­As­the­science­writer­Michael­Eisenstein­outlines­in­the­June­2020­ issue of Nature, the­genetic­makeups­of­most­lab­animals­differ­meaningfully­ from­humans,­causing­COVID-19­to­express­itself­in­incomparable­ways.­ Through­gene­therapy­or­transgenic­modeling,­animal­cells­have­been­made­ more­similar­to­human­cells—mice­can­be­“humanized”­as­one­virologist­ describes­(Sun­et­al.­2020,­6)—but­these­procedures­often­result­in­com- plicating factors that will skew an experiment’s results and quickly kill the animals­involved.­Primates,­whose­anatomy­and­physiology­more­closely­ resembles­that­of­humans,­have­also­been­infected­with­the­disease­in­an­ attempt­to­generate­better­models,­but­with­little­success­(Rockx­et­al.­2020).­ Alternately,­COVID-19­has­been­adapted­to­the­cells­of­particular­lab­animals,­ but­this­effectively­created­a­new­strain­of­the­virus­that­differs­significantly­ from­the­one­in­humans.­Finally,­and­most­successfully,­microbiologists­are­ now literally rewriting the genomes of mice and other lab animals through the­relatively­new­gene­editing­technology­CRISPR/Cas9,­causing­their­cells­ to­behave­more­like­humans­when­contracting­the­disease­(Sun­et­al.­2020).­ Eisenstein­ends­by­citing­Dr.­Chein-Te­Tseng,­a­microbiologist­at­the­University­ of­Texas­Medical­Branch,­who­concludes­that­“for­COVID-19,­there­is­no­single­ animal­model­that­will­fully­reflect­the­human­disease…­but­if­we­combine­ all these animal studies together…we can probably get a good picture of the pathogenesis”­(Eisenstein­2020,­168).­Here,­the­animal­body­as­a­pandemic­ media—not­unlike­the­insect­media­described­by­Jussi­Parikka­(2010)—does­ not simply serve as a moral vehicle for a metaphorical hybridization of the “human­body,”­but­rather­provides­the­material,­organic,­and­molecular­ components for a biotechnological simulation of human life. How to evaluate this complex and evolving use of animal media? It seems clear­that­we­are­witnessing­a­scientific­apparatus­being­majorly­tested­and­ torqued­under­extraordinary­circumstances.­On­the­one­hand,­the­crushing­ urgency­of­COVID-19­has­led­to­further­intensifying­the­objectifying­servitude­ of animal bodies in an attempt to overcome the epidemiological crisis. This intensification­has­the­potential­to­further­exacerbate­the­longstanding­ political­problems­of­“species­projection,”­which­historians­of­science­have­ demonstrated­are­often­premised­on­racist­and­sexist­definitions­of­“the­ human”­that­end­up­compounding­social­and­cultural­hierarchies­even­as­they­ aspire­to­universal­relevance­(Bolman­2018,­Neel­2016,­Glick­2018).­No­matter­ that­animals­and­humans­are­deeply­entwined­in­these­experiments,­the­ time­of­the­Chthulucene,­Donna­Haraway’s­speculatively­longed-for­period­ of interspecies solidarity (Haraway­2016;­Haraway,­Lipperini,­and­Durastanti­ 2020),­has­not­yet­come.­There­is­no­shared­pandemic­reality­here­between­ human­experimenters­and­non-human­animal­subjects,­who­are­increasingly­ Mediating Disease 247 atomized,­hybridized,­and­abstracted­(fig.­2).­These­animals­are­made­to­ function as tools and service providers for a biotechnological encounter with unclear boundaries and protective devices. Their noses serve as indicators for the­pathogen,­their­bodies­as­a­simulating diagram­of­its­course,­their­organs­ and cells as models for medical solution scenarios. [Figure­2]­An­example­of­abstraction­and­atomization­in­a­staining­analysis­of­mice­test­sub- jects. Taken from a collection of images depicting the test subjects through a variety of lenses. (Source: Sun et al. 2020) But­at­the­same­time,­the­final­consequences­of­this­moment­for­scientific­ research and animal modeling have yet to be fully realized. Microbiologists and­virologists­working­to­develop­“humanized”­animal­models­in­a­time­of­ extreme­and­unique­crisis­may­point­to­the­manufacturing­of­a­new­reality,­ which­could­have­uncertain­effects­in­the­future.­The­“shared­suffering”­of­ the­lab—which­Haraway­(2008)­so­eloquently­argues­must­be­kept­in­mind­ to comprehend both the need for important medical experiments and the devastating pain felt by animal experimental subjects—may yet broaden out­into­a­wider­social­dynamic,­as­humans/animal­distinctions­generally­are­ reconsidered­in­an­era­of­increasing­pandemics.­If,­as­experts­predict­(Bett­ 2020),­climate­change,­extinction,­and­habitat­destruction­lead­to­increasingly­ frequent­and­devastating­zoonotic­diseases,­the­stakes­of­these­types­of­ experiments­will­be­amplified­to­global­proportions.­ How a disease is rendered within the corporeal media of laboratory animals will­have­ramifications­well­beyond­the­walls­of­the­lab,­and­the­meaning­ of­this­scientific­media­will­be­politically­and­culturally­contested­at­an­ unprecedented­scale.­Already,­the­association­of­COVID-19­with­animal­bodies­ and­scientific­discourse­has­been­activated­by­political­actors­seeking­to­define­ the disease’s impact on government policy and public opinion. We can see 248 Pandemic Media this­in­the­xenophobic­obsessions­with­Chinese­“wet­markets”­(Walzer­and­ Kang­2020)­and­the­rightwing­weaponization­of­epidemiological­concepts­like­ “herd­immunity”­towards­neo-Darwinian­ends­(Hanson­2020).­As­ecofascists­ promote ideas of the Earth cleansing itself of human inhabitants (Sherronda J.­Brown,­2020),­the­rightwing­embrace­of­their­own­post-anthropocentric­ ethics­highlights­the­dangers­of­this­moment,­as­well­as­the­possibilities.­No­ longer­solely­the­subject­of­a­specialized­or­elite­discourse,­animal­models,­like­ other­animal­images­and­symbols,­will­be­increasingly­central­to­how­society­ positions itself in relation to a rapidly mutating and evermore perilous concept of­“nature”­in­the­Anthropocene.­ References Ahuja,­Neel.­2016.­Bioinsecurities: Disease Interventions, Empire, and the Government of Species. Durham,­NC:­Duke­University­Press. Bett,­Bernard.­2020.­“For­Better­or­for­Worse:­The­Delicate­Relationship­between­People­ and­the­Wildlife­around­Them.”­Interview­by­UN­Enironment­Programme,­April­23.­ Accessed­July­22,­2020.­http://www.unenvironment.org/news-and-stories/story/ better-or-worse-delicate-relationship-between-people-and-wildlife-around. Bolman,­Brad.­2018.­“How­Experiments­Age:­Gerontology,­Beagles,­and­Species­Projection­at­ Davis.”­Social­Studies­of­Science­48­(2):­232–58. Brown,­Sherronda­J.­2020.­“Humans­Are­Not­The­Virus—Don’t­Be­An­Eco-Fascist.”­Wear Your Voice,­March­27.­Accessed­December­5,­2020.­https://wearyourvoicemag.com/humans-are- not-the-virus-eco-fascist/?fbclid=IwAR1UekxoC3fIYo9b9VfdVSoLSy9nXcylsPjN0uAR1maqz 9yO4_AEDs09-BA.­ Eisenstein,­Michael.­2020.­“Mobilizing­Animal­Models­against­a­Pandemic.”­Lab Animal 49­(6):­ 165–68.­doi:­10.1038/s41684-020-0558-5. Glick,­Megan­H.­2018.­Infrahumanisms: Science, Culture, and the Making of Modern Non/Personhood.­Durham,­NC:­Duke­University­Press. Hanson,­Victor­Davis.­2020.­“Coronavirus:­The­California­Herd.”­National Review (blog),­March­31.­Accessed­July­22,­2020.­https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/03/ coronavirus-pandemic-california-herd-immunity/. Haraway,­Donna­Jeanne.­2008. When Species Meet: Posthumanities 3. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. — — — . 2016. Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene.­Durham,­NC:­Duke­University­ Press. Haraway,­Donna­Jeanne,­Loredana­Lipperini,­and­Claudia­Durastanti.­2020.­Come­Sopravvivere­ su­un­Pianeta­Infetto­(Italian/English).­Salone­Internationale­del­Libro­Torino­Extra,­May­14.­ Accessed­July­22,­2020.­https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaRdmalZHok&feature=youtu. be&fbclid=IwAR2Sb8MwQs-o-23p1BDCiO9uK79INs9aKkt4Owrqvmn57T6T-Rb-7b8qFS4.­ Parikka,­Jussi.­2010.­Insect Media an Archaeology of Animals and Technology: Posthumanities, v. 11. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Rockx,­Barry,­Thijs­Kuiken,­Sander­Herfst,­Theo­Bestebroer,­Mart­M.­Lamers,­Bas­B.­Oude­ Munnink,­Dennis­de­Meulder,­et­al.­2020.­“Comparative­Pathogenesis­of­COVID-19,­MERS,­ and­SARS­in­a­Nonhuman­Primate­Model.”­Science­368­(6494):­1012–15.­doi:­10.1126/science. abb7314. Sun,­Shi-Hui,­Qi­Chen,­Hong-Jing­Gu,­Guan­Yang,­Yan-Xiao­Wang,­Xing-Yao­Huang,­Su-Su­Liu,­ et­al.­2020.­“A­Mouse­Model­of­SARS-CoV-2­Infection­and­Pathogenesis.” Cell Host & Microbe,­ May.­doi:10.1016/j.chom.2020.05.020. Taylor,­Josh.­2020.­“Bat­Soup,­Dodgy­Cures­and­‘Diseasology’:­The­Spread­of­Coronavirus­ Misinformation.”­The Guardian,­January­31.­Accessed­July­22,­2020.­https://www.theguardian. Mediating Disease 249 com/world/2020/jan/31/bat-soup-dodgy-cures-and-diseasology-the-spread-of-coronavirus- bunkum. Walzer,­Christian,­and­Aili­Kang.­2020.­“Opinion­|­Abolish­Asia’s­‘Wet­Markets,’­Where­Pandemics­ Breed.”­Wall Street Journal,­January­27.­Accessed­July­22,­2020.­https://www.wsj.com/articles/ abolish-asias-wet-markets-where-pandemics-breed-11580168707. Wrage,­Birte.­2020.­“Relatable­Animals:­Social­Media­Narratives­of­the­Human–Animal­ Relationship­in­Response­to­Coronavirus.”­medium.com,­May­12.­Accessed­July­22,­2020.­ https://medium.com/@birtewrg/relatable-animals-d03645cdc0ac. Yuan,­Lunzhi­Qiyi­Tang,­Tong­Cheng,­and­Ningshao­Xia.­2020.­“Animal­Models­for­Emerging­ Coronavirus:­Progress­and­New­Insights.”­Emerging Microbes & Infections­9­(1):­949–61.­doi:­ 10.1080/22221751.2020.1764871.­ PORNOGRAPHY THICK CONCEPT CONCEPTUAL HISTORY CULTURAL GOODS POPULAR CULTURE [ 2 5 ] Pandemic Porn: Understanding Pornography as a Thick Concept Leonie Zilch The essay takes the notion of “pandemic porn” as an opportunity to address the descriptive and eval- uative aspects that are intertwined in the term “pornography.” What do we mean by “pandemic porn” and what is the “pandemic” of pornography? To do so, it considers pornography as a “thick concept.” From the start, ‘pornography’ named a battlefield, a place where no assertion could be made without at once summoning up its denial, where no one could distinguish value from danger because they were the same. Walter Kendrick COVID-19 and the Rise of Pandemic Porn I was lucky to submit my dissertation two days before the university closed its doors­due­to­the­COVID-19­pandemic.­Now,­it­is­me­and­my­screen—again.­The­ self-imposed­quarantine­is­followed­by­an­official­one.­“Are­you­suffering­from­ increased­sexual­arousal?”­asks­the­white-coated­expert­on­my­screen­sitting­ behind­his­desk­with­horn-rimmed­glasses,­a­mustache­and­an­“I­<3­Mom”-cup­ 252 Pandemic Media in­front­of­him.­Well,­no,­I­spent­the­last­months­watching­porn­for­my­thesis.­ “Lockdown­got­you­down?”—yeah,­I­want­to­see­my­friends­and­family­again!­ “Don’t­worry!­There’s­no­need­to­be­celibate­these­days.”­The­image­switches­ to­a­couple­wearing­gas­masks,­gloves,­and­protective­suits­while­being­ intimate­with­each­other.­“In­fact,­sexual­activity­can­be­advised­as­a­urboost­ to­your­immune­system,­so­long­as­your­taking­appropriate­safety­measures.­ Welcome to Sex in Times of Corona!”1 The­short­film­is­a­collaborative­work­of­16­erotic­film­makers­from­Berlin­and­ the­first­“pandemic­porn”­that­enters­my­filter­bubble­during­isolation.­Matt­ Lambert’s Moan Together,­Erika­Lust’s­Sex and Love in the Time of Quarantine,­ and Cruising 2020 by Todd Verow and James Kleinman follow. Coronavirus Porn Is Going Viral on Pornhub (Cole­2020)­headlines­Vice­in­March­2020,­referring­to­ 112­videos­featuring­the­word­“coronavirus.”­At­the­end­of­April,­another­article­ reports­1,528­videos­(Cookney­2020)­and­Pornhub­itself­is­continually­pub- lishing­statistics­about­traffic­changes­and­corona­related­search­terms­during­ the crisis.2 The term chosen to address these corona-induced pornographies is “pandemic­porn.”­To­work­out­its­various­dimensions­of­meaning­and­to­tackle­ the implicit and explicit moral concepts accompanying the term is the aim of this­essay.­For­this­purpose,­I­consider­pornography­as­a­“thick­concept.” Pornography as a “Thick Concept” The­philosopher­Bernard­Williams­(1985)­used­the­designation­“thick­concept”­ to­grasp­those­terms­that­combined­descriptive­and­evaluative­aspects,­some- times in a hardly distinguishable way.3 I would like to consider pornography as a­“thick­moral­concept”­(Zangwill­2013),­or­more­precisely­as­an­“objectionable­ thick­concept”­(Eklund­2011).­Even­though­the­observation­that­“pornography­is­ ‘NOT­a­neutral­topic’”­(Smith­and­Attwood­2014,­9)­has­accompanied­research­ on­pornography­since­its­beginnings,4 I consider it useful and necessary to think­about­pornography­in­this­broader­sense.­As­research­has­also­shown,­ 1­ https://meow.wtf/2020/04/17/corona/­(accessed­June­29,­2020). 2­ On­March­23,­in­response­to­a­request­from­Forbes­magazine,­Pornhub­released­the­ first­“Coronavirus­Insights.”­The­seventh­and­latest­update­was­on­June­18.­https://www. pornhub.com/insights/­(accessed­June­18,­2020). 3­ Williams­himself­refers­to­a­seminar­by­Philippa­Foot­and­Iris­Murdoch­in­the­1950s,­ which­he­attended,­as­initiating­the­idea­of­the­term­(Williams­1985,­218;­see­also­Abend­ 2019,­210;­Kirchin­2013a).­Another­reference­always­mentioned­is­Gilbert­Ryle’s­notion­ of­“thick­descriptions,”­which­again­was­adapted­by­anthropologist­Clifford­Geertz­ (Kirchin­2013b;­Väyrynen­2019).­Originally­a­concept­of­moral­philosophy,­it­was­quickly­ adopted by other areas of philosophy such as epistemology and aesthetics (Väyrynen 2019)­as­well­as­by­other­disciplines­such­as­sociology­(Abend­2019).­Today,­The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy considers thick terms and concepts as “widely agreed to be of potentially­high­significance”­(Väyrynen­2019). 4­ Porn­scholars­find­themselves­repeatedly­obliged­to­respond­to­their­supposedly­ offensive­subject­matter.­Their­statements­and­reflections­on­this­topic­permeate­the­ Pandemic Porn 253 pornography often receives a special status that allows morally evaluative judgments­to­be­disguised­as­descriptive­ones.­As­Alan­McKee­points­out,­it­ seems much more productive to think about what pornography shares with other phenomena than what is special about it: Exceptionalist approaches think that everything about pornography is unique—but this is only because they are looking so closely that they miss­the­world­around­the­pornography,­in­which­many­characteristics­ are common. … As long as we study pornography in isolation we cannot properly understand how much of our object of study is actually broader cultural­movements­rather­than­being­specific­to­pornography­…­.­(McKee­ 2016,­116)­ Understanding­pornography­as­a­morally­thick­concept,­the­notion­“pandemic­ porn”­can­be­conceived­in­at­least­two­ways:­first,­for­the­kind­of­pornography­ that deals with or refers to the coronavirus pandemic (descriptive dimension). Second,­it­marks­and­extends­the­trend­to­label­everything­we­(should­not)­ desire as pornographic (descriptive and evaluative dimension). We remember rather­new­phenomena­such­as­food­porn,­torture­porn,­war­porn,­earth­ porn,­property­porn,­etc.­In­this­latter­sense,­the­term­is­also­used­for­ “compelling photos of the coronavirus pandemic ... with the implication being that media outlets that publish it are trying to exploit a national tragedy for clicks”­(Berezow­2020).­In­addition,­a­third­(primarily­evaluative)­dimension­ exists­when­thinking­about­the­concepts­of­pornography,­the­pandemic­and­ their interconnection: The Porn Pandemic (Ferebee­2016). Books such as the one by Andrew Ferebee are not just Simple Guide[s] to Ending Pornography and Masturbation Addiction and Getting Back into the Real World,­they­are­a­ symptom and product of the debates on pornography that have accompanied the term from the very beginning. The Secret Museum and the Origins of the Term “Pornography” As Walter Kendrick shows in his groundbreaking analysis The Secret Museum (1987),­the­term­“pornography”­first­appeared­in­the­English­language­as­we­ know­it­today­in­1850,­in­the­context­of­the­excavations­of­Pompeii.­Among­ the­vases,­sculptures,­paintings,­and­frescoes­that­the­archaeologists­ unearthed there were some that challenged the archival system due to their­moral­indecency:­“a­small­marble­statue,­highly­naturalistic­in­style,­ representing­a­satyr­in­sexual­congress­with­an­apparently­undaunted­goat”­ (Kendrick­1987,­6),­numerous­representations­of­the­fertility­god­Priapus,­who­ was­easily­identified­by­his­“gigantic­erect­phallus,­often­out­of­all­human­ scale,­which­he­brandishes­because­it­is­his­essence”­(8),­as­well­as­paintings­ research literature as much as their research on pornography itself (see for example L. Williams­1989,­11;­Koch­[1997]­2016,­249ff.;­Smith­and­Attwood­2014). 254 Pandemic Media of­copulating­people­and­“lewd­sculptures”­(25).­The­real­scandal,­however,­ was­not­the­artifacts­themselves,­but­their­significance­in­the­lives­of­the­ city’s­inhabitants.­“Paintings­of­nude­bodies,­even­in­the­act­of­sex,­had­been­ placed­side­by­side­with­landscapes­and­still­lifes,­forming­a­jumble­that­mys- tified­modern­observers”­(9),­explains­Kendrick.­He­also­refers­to­the­notes­ of a cataloguer who was shocked to discover: “The inhabitants of Pompeii ... placed­these­subjects,­repulsed­by­modesty,­in­the­most­conspicuous­places,­ so­widely­did­their­ideas­of­morals­differ­from­ours”­(10).­From­the­beginning,­ the controversial items were kept separately and made accessible only to “gentlemen­with­appropriate­demeanor­(and­ready­cash­for­the­custodian)”­ (6),­but­after­a­while,­Kendrick­points­out,­a­suitable­place­and­classification­ system was needed to catalog the artifacts: “The name chosen for them was ‘pornography,’­and­they­were­housed­in­the­Secret­Museum”­(11). Following­the­public­debate­on­pornography­into­the­1980s,­Kendrick­comes­to­ the­conclusion­that­“‘pornography’­names­an­argument,­not­a­thing”­(1987,­31).5 In­other­words,­what­is­perceived­as­“pornographic”­depends­on­the­prevailing­ moral concepts of its time: In­the­mid-nineteenth­century,­Pompeiian­frescoes­were­deemed­ ‘pornographic’­and­locked­away­in­secret­chambers­safe­from­virginal­ minds;­not­long­thereafter,­Madame Bovary was put on trial for harboring the­same­danger.­A­century-long­parade­of­court­cases­ensued,­delib- erating the perniciousness of Ulysses,­Lady Chatterley’s Lover,­Tropic of Cancer,­and­scores­of­other­fictions,­many­of­which­now­appear­ routinely on the syllabi of college literature courses. All these things were ‘pornographic’­once­and­have­ceased­to­be­so;­now­the­stigma­goes­to­ sexually­explicit­pictures,­films,­and­videotapes.­(Kendrick­1987,­xii) Since­then,­more­time­has­passed.­In­the­last­twenty­years,­many­new­forms­ of pornography have emerged in popular culture. A trend that Kendrick had already­anticipated:­“…­it­seems­likely­that­future­generations,­if­they­use­ the­term­[pornography]­at­all,­will­mean­by­it­something­quite­different— something as unimaginable today as Debbie Does Dallas­was­fifty­years­ago”­ (1987,­xii).­And­he­was­right.­Just­as­“unimaginable”­as­Debbie Does Dallas (US 1978)­was­in­the­1930s,­Debbie Does Salad (Kaufman­2005)­was­probably­in­1987.­ Explosion of the Pornographic Particularly­since­the­2000s,­there­has­been­an­expansion,­or­in­Helen­Hester’s­ words,­an­“explosion”­(Hester­2014,­181ff.—she­doesn’t­seem­to­know­Casetti)­ in­the­use­of­the­term­‘pornography.’­What­is­striking­is­that­sex­seems­to­be­ 5­ We­may­remember,­for­example,­United­States­Supreme­Court­Justice­Potter­Stewart ’s­ famous­expression­“I­know­it­when­I­see­it”­to­characterize­hard-core­pornography­in­ 1964. Pandemic Porn 255 displaced­in­the­phenomena­described­as­pornographic­(181ff.).­In­her­con- ceptual­analysis­of­the­term,­Nina­Schumacher­(2017)­distinguishes­various­ forms­of­these­pornographic­configurations.­As­she­points­out,­the­term­ pornography­is­charged­with­new­connotations­of­the­immoral,­the­con- demnable,­or­the­obscene.­What­these­pornographies­have­in­common­is­that­ they approach their objects closer than usual and exhibit them in a rather excessive­way­(Schumacher­2017,­11f.).­In­this­manner,­they­address­and­expose­ what­is­not­(yet)­shown­or­usually­not­visible­or­mentionable­(11f.).­ Schumacher locates rather ironic forms such as fruit porn or the picture book Porn for New Moms­(Anderson­2008)­in­the­satirical-critical­tradition­of­the­ concept­(Schumacher­2017,­213f.;­O’Toole­1998,­1).­The­latter­features­attractive­ men­whispering­‘obscenities’­such­as­“So,­tell­me­again,­what­was­the­consis- tency­of­the­poop”­or­“Let’s­not­have­sex­tonight.­Let­me­just­rub­your­feet­ while­you­tell­me­about­the­baby’s­day”­(Schumacher­2017,­210f.).­Beyond­that,­ she­classifies­the­“lifestyle-pornographies”­food,­travel,­and­property­porn­as­ “pornographies­of­desire”­(214).­These­would­awaken­longings­(for­food,­travel,­ real estate) for which there can be no immediate or no satisfaction at all. In this­case,­the­pornographic­manifests­itself­through­conventional­aesthetic­ strategies­known­from­pornographic­films,­e.g.­the­close-up­as­an­expres- sion of the “principle of maximum visibility”­(L. Williams­1989,­48;­Schumacher­ 2017,­215).­Hester­further­attests­a­“harmless­voyeuristic­pleasure­taken­in­ representations­of­desirable­items­and­covetable­experiences”­(Hester­2014,­ 187).­According­to­Schumacher,­components­of­the­pornographic­are­just­as­ much­realized­through­the­obscenity­of­what­is­shown,­i.e.­the­abundance,­the­ decadence,­which­one­becomes­aware­of­when­watching­and­secretly­desiring­ unhealthy­but­tasty­food,­travel,­or­property­one­cannot­afford­(Schumacher­ 2017,­215ff.).­She­aptly­points­out­that­these­‘pornographies­of­desire’­are­pro- ducts­of­capitalism­propagating­boundless­increase,­which­cannot­tolerate­the­ finite­satisfaction­of­needs­(218).­More­popular­phenomena­such­as­torture­ porn,­misery­or­social­porn,­or­“Pornography­of­the­Gag­Reflex”­(Hester­2014,­ 49ff.)6­are­characterized­by­Schumacher­as­‘pornographies­of­the­rejected’­ (2017,­224ff.).­What­is­rejected­is­the­human­or­social­body­itself­and,­especially,­ its­bodily­fluids.­The­obscenity­of­what­is­shown­lies­in­the­exposure­and­the­ display of the body in pain or distress. 6­ David­Edelstein­(2006)­coined­the­term­“torture­porn”­to­characterize­horror­films­ that­expose­the­vulnerability­of­the­body­in­a­spectacular­way,­which­means­through­ depictions­of­torture,­rape,­or­destroyed­bodies­in­general.­Misery­porn­(Hester­2014,­ 181ff.)­or,­in­a­more­general­sense,­‘social­porn’­(Schumacher­2017,­224ff.)­refers­to­ literature,­films,­or­TV­shows­in­which­poverty­or­other­forms­of­social­hardship­are­ exposed.­As­‘pornographies­of­the­gag­reflex’­Hester­describes­for­example­Charlotte­ Roche’s novel Wetlands­(2009)­or­the­Internet­phenomenon­2 Girls 1 Cup­(2007). 256 Pandemic Media Without­going­into­the­remaining­pornographic­configurations­discussed­ by­Schumacher­and­Hester,­it­should­have­become­clear,­to­borrow­Hester’s­ words: Porn­cannot­be­characterized­as­merely­‘a­sex­thing’­(O’Toole­1998,­342),­ even­if­adult­entertainment­can;­it­is­not­preoccupied­with­eliciting­a­gen- itally sexual response but with provoking more general forms of queasy jouissance—horror,­anger,­sorrow,­and­a­certain­nauseated­fascination.­ This­kind­of­response­is­not­a­symptom­of­categorical­moral­bankruptcy,­ but part of a dysfunctional sympathetic impulse and a persistent (if perhaps regrettable) facet of our interaction with certain images and texts.­(Hester­2014,­185f.) Pandemic Pornographies In­the­following,­I­would­like­to­discuss­the­outlined­dimensions­of­pan- demic porn considered as a thick concept and address the evaluative and descriptive­components­they­engage­with.­The­first­(descriptive)­dimension­ signifies­pornography­that­deals­with­or­refers­to­the­coronavirus­pan- demic. The objects gathered with this description are as heterogeneous as all­pornographic­configurations­are­and­not­limited­to­audiovisual­content­ (see­for­example­ABC­2020).­To­give­you­an­impression:­Sex in Times of Corona presents eleven short episodes that elaborate on how to have sex without breaking the quarantine regulations in admittedly bizarre ways.7 Cruising 2020 is­a­one­minute,­not­sexually­explicit­short­film­featuring­two­gay­men­cruising­ in­a­park­always­staying­six­feet­away­from­each­other.­The­short­film­Sex and Love in the Time of Quarantine­follows­six­adult­performers,­two­couples­and­ two­solo­actors,­as­they­shoot­porn­in­their­own­home­and­how­they­deal­with­ isolation­and­their­sex­life­as­couples­or­singles,­while­Moan Together is more of­a­sexually­explicit­music­video­featuring­50­queer­sex­workers­from­all­over­ the­world­performing­one­song.­Typical­corona­narratives­on­tube­sites,­on­ the­other­hand,­show­people­breaking­quarantine­regulations­to­have­sex­ or getting caught breaking quarantine by the authorities. Gloves and masks are­well­loved­accessories,­as­is­medical­clothing­in­general.­Some­videos­are­ funny,­some­educational,­some­seem­to­have­been­created­out­of­boredom.­ What­these­pornographies­display,­as­porn­scholar­Madita­Oeming­puts­it,­ is­that:­“porn­does­not­exist­in­a­vacuum”­(Cookney­2020),­it­also­reflects­our­ everyday­lives.­Therefore,­the­term­“pandemic­porn,”­in­this­sense,­simply­ describes audiovisual media or literature that deals with the corona crisis in a creative­way,­under­a­broad­understanding­of­the­pornographic.­ 7­ To­name­a­few:­Creating­a­doppelganger,­“fuck­yourself”,­phone­sex­(illustrated­by­ tin­cans­connected­through­fiber),­using­a­1,5­meter­Popsicle-Dildo,­voyeuristic- exhibitionistic­neighborly­help,­or­“run­fast”­(down­the­hallway)­for­your­own­“juicy­cum- shot”­(shot­out­of­the­window). Pandemic Porn 257 The­second­dimension­can­easily­be­placed­within­the­wider­‘explosion­of­ the pornographic’ and shares the aesthetic characteristics and connotations highlighted by Schumacher and Hester with these new forms. It marks and extends the trend to label everything we (should not) desire as pornographic. What is referred to as pornographic in an aesthetic sense is the excessive doc- umentation of the crisis in mass media: statistics and graphics of hospitalized persons,­the­number­of­fatalities­or­of­already­overcrowded­hospitals.­In­this­ case,­the­characterization­as­pornographic­is­clearly­evaluative.­Displaying­this­ suffering­for­the­dramatic­effect,­i.e.­clicks­or­profit,­is­considered­unethical­ and impious in the western Christian value system. This extends to the accompanying­voyeuristic­pleasure­that­enjoys­this­exhibition­of­suffering. Furthermore,­I­have­distinguished­a­third­dimension­that­is­not­directly­ related­to­the­corona­pandemic,­but­rather­describes­a­culturally­pessimistic,­ anti-pornographic­attitude­that,­as­mentioned­above,­has­accompanied­ pornography­since­its­existence.­As­Madita­Oeming­(2018)­convincingly­points­ out,­a­change­in­rhetoric­and­argumentation­strategies­can­be­observed­over­ the last decade of anti-porn sentiments. A newly emerging medical rhetoric declares­pornography­a­‘pandemic’­or­‘epidemic,’­suggesting­that­pornography­ addiction­spreads­like­a­virus­and­infects,­of­all­people,­those­in­power:­white­ heterosexual­men­(Oeming­2018,­214f.).­This­means­that­nowadays­“the­focus­ has­shifted­from­the­production­to­the­consumption­side”­(214f.),­with­the­ effect­being­that: Through­re-framing­its­consumption­as­pathology,­the­cultural­narrative­ about­porn­has­effectively­been­changed­from­‘women­need­to­be­pro- tected­from­men’­to­‘men­need­to­be­protected­from­porn’—just­like­the­ public was once successfully convinced that soldiers needed to be pro- tected­from­STI-spreading­prostitutes.­(215) This framing makes pornography a public health issue that allows us “to present­moral­judgement­as­scientific­fact”­(213).­In­search­of­an­answer­to­ the­question­of­why­this­narrative­is­so­successful­and­powerful,­Oeming­ makes­two­assumptions.­First,­she­places­it­in­the­context­of­contemporary­ masculinist,­right-wing­populist,­and­anti-third-wave­feminist­arguments.­ Analyzing­the­rhetoric­of­popular­scientific­self-help­literature,­she­outlines­ that­“porn­addiction­alongside­‘the­rise­of­women’­and­‘patriarchy­myths’”­are­ cited­as­the­cause­for­America’s­male­youth­“‘failing’­academically,­socially,­ and­sexually”­(215).8­Second,­she­refers­to­the­combination­of­“age-old­cultural­ anxieties surrounding sexuality with the newborn moral panic about the inter- net;­the­latter­being­rooted,­of­course,­in­yet­another­long­tradition­of­human- kind’s­recurrent­fears­about­technology­and­new­media”­(214).­ 8­ As­Oeming­plausibly­further­argues,­the­diagnosis­“porn­addiction”­“frees­consumers­ from­moral­judgement—it­is­compulsive,­what­can­they­do?—and­puts­the­blame­on­the­ product”­(Oeming­2018,­214).­ 258 Pandemic Media This observation reminds us once again how interwoven fears around sexu- ality and new media are. 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Oeming,­Madita.­2018.­“A­New­Diagnosis­for­Old­Fears?­Pathologizing­Porn­in­Contemporary­US­ Discourse.”­Porn Studies­5­(2):­213–16.­ O’Toole,­Laurence.­1998.­Pornocopia: Porn, Sex, Technology and Desire. London: Serpent’s Tail. Pornhub.­2020.­“Coronavirus­Insights.”­Accessed­June­18,­2020.­https://www.pornhub.com/ insights/. Roche,­Charlotte.­2009.­Wetlands. Translated by Tim Mohr. New York: Grove Press. Schumacher,­Nina.­2017.­Pornografisches: Eine Begriffsethnografie. Sulzbach: Ulrike Helmer Verlag. Pandemic Porn 259 Smith,­Clarissa,­and­Feona­Attwood.­2014.­“Anti/pro/critical­Porn­Studies.”­Porn Studies­1­(1–2):­ 7–23. Väyrynen,­Pekka.­2019.­“Thick­Ethical­Concepts.”­In­The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy,­ edited­by­Edward­N.­Zalta.­Summer­2019:­Metaphysics­Research­Lab,­Stanford­University. Williams,­Bernard.­1985.­Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy. Cambridge,­MA:­Harvard­University­ Press. Williams,­Linda.­1989.­Hard Core: Power, Pleasure and the “Frenzy of the Visible.” Berkeley: University of California Press. Zangwill,­Nick.­2013.­“Moral­Metaphor­and­Thick­Concepts:­What­Moral­Philosophy­Can­Learn­ from­Aesthetics.”­In­Thick Concepts,­edited­by­Simon­Kirchin,­197–209.­Oxford:­Oxford­ University Press. SCREEN TIME CHILDREN’S MEDIA EFFECTS STUDIES STRETCHY TIME [ 2 6 ] The Time Stretched before Us: Rethinking Young Children’s “Screen Time” Meredith A. Bak Children’s media culture has been dominated by concerns over “media effects” and by a broader pre- occupation with how children spend their leisure time. In recent years, a growing expert critique of “screen time” has begun to challenge these dominant per- EFFECTS STUDIES spectives. This critique has been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, given the unexpected heightened reliance children have on screen-based media for both educational and recreational purposes. This essay links the media effects tradition with several features of the screen time debate, noting screen time’s role in sustaining a future-based orientation of childhood. It proposes the pandemic’s changes to domestic life as an opportunity to reconsider children’s time and needs in the present, as flexible and occupied by a range of activities, including engagement with screen-based media without the artificial distinction of “screen time,” which establishes unnecessary judg- ments and valuations. 262 Pandemic Media Demanding that parents just watch the clock misses the point of parenting in the digital age. Sonia Livingstone and Alicia Blum-Ross (2020, 47) Screen time essentially became time itself. David Zweig (2020) On­April­6,­2020—only­weeks­after­New­York­City’s­lockdown­orders­were­ announced,­Andrew­Przybylski­and­Pete­Etchells­published­an­opinion­piece­ in the New York Times titled­“Screen­Time­isn’t­All­that­Bad.”­In­the­wake­of­the­ pandemic,­they­write,­“our­families’­screen­time­is­about­to­go­through­the­ roof…­and­that’s­fine”­(Przybylski­and­Etchells­2020,­27).­ Przybylski and Etchells challenge the long-standing dominance of the media­effects­paradigm:­a­research­tradition­advanced­in­fields­from­ communications­to­psychology­that­endeavors­to­find­direct­causal­links­ between­exposure­to­media­and­particular­health­or­behavioral­effects­in­ young­audiences­(Przybylski­and­Etchells­2020,­27).­Since­at­least­the­1990s,­ researchers­have­“caution[ed]­against­the­kinds­of­simplistic,­casual­con- nections­that­are­often­derived­from­‘effects­studies.’­Instead,­they­advocate­ a research agenda that pays more attention to the broader social context of­how­[mediated]­images­are­actually­read”­(Kinder­1999,­4).­The­notion­of­ “screen­time”­is­a­curious­biproduct­of­the­media­effects­legacy,­presupposing­ that engagement with screen-based media represents a distinct quality and kind of experience that can be measured as such. Przybylski and Etchells’s call to critically evaluate (and relax) prohibitive screen time limits thus gestures to a­longstanding­reconfiguration­of­children’s­media­discourse­that­the­COVID- 19­pandemic­has­helped­to­accelerate.­ This­reconfiguration­entails­considering­young­children’s­screen­time— indeed,­children’s­time­overall—not­as­a­bounded­set­of­discrete­units­to­be­ limited­and­monitored,­but­as­flexible­and­adapted­to­the­intensity­of­chil- dren’s­interests­and­play.­Such­a­shift­deemphasizes­media­effects­in­favor­of­ recognizing media as one mode (among many) that can foster opportunities for engagement and connection. Interrogating screen time as the core metric by­which­children’s­media­engagement­is­judged­offers­new­opportunities,­not­ only­to­recognize­media­as­a­way­to­foster­human­connection­during­this­time,­ but to reveal and unravel ways that time itself has prevented attention on chil- dren’s everyday lived experiences in the present. The Time Stretched before Us 263 From Futurity to Immediacy Although contemporary children’s media discourses are largely organized around­screen­time,­earlier­preoccupations­concerning­children’s­interactions­ with­commercial­media­have­principally­reflected­a­concern­with­time overall. The adoption of compulsory schooling and labor reform in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries subjected children’s time to new modes of standardization­and­rationalization,­charging­children’s­leisure­time­with­ heightened importance as a resource that can either be squandered or used productively­(Bak­2020,­42-49).­“Because­the­activities­of­daily­life­provide­the­ knowledge,­skills,­and­behaviors­children­acquire­as­they­develop,”­Wartella­ and­Robb­write,­“it­is­no­wonder­that­so­much­of­parental­concern­focuses­ on­how­children­spend­their­time”­(2008,­7-8).­This­emphasis­on­time­has­ long­been­present,­but­as­the­pandemic­has­shifted­the­percentage­of­daily­ activities­that­are­organized­in­and­around­the­home,­parental­concern­with­ children’s time (and the amount of children’s time to be accounted for) has taken­on­new­significance. The­stakes­of­how­leisure­time­is­spent­and­of­media­effects­are­perceived­to­ be­higher­for­children,­given­the­understanding­of­childhood—and­especially­ early childhood—as a crucial developmental period. This developmental paradigm has dominated perceptions of childhood since the early twentieth century,­a­perspective­emphasizing­children’s­socialization,­that­fuels­anxieties­ and­moral­panics­around­children’s­social­development­(Prout­and­James­1997,­ 10–14).­The­two­closely-linked­ideas,­that­children’s­time­is­precious­and­that­ children­are­particularly­impressionable,­form­the­conditions­within­which­ children’s media culture has been understood. The principle focus on chil- dren as subjects in-the-making (rather than as subjects in their own right) is inextricably­linked­to­classical­media­effects­theory­that­emphasizes­future­or­ long-term impacts over elements of everyday context. Communication theorist Neil Postman began his widely-cited The Disappearance of Childhood by characterizing children as “living messages we send­to­a­time­we­will­not­see”­(1982,­x).­Postman­argued­that­modern­elec- tronic­media­such­as­television­were­effectively­making­the­idea­of­childhood­ vanish,­creating­the­figures­of­the­“‘adultified’­child­and­the­‘childified’­adult”­ (126).­These­sentiments­reveal­a­preoccupation­with­futurity­uniquely­tied­ to­childhood.­At­the­heart­of­Postman’s­influential­argument­is­an­under- lying­perception­that­media­confounds­generational­differences­(and­the­ power­dynamics­attached­to­them).­The­perceived­adverse­effects­of­media­ that­result­in­a­“loss”­of­childlike­innocence­in­Postman’s­work­and­similar­ preceding­arguments,­such­as­Greenfield­(1973)­and­Meyrowitz­(1986),­thus­ also result in a loss of adult authority when children’s autonomy is recognized rather­than­marginalized­(Spigel­1998,­128). 264 Pandemic Media The­pandemic’s­reconfiguration­of­time­and­the­related­changes­in­adult­work­ patterns,­childcare,­and­education­requiring­more­children­to­spend­more­of­ their time in the home have newly emphasized a focus on necessary choices for­children’s­immediate­conditions­over­their­longer,­speculative­futurities.­­ As the authors of one parenting piece noted: “this pandemic could extend for­a­long­time,­so­as­you­create­new­routines,­focus­on­habits­that­are­sus- tainable­and­practical”­(Cheng­and­Wilkinson­2020).­The­pandemic’s­indefinite­ duration,­then,­throws­the­tidy,­linear­arc­commonly­associated­with­children’s­ growth and development—a direction associated with progress—into relief. The emphasis has shifted from the future to the present. The Magic of “Stretchy Time” The heightened necessity of screen-based media for both formal education and­children’s­leisure­time­during­the­pandemic­has­reconfigured­the­terms­ by­which­parents­and­caregivers­assess­the­costs­and­benefits­of­time­with­ screens.­Children’s­time,­like­that­of­adults,­has­been­wrested­from­its­order,­ and is now subject to new interpretations and valuations. Even before the pandemic,­screen­time­as­the­dominant­analytic­wrought­“conceptual­and­ methodological­mayhem”­(Kaye­et­al.­2020).­Among­the­concept’s­central­ problems is the tidy distinction between screen and non-screen time drawn in order to enable a range of judgments. The perception that screen time constitutes discrete and bounded units of time­has­been­increasingly­problematized,­especially­given­the­popularization­ of­connected­technologies­that­datify­and­screenify­other­everyday­practices,­ such­as­smart­toys­and­wearables­(Mascheroni­2018).­Digital­media­and­ technologies,­write­Sonia­Livingstone­and­Alicia­Blum-Ross,­are­“part­of­the­ infrastructure­of­everyday­life,­rendering­time-based,­context-free­efforts­ to­limit­screen­time­ineffective,­with­the­costs­greater­than­the­benefits”­ (2020,­46).­The­idea­that­screen­time­was­an­increasingly­irrelevant­analytic­ was­already­gaining­traction­before­the­year­2020.­In­short,­Anya­Kamenetz­ writes,­“‘time’­is­an­increasingly­useless­shorthand­for­thinking­about­digital­ devices”­(Kamenetz­2020).­Once­an­evangelist­for­measuring­and­restricting­ screen­time,­the­pandemic­prompted­Kamenetz­to­reevaluate­the­validity­of­ such­a­position,­and­to­consider­contextual­factors­such­as­home­and­social­ environment­alongside­screen­time.­Like­Kamenetz,­the­COVID-19­pandemic­ forced countless caregivers worldwide to evaluate screen time debates in new relation­to­changes­in­educational­and­leisure­practices,­as­a­means­of­remote­ instruction and to occupy especially young children while adults in the house- hold work remotely. During­the­pandemic,­the­divisions­that­give­shape­to­familiar­points­of­ temporal­reference—the­workday,­the­weekend,­the­academic­term­or­ The Time Stretched before Us 265 year—have­dissolved,­giving­way­to­a­kind­of­temporality­we­might­call­“pan- demic­time.”­Time­spent­engaged­with­media­is­swept­up­into­this­formu- lation,­as­writer­David­Zweig­lamented,­that­during­the­pandemic­“screen­time­ essentially­became­time­itself”­for­his­children­(Zweig­2020).­Hazy,­indeter- minate,­elastic—pandemic­time­challenges­the­security­associated­with­ imagining­children­within­a­clear,­future-oriented­trajectory,­demanding­con- sideration of what is best or necessary for a child now. This­imagination­of­time­as­more­fluid,­less­fixed,­aligns­with­some­models­of­ early­childhood­education­that­favor­more­flexible­approaches­to­structuring­ children’s­time:­so-called­“stretchy­time.”­In­contrast­to­traditional,­regimented­ schedules,­when­“stretchy­time”­is­implemented­“the­rhythm­of­learning­[is]­ governed­by­engagement­rather­than­the­clock”­(Cremin,­Burnard,­and­Craft­ 2006,­115).­Stretchy­time­“prioritise[s]­intensity­over­duration,”­often­asking­ educators to be more closely engaged in children’s endeavors (Sakr and Oscar 2020,­2-3).­ Stretchy time is conceptually antithetical to the temporal framework that makes­“screen­time”­an­actionable­practice.­Whereas­the­implementation­ of­stretchy­time­enables­an­activity­to­expand­“‘magically’”­in­response­to­ children’s­ongoing­engagement,­screen­time­is­framed­by­restrictions.­In­ other­words,­while­children’s­traditional­play­practices­are­governed­by­ideals­ such­as­flexibility,­“children’s­digital­play­experiences­are­shaped­by­a­pop- ular­discourse­that­children’s­digital­engagement—their­‘screen­time’—needs­ to­be­limited,”­resulting­in­“two­opposing­approaches­to­time”­(Sakr­and­ Oscar­2020,­1).­Conceptualizations­of­“stretchy­time”­within­early­childhood­ discourses retain a valence of urgency associated with the developmental paradigm,­by,­for­instance,­tying­the­benefits­of­stretchy­time­to­particular­ outcomes­such­as­enhanced­creative­thinking.­However,­the­breakdown­of­ traditional,­rationalized­children’s­schedules­is­nevertheless­an­occasion­to­ prioritize­the­qualities­of­elasticity­and­play­associated­with­stretchiness,­ thereby reimagining the child as media spectator. Considering­time­as­elastic,­capable­of­expanding­when­engagement­is­intense­ or­meaningful,­challenges­the­rigidity­of­screen­time­and­the­associated­judg- ments­that­screen-based­engagement­is­of­lower­quality­to­“real”­social­or­ physical­interaction.­In­an­unprecedented­historical­moment­when­school,­ work,­and­leisure­activities­move­through­and­across­screens­more­than­ever,­ reconsidering screen time invites a conception of children who use media as­and­alongside­other­resources­to­connect,­inquire,­explore,­and­create.­ Eroding­the­distinctions­that­render­“screen­time”­discrete­from­other­forms­of­ time­also­puts­screen-based­media­back­into­closer­relations­with­“traditional”­ media such as books. Media scholar Dean W. Duncan echoes the possibilities associated­with­such­an­orientation,­arguing­that:­“It­needn’t­always­be­a­ matter­of­better­and­worse,­still­less­of­right­and­wrong;­the­differences­ 266 Pandemic Media between page and screen are not as important as the very substantial concep- tual­continuities­that­bridge­both­technological­and­temporal­gaps”­(Duncan­ 2015,­3).­To­reassess­screen­time­is­to­recast­the­child­media­spectator­as­a­ dynamic,­adaptable,­responsible,­and­resilient­figure,­whose­participation­with­ media drives action and imagination. Stretchy time also invites heightened engagement­from­adult­caregivers,­who­may­observe­and­facilitate­rather­ than simply set a timer. Beyond Effects: A New Paradigm for Children’s Media The pernicious logics of media industries have remained intact in the months of­COVID-19’s­initial­waves.­To­challenge­“screen­time”­as­a­limiting­frame- work­is­not­to­acquiesce­to­the­endless­flow­of­streaming­video­on­autoplay­(a­ feature­that­automatically­plays­another­video­when­the­first­is­finished)­or­to­ get stuck in the ruts of algorithmically-generated recommendations. Recent commentators such as James Bridle have written persuasively of the ways that streaming video on platforms such as YouTube Kids almost seamlessly slides from­desired­content­to­bizarre,­disturbing,­and­inappropriate­content.­Many­ such videos ascend the rankings through nonsensical strings of keywords and hashtags­(“word­salad”)­and­are,­themselves,­algorithmically­created,­exem- plifying “a kind of violence inherent in the combination of digital systems and capitalist­incentives”­(Bridle­2020). Yet there is considerable middle ground between­strictly­and­artificially-limited­screen­time­and­an­endless­flow­of­ unmonitored imagery. The­long-term­effects­of­the­pandemic­on­today’s­children­are­not­yet­ knowable.­However,­as­this­essay­has­argued,­the­pervasive­focus­on­effects should itself be interrogated. The temporal reorientation wrought by the pandemic­has­not­only­amplified­the­already­mounting­critique­of­screen­ time,­but­has­also­critically­foregrounded­the­contours­of­the­digital­divide­ more prominently related to the issue. As work like Jacqueline Ryan Vickery’s Worried about the Wrong Things (2017)­has­pointed­out,­the­risks­associated­ with young people and new media (secondary school-aged youth in Vickery’s study) have more to do with equitable access than with the specters of risk­on­which­traditional­effects-based­studies­focus.­Popular­commentary­ examining debates in children’s media now acknowledges that parents who can­devote­significant­attention­and­resources­to­monitoring­screen­time­pos- sess­a­“fat­honking­wad­of­privilege”­(Kamenetz­2020)­or­regard­screen-based­ engagement­in­relation­to­highly­racially­and­socio-economically­stratified­ practices­such­as­private­school­“pods”­(Zweig­2020).­ Caregivers and educators have long contended with incommensurate con- ceptions of children’s time—time as a precious resource and as empty space The Time Stretched before Us 267 needing­to­be­filled.­Yet­the­implementation­of­lockdowns,­quarantines,­and­ social distancing practices have reshaped the discussion. The radical disrup- tions to all facets of everyday life give new occasion to suspend worry or guilt over­children­keeping­up,­or­falling­behind,­or­achieving­an­arbitrary­bal- ance among leisure and educational activities. The “paradoxical freedom of choicelessness”­that­McTague­(2020)­describes­in­the­pandemic’s­wake­need­ not mean that we accept the heightened role of media in children’s lives as a necessary­evil.­Rather,­it­initiates­a­more­fundamental­reconfiguration­of­chil- dren’s­temporal­rhythms­and­the­value­judgments­attached­to­them,­providing­ a­chance­to­acknowledge­time’s­affective­value­and­media’s­role­in­shaping­it. References Bak,­Meredith­A.­2020.­Playful Visions: Optical Toys and the Emergence of Children’s Media Culture. Cambridge,­MA:­MIT­Press. 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MICHEL CHION MARA MILLS TELEPHONE MICROPHONE ONLINE INSTRUCTION(S) THE ACOUSMÊTRE [ 2 7 ] Mute Sound John Mowitt These remarks take up the theme of pandemic media by considering online instructional platforms such as Zoom, MS Teams, and the like to examine, as it were, both sides of the coin: the role such media play during the coronavirus pandemic, but also the role the pandemic plays in giving sense to our relation to such media. Specifically, in thinking about the place of sound on such platforms, the iconography of micro- phones both muted and unmuted, this contribution examines how Mara Mills’s concept of “telephonic hearing” is given fresh relevance in online instruc- tion, both in deepening the divide between sound and voice, and by reactivating Michel Chion’s concept of the “acousmêtre.” Recast as what sounds in mute sound, the “acousmêtre” at our finger tips prompts consideration of an instructive pandemonium cours- ing through and as the pandemic. 272 Pandemic Media [Figure­1]­In­Line­Instruction­(Source:­u/Balcion:­https://www.reddit.com/r/OldSchoolCool/ comments/6x9ivi/my_dad_in_a_creepily_perfect_classroom_photo_1956/­2017)­ The­motto­is­designed­to­provoke­a­certain­obstinacy­(fig.­1).­Specifically,­the­ normal,­whether­old­or­new,­is­almost­certainly­overrated.­It­is­only­a­preposi- tion away from the pathology to which it has been opposed. Now more than ever. Although­unlikely­to­leap­out,­pandemic­(an­epidemic­that­has­affected­the­ global demoz) has deep connotative links to both panic and pandemonium. Hysteria,­as­both­cause­and­effect,­of­a­pandemic­makes­this­hard­to­miss.­ At­the­hub­of­these­connotative­spokes­sits­Pan­and­his­pipes.­Pan­spooks,­ he­stirs­up­animals,­provoking­them­to­respond­to­his­piping­with­noise.­This­ quintessential­figure­of­what­Michel­Foucault­would­call­“pastoral­power”­not­ only­splices­sound­to­such­power,­but­splices­sound­to­the­pandemic.­Where­I­ live,­in­Northern­England,­the­lockdown­has­changed­the­“soundscape”­much­ in­the­same­way­that­deep­snow­does.­As­with­the­birds­recorded­“singing”­ after­the­cessation­of­hostilities­on­11­November­1918,­an­intensely­“low-fi”­ ambience­was­abruptly­displaced­by­the­lockdown,­as­if­sonic­modernity­had­ been­literally­thrown­into­reverse.­Nothing­has­been­more­affected­than­musi- cal­sound,­which­is­now­aggressively­rerouted­through­home­studios­( Joan­ Baez’s­kitchen,­or­Ryuichi­Sakamoto’s­New­York­flat,­for­example),­balconies­ and instruments (one thinks here of the panelaço­in­Rio,­or­Charlie­Watts’s­“air­ drums”).­But­I­want­to­listen­for­something­else.­I­have­called­it­“mute­sound.” Terry Eagleton’s humour is not to everyone’s liking. Perhaps not even to him. A­personal­favourite­is­the­Cavellian­riff­he­once­elaborated­on­the­sentence:­ Mute Sound 273 “dogs­must­be­carried­on­the­escalator.”­He­seizes­immediately­on­the­impera- tive ambiguity of the descriptive—if you have a dog it must be carried while you ride the escalator—versus the prescriptive—if you wish to ride the escala- tor­you­must­do­so­while­carrying­a­dog—“versions”­of­the­same­sentence.­His­ point­is­oriented­toward­answering­the­question,­“what­is­literature?”­Mine­is­ different.­ As those of us involved in that aspect of academic labour called teaching move this and other activities online we come face to face with the screen and the various apps (software platforms) that organize our relation to it. It is here that­I­encounter­“mute­sound,”­an­imperative­rife­with­many­of­the­same­ ambiguities­Eagleton­teased­out­of­“dogs­must­be­carried­on­the­escalator.”­ Instructions for use thus seem called for. Especially in the context of “meet- ings”­involving­numerous­participants,­one­is­typically­advised­to­“mute­ sound”­so­as­to­minimize­interference­on­the­line.­At­issue­are­not­voices,­but­ the­random­ambient­noises­that­sonically­profile­them.­Too­much­of­the­latter­ is­thought­to­render­the­former­unintelligible.­On­the­screen,­before­our­eyes,­ the icon provided for this functionality is that of a microphone that when muted is placed sous rature,­that­is,­it­is­struck­through­with­the­“universal”­ mark of prohibition. In this it resembles the hardware graphics of the com- puter’s­volume­control­(significantly­a­loudspeaker)­that­is­also­struck­through­ when fully muted. As with the Heideggerian “kreuzweise Durchstreichung,”­we­ can­see­the­sign­of­sound­(both­voice­and­noise)­transmission,­and­we­can­see­ that­it­is­struck­through.­Off.­Interestingly,­we­“hear”­that­it­is­muted­typically­ when­someone­says­“unmute­your­mic,”­as­the­digital­technology­does­not­ permit us to hear the absence of our ambient noise in the shared feed. Lips moving­and­voices­speaking­line­up,­but­ambiguities­begin­to­crackle.­Not­all­of­ them electromagnetic. The­microphone,­as­Pauline­Oliveros­would­insist,­is­a­promiscuous­trans- ducer.­It­picks­up­everything­and­everyone,­converting­all­into­electronic­ signals.­By­design.­Muting­it­online­draws­attention­to­a­difference­between­ the­voice­and­noise,­reminding­us­that­the­desired­sound,­the­one­meant­to­be­ facilitated­by­the­microphone,­is­the­voice.­The­undesirable­sound,­the­noise,­ is­the­space,­the­room­of­the­voice.­What­then­is­the­icon­of­the­microphone­ an­icon­of?­A­device­or­an­effect?­A­difference­or­an­indifference?­Mute­sound?­ Is­it­simply­an­instruction­uttered­in­the­imperative,­necessitated­by­the­aim­ of facilitating an exchange with which it interferes? Is sound something that a microphone properly metonymizes? Sound in what sense? At issue here is­something­Mara­Mills­and­Avital­Ronell,­in­their­radically­distinctive­ways,­ invite us to think about: is there a break in the line? Are we present before an emerging,­thus­new­normal,­mutation­in­telephonic­hearing? This­question­has­been­taken­up­most­emphatically­in­Mills’s­essay,­“Hearing­ Things:­Telephones­and­Auditory­Theory,”­where­she­graphs­the­rise­and­fall­ 274 Pandemic Media of­telephonic­hearing.­Like­Friedrich­Kittler,­she­splices­hearing­and­the­tel- ephone­through­the­notion­of­the­prosthetic­supplement­(Edison’s­deafness),­ noting­that­the­apparatus­effectively­usurped­the­perceptual­faculty­by­urging­ that­we,­and­the­acoustic­engineers­among­us,­think­about­human­hearing­ on the model of telephonic communication and its privileging of intelligibility (picking­out­phonemes)­over­fidelity­(picking­up­details­of­the­soundscape).­ Implicit­in­this­model­is­a­notion­of­transductive­analogy,­that­is,­the­idea­that­ like­a­telephone­that­moves­an­information­rich­signal­from­point­a­to­point­b,­ hearing itself involves an analogical alignment between sound wave frequen- cies and otio-electrical currents triggered in the brain. The expression: “I hear what­you­are­saying,”­is­a­miniaturization­of­the­entire­model.­Successive­ audiological descriptions of the functioning of the human ear and attention to­the­auto-poetic­capacity­of­transduction­to­create­what­it­carried,­eventu- ally cut the line between telephone technology and hearing. Microphone and­receiver,­and­even­loudspeaker­(“speaker­phone”)­lost­their­loop­and­the­ telephone faded as an audiological model. Mute­sound.­To­the­extent­that,­in­the­context­of­online­congregations­it­visu- alizes­a­segregated­distribution­of­sound­shaped­by­the­difference­between­ voice­and­noise,­it­oddly­works­to­restore­telephonic­hearing.­Fidelity­has­ returned­to­the­fore,­a­fact­acknowledged­in­the­“rate­this­call”­survey­that­ now concludes virtually every online exchange. It is as though all oral/aural communication has become postcoital: how was it for you? The question is its own­answer.­There­is­here,­however,­more­than­a­simple­and­direct­restoration­ of telephonic hearing. Hang ups are suggestively catachrestic. A model has morphed. To­amplify­this­one­does­well­to­note­that­the­telephone­figures­prominently­ in­Michel­Chion’s­thinking­about­his­analytical­neologism,­the­“acousmêtre,”­ a portmanteau (acoustique + être + maître) he employs to track the distinctly sonic curve of narrative suspense in the cinema. Like one’s telephonic inter- locutor,­the­“acousmêtre”­is­absent­from­the­visual­field.­But­unlike­the­party­ to­whom­one­is­speaking,­the­cinematic­“acousmêtre”­always­threatens­to­ appear­and­thus­has­a­determined­hermeneutic­force,­precisely­in­rendering­ its­“de-acousmatization”­(to­use­Chion’s­mot d’art) narratively consequential. William­Castle’s­1965­film,­I Saw What You Did deftly twists the strands that wire­together­the­apparatus­of­the­telephone,­and­the­menacing­figure­of­the­ “acousmêtre,”­in­this­case­an­uxoricide.­Crucial­to­the­hermeneutic­force­of­the­ “acousmêtre”­is­the­oft-remarked­fact­that­a­film­aggressively­subjects­its­audi- ence­to­the­syntax­of­its­sights­and­sounds.­The­“owner”­of­Mrs.­Bates’s­voice­ in Psycho­(her­skull­is­now­at­the­Cinémathèque­in­Paris),­de-acousmatizes­on­ the­film’s­time,­decidedly­not­ours.­Its­appearance­shocks­and­means.­This­ effect,­and­its­significance­would­appear­to­interfere­with­a­pandemical­resto- ration of telephonic hearing. Mute Sound 275 Although­often­indexed­to­technical­matters­having­to­do­with­signal­strength,­ bandwidth,­server­stability­etc.,­it­is­common­that­with­online­interfacing­one­ engages­in­a­rhythm­of­acousmatization­and­de-acousmatization;­one­mutes­ one’s­microphone,­and­blinds­(?)­one’s­camera.­If­you­continue­speaking­with­ the­camera­blinded­one­assumes­the­position­of­the­“acousmêtre”­and­online­ teleconferencing­mimics­telephony­directly.­However,­the­etiquette­in­play— ”could­you­mute­your­sound/un-blind­your­camera”­(an­insistently­“oral”­thus­ acoustic­gesturing,­unless­the­supplement­of­“signing”­is­in­play)—deprives­ the­“acoustmêtre”­of­its­hermeneutic­force.­Its­mastery­of­Bertolt­Brecht’s­long­ sought­“two-way”­communication­here­operates­to­drain­all­drama­from­the­ event­of­de-acousmatization,­producing­the­distinctively­exhausting­tedium­of­ online interfacing whether teaching or meeting. The moment of disclosure is just­a­click­away­and­the­syntax­of­sight­and­sound­(the­“film”)­falls­willy-nilly­ into our hands. Or­does­it?­In­Mills’s­discussion­of­the­crisis­of­telephonic­hearing,­she­points­ to the gradual but irreversible separation between the psychoacoustic account­of­hearing,­and­the­model­of­telephonic­transduction.­She­spends­less­ time on the matter of what happens to telephony as a result of this separa- tion,­a­history­that­would­include­the­emergence­of­online­teleconferencing.­ Although­she­does­not­italicize­it,­the­fate­of­transduction­figures­crucially­ in­such­a­history.­It­too­is­caught­up­in­the­fade­of­the­telephonic­model,­ not­merely­as­an­aspect­of­the­model,­but­as­a­concept­subject­to­technical­ modelling.­Not­surprisingly,­transduction­has­attracted­the­attention­of­many,­ everyone from Gilbert Simondon and Gilles Deleuze to Adrian MacKenzie and Jonathan­Sterne.­And,­if­this­matters­it­is­because­the­puzzle­of­transduction­ breathes­new­life­into­the­figure­of­the­“acousmêtre.”­It­does­so­by­evoking­ and thus generating a matrix behind or beneath the etiquette of the muting/ blinding­where­de-acousmatization­reacquires­hermeneutic­force,­not­in­the­ syntax­of­narrative­(whose­voice­organizes­the­plot?),­but­in­the­operation­of­ the medium (how is the signal possible?) To­get­at­this,­another­sense­of­“mute­sound”­asks­to­be­heard.­Instead­of­ hearing­it­as­an­instruction,­hear­it­as­a­description.­Sound­that­is mute. Not­sound­that­is­muted­or­muffled,­but­sound­that­cannot­be­voiced.­Or­ better,­sound­that­is­not­phonic,­but­sonic.­In­his­tenacious­reading­of­Pas- cal­Quignard’s­“treatise”­on­language,­Jean-Francois­Lyotard­elaborates­a­ contrast between music and “la mutique,”­in­order­to­bring­forward­a­music­ that­falls­before,­yet­sounds­(Quignard­says­“bellows”)­within­music.­In­this­ spirit might we not invoke mute sound as a way to bring forward a sound before­sound?­Again,­not­merely­non-vocal­sound,­but­sound­prior­to­a­model­ of hearing modelled on telephony. The commotion produced by the tree falling­un-miked­in­the­forest.­From­behind­its­“strike­through,”­the­muted­ microphone transduces an appearance that simultaneously promises and 276 Pandemic Media defies­de-acousmatization.­What­(certainly­not­“who”)­makes­the­sound­ before sound? Can it be picked up by the camera? Such questions and others parasitize the online interface and they transfer to the digital medium of the computer­all­the­hermeneutic­force­of­de-acousmatization,­but­now­realized­ through­a­potential­gesture­of­disclosure­that­defies­location­in­space­and­ time. At the Greek root of mute lies mouh.­It­means­to­close­one’s­eyes­or­lips,­and­ in­thus­connoting­secrecy­(“mum’s­the­word”)­quickly­suggests­initiation­and­ mystery. As muting and unmuting belong to apps enabling and even now sus- taining­online­instruction,­their­use­places­education­back­where­it­belongs.­In­ the­(dis)seminary.­Serendipitously,­the­OED­tells­us­that­in­biology,­transduc- tion­designates­the­work­of­a­virus,­the­transfer­of­foreign­genetic­material­ into an organism. Perhaps it is this that post-telephonic transduction threat- ens­to­de-acousmatize,­not­the­pocked­face­of­the­virus­stirring­the­current­ pandemic,­but­the­operation­of­the­pandemic­within our techno-pedagogical response­to­it.­Or­maybe­even­the­pandemical­character­of­all­initiation,­the­ collective drive to expose all to the mute sound. A­reminder,­however­immodest,­that­we­may­not­yet­grasp­the­crisis­of­well- being at hand. We cannot simply respond to it. It is in the operation of this response. Just pick up the phone. Take or make the call. Raise your hand. Unmute sound. I would like to acknowledge everyone affiliated with the Konfigurationen des Films research group at J.W. Goethe Universität and thank them warmly for their hospitality and the generous invitation to patch into their circuit. Bibliography Chion,­Michel.­1999.­Voice in the Cinema. New York: Columbia University Press. Lyotard,­Jean-François.­1997­[1993].­“Music,­Mutic.”­In­Postmodern Fables. Translated by Georges Van Den Abbeele. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Mara­Mills.­2007.­“Hearing­Things:­Telephones­and­Auditory­Theory.”­In­Variantology 2: On Deep Time Relations of Arts, Sciences and Technologies,­edited­by­Siegfried­Zielinski­and­David­Link,­ 229–56.­Cologne:­Verlag Walther König. INFRASTRUCTURE MEMBERSHIP GROUPS ONLINE TEACHING BLUFF FORGETTING [ 2 8 ] Face Off Kerim Dogruel The article asks how the shift to online classes during the COVID-19 pandemic is perceived differently by different status groups. Press articles wondered why students didn’t show their faces in class. The article explores possible reasons and tries to shift the dis- cussion away from blaming the students and suggests that instead of focusing on generational differences, the situation is better understood with analytical tools from social and media theory, which give special attention to the institutional framework of the university. When­German­universities­shifted­to­online­classes­because­of­the­COVID-19­ pandemic­in­April­2020,­an­advanced­student­described­her­experience­of­ the­situation­as­if­she­were­in­the­first­semester­all­over­again.­Discussing­the­ situation­with­other­students­and­colleagues­from­different­status­groups­ (ranging­from­Bachelor­and­Master­students­to­doctoral­students,­post-docs,­ and­professors),­several­stated­the­opposite:­that­everything­basically­stays­ the same while everyone does the responsible and a little boring thing of staying home. I like to think that both are true. But why does the perception of­the­same­situation­differ­so­greatly?­And­what­does­the­university­as­an­ 280 Pandemic Media institution have to do with it? The student’s analogy of being demoted back to­the­first­semester­seems­to­be­key,­since­it­describes­the­critical­moment­ of transitioning into a new learning and working environment. This transition becomes warped during e-learning. This is even more so when the infamous German phenomenon of Uni-Bluff—an extracurricular yet crucial behavior that is necessary to successfully navigate university—takes on new forms in the online learning environment.1 Instead of asking into the intrinsic motivations of­the­different­groups,­I­want­to­shift­the­attention­to­the­infrastructures­of­ digital learning themselves and how they “emerge out of and store within them­forms­of­desire­and­fantasy”­(Larkin­2013)­that­effect­the­different­groups­ in­different­ways. The student described her membership status at university that was somehow lost through the pandemic and now had to be regained again. For the­other­group,­their­membership­status­was­never­in­jeopardy.­To­better­ understand­the­different­variables­of­the­situation,­the­theoretical­framework­ of­Star,­Bowker,­and­Neumann­provides­the­tools­to­make­sense­of­the­two­dif- ferent perceptions. Both groups are part of the same community of practice: A community of practice­is­a­group­of­people­joined­by­conventions,­ language,­practices,­and­technologies­….­It­may­or­may­not­be­contained­ in­a­single­spatial­territory;­in­the­modern­information­world,­it­often­is­ not. It contains strong ties that are not covered by the terms family,­formal organization,­or­voluntary association.­(Star,­Bowker,­and­Neumann­2003,­ 243) While some of the most important social interactions at university take place in­classrooms,­the­communal­learning­experience­shifted­because­of­the­pan- demic.­The­social­interactions­from­the­classroom­and­everything­in­between,­ from­hallways,­to­libraries,­cafeterias,­blackboards,­and­restrooms,­collapsed­ and could only partially be replaced or addressed through online infra- structures,­if­they­were­addressed­at­all.­Goethe­University­Frankfurt­bought­ bulk­licenses­of­videoconferencing­software,­additionally­the­already­existing­ infrastructures for e-learning were strengthened and expanded. Zoom was quickly established as the software of choice for most teaching purposes. The videoconference software was added to the other information artifacts,­as­one­ of­many­“tools,­systems,­interfaces,­and­devices­for­storing,­tracking,­dis- playing,­and­retrieving­information”­(Star,­Bowker,­and­Neumann­2003,­244).­ Communities of practice and information artifacts depend on each other. When 1­ Wagner­has­described­the­bluff­in­his­book­Uni-Angst und Uni-Bluff,­which­was­pub- lished­in­three­very­different­editions­in­1977,­1992,­and­2007.­Only­in­his­latest­edition­ does­Wagner­accept­the­bluff­as­a­necessity.­Thomas­Waitz­provides­an­analysis­of­the­ changes­between­the­editions­throughout­the­years­(see­Waitz­2019).­For­this­text,­I ’ll­ primarily use the latest edition of the book. English lanugage quotes from Wagner are my translation. Face Off 281 they converge and the community standard becomes more and more trans- parent­to­the­individual,­membership­is­achieved.­Yet­membership­is­not­a­ rigid­category,­but­rather­a­trajectory­that­shapes­the­individual­in­the­process.­ An important part of that process is the transformation of self-imagination: “the shaping of individuals so that they see themselves as having the set of information needs that can be met by their new social world’s information resources”­(Star,­Bowker,­and­Neumann­2003,­245).­You­can­see­yourself­as­ part of that world when you have a clear idea of what your place in it could be. Students that didn’t have any trouble adjusting to the new learning environ- ment could literally see themselves within the university framework. Since my own transition from being a student to becoming a teacher wasn’t that­long­ago,­I­was­wary­of­the­side-effects­and­outside­perceptions­of­me­as­ a­teacher.­All­the­menial­tasks­that­come­with­getting­started­at­an­institute,­ ranging­from­uploading­photos­for­the­institute-website,­signing­forms­to­get­ access­to­an­institutional­email-address,­setting­up­institute­email­signatures,­ validating­your­university­employee­ID,­setting­up­keys­to­get­access­to­offices­ and­classrooms,­slipping­in­and­out­of­these­spaces,­using­the­already­familiar­ learning management system with an enhanced and more powerful inter- face,­made­me­wary­of­the­transition­myself.­But­they­also­signaled­to­the­ outside that I now had become part of the institution. I already had teaching experience­from­outside­university,­but­the­change­in­status­that­came­with­ it­was­very­different­from­other­learning­environments,­mostly­because­it’s­ an institution that can itself grant status—regardless of whether I liked that or not.2­Even­though­I­had­taught­university­seminars­prior­to­the­COVID-19­ pandemic,­I­had­not­done­it­often­enough­for­it­to­have­become­a­habit­yet.­ To­continue­working­“as­always”­is­impossible­if­“always”­is­a­time-span­of­two­ years. After­the­first­few­classes­during­the­pandemic,­I­had­the­same­conversation­ with­different­colleagues­individually­who­had­decided­to­structure­their­ classes­through­weekly­videoconferences.­They­were­confused,­surprised,­or­ even­slightly­offended­by­students­who­didn’t­turn­on­their­cameras­in­class.3 Empty squares caused insecurities. The gridded structure of the videocon- ference­homogenizes,­each­square­is­equally­visible,­regardless­of­what­it­ contains­(see­Higgins­2009,­9).­At­the­same­time­the­grid­signals­the­inherent­ power­imbalance­between­teacher­and­student,­host­and­guest,­much­more­ than a classroom could—the grid is a visual testament to the power of the person­that­has­control­over­it­(see­Siegert­2003,­95).­Paradoxically,­the­ 2­ The­main­takeaway­of­Wagner’s­2007­edition­of­the­book­is­that­the­increase­in­status­ (both­morally­and­financially)­is­a­real­and­valid­reason­for­many­students­to­attend­uni- versity,­therefore­the­necessity­to­master­the­bluff­without­succumbing­to­it­(see­Wagner­ 2007,­31–36). 3­ Besides­the­obvious­technological­reasons­of­not­having­the­necessary­hardware­avail- able or not having a stable connection. 282 Pandemic Media invisible students become more visible through this equal treatment of every rectangle. And the whole time all I could focus on was the sea of blank avatars— rather than actual faces—staring back at me. Why did it matter? Why had students­decided­to­turn­off­their­camera?­To­be­honest,­I­took­it­a­bit­ personally.­(Eng­2020)4 I don’t want to guess about the individual agreements that were and are being made­in­class­in­the­first­few­meetings.­Likewise­I’m­not­trying­to­explain­ every possible reason for students not to show their faces on camera. What interests me are the reasons that might lie in the existing and newly facilitated infrastructures of the university itself. Setting up rules for class is important and­shapes­the­direction­for­what­will­happen­for­the­rest­of­the­semester,­ how to work and how to play together. But already before individual rules can be­established,­students­enter­the­classroom­with­their­own­expectations,­ fears,­and­desires. It’s­a­crucial­moment,­which­is­particularly­strong­in­the­first­session­of­a­ semester,­and­even­stronger­with­freshmen­students.­Wolf­Wagner­explores­ the­special­connection­between­the­face­and­the­status­of­first­semester­ students­at­German­universities­in­what­he­calls­the­fear­of­the­“smart­face”:­ “A­face­that­doesn’t­show­its­fear,­but­covers­it­up­by­an­emphasized­natural,­ relaxed­and­confident­demeanor”5­(Wagner­2007,­66).­Wagner­describes­the­ fine­details­and­micro­gestures­of­students­when­they­enter­a­classroom­full­ of other people they don’t know. It’s an anatomy of the process of projection in which the individual student’s fear of failure manifests itself in the faces of­the­other­students,­who­therefore­appear­as­carriers­of­all­“objectified­ requirements­of­the­university­system”­(Wagner­2007,­66).­The­“smart­face”­ becomes­operationalized­and­is­appropriated­as­a­bluffing­behavior­that­ serves the purpose of navigating the very same system. It’s not only a ques- tion­of­pose­or­appearance,­but­a­bluff­that­consists­of­a­wide­variety­of­dif- ferent­expressions,­especially­in­writing­and­speech. Just like when an uncertain hand in poker should appear better than it really­is,­the­scholar­makes­him­or­herself­appear­a­little­better,­smarter,­ more­well-read,­more­knowledgeable,­and­more­profound­than­he­or­she­ 4 Also: “Why won’t the students show themselves? Hoppe can only guess: … She also sus- pects­that­sometimes­there­is­actually­no­one­sitting­behind­the­black­screens”­(Wiarda­ 2020,­35–36,­my­translation);­“Even­though­they­have­been­socialized­with­digital­media,­ students­turn­off­their­cameras­in­videoconference­seminars.­Why?”­(Kirchmeier­2020,­ my translation). 5­ Wagner­reasons­that—while­there­is­arrogance­in­other­university­systems­(he­dis- cusses­the­USA­and­England­in­more­detail)—the­bluff­is­particular­to­German­univer- sities because of their devaluation of teaching in academic performance reviews. He characterizes it as a university system than overvalues research reputation while almost completely­neglecting­teaching­performance­(see­Wagner­2007,­92–96). Face Off 283 really­is.­It­happens­out­of­reflex­that­has­been­rehearsed­more­than­a­ thousand­times­….­(Wagner­2007,­55) While­these­types­of­bluffing­appear­in­a­similar­form­in­everyday­life,­they­ become more nuanced and integral in the university context. Almost every- thing­in­the­academy­has­to­do­with­communication,­yet­the­bluff­actively­ impairs­it.­Since­freshmen­have­fewer­cards­to­draw­from,­their­bluffing­is­ more­severe,­and­riskier­to­pull­off.­But­learning­to­bluff,­how­and­when­to­put­ on­a­“smart­face,”­is­also­an­expression­of­attained­university­membership­ within the German context. It ’s a tacit knowledge that has nothing to do with the­content­of­your­studies.­Brave­students­that­have­less­trouble­bluffing­ learned­“behavior­instead­of­content”­(Wagner­2007,­67),­behavior­that­is­ part of an invisible curriculum. “The result is mutual isolation that appears as arrogance”­(Wagner­1973,­61). The­gridded­videoconference­classrooms­ask­for­a­different­mode­of­ perception and participation in which every articulation is mediated.6 In an all- digital­learning­environment,­everything­seems­to­be­readily­available­at­one’s­ fingertips.­But­infrastructures­are­paradoxical­(see­Star­1999,­386–87),­and­a­ seemingly straightforward task can turn into an array of little steps that are scattered­in­different­digital­places­and­need­their­own­approach­that­ranges­ from­separate­log-ins­to­dedicated­streaming­websites,­following­extra­links­ that­accommodate­an­unusually­large­file,­organizing­the­digital­literature­and­ material,­writing­emails­and­texts­to­stay­in­touch­with­the­teachers,­with­other­ students,­etc.­The­visible­articulation­is­only­possible­because­of­a­second­ invisible layer. The­other­is­the­process­of­assemblage,­the­delicate,­complex­weaving­ together­of­desktop­resources,­organizational­routines,­running­memory­ of­complicated­task­queues­…,­and­all­manner­of­articulation­work­per- formed­invisibly­by­the­user.­(Star­1999,­386–87) These­invisible­tasks­not­only­surround­the­online­classes,­they­are­part­ of­them­as­well­and­are­put­into­practice­through­countless­clicks:­muting,­ unmuting,­screen-sharing,­switching­between­the­grid-view­and­the­speaker’s­ view,­setting­up­smaller­groups­for­discussion,­opening­and­closing­the­chat­ window,­switching­between­pdfs­and­the­window­of­the­videoconference.­ Click,­click,­click,­click,­click. At­a­phenomenological­level,­what­has­happened­is­that­these­slight­ impediments­have­become­magnified­in­the­flow­of­the­work­process.­An­ 6­ “In­order­to­exist,­their­organic­bodies­are­hidden­behind­an­indefinite­series­of­semio- technical­mediations,­an­array­of­cybernetic­prostheses­that­work­like­digital­masks:­ email­addresses,­Facebook,­Instagram,­Zoom,­and­Skype­accounts.­They­are­not­physical­ agents­but­rather­tele-producers­…­”­(Preciado­2020). 284 Pandemic Media extra­keyboard­stroke­might­as­well­be­an­extra­10­pushups.­(Star­1999,­ 386) The impediments that cannot be pictured form an additional barrier to the not-so-brave student. Membership in the digital learning environment becomes­even­harder­to­attain­for­some­students,­therefore­the­feeling­of­ being­in­the­first­semester­all­over­again.­It­might­not­be­enough­to­make­ sense­of­every­student­that­decides­not­to­show­their­face­in­an­online­class,­ but it further complicates the possible motivations or rather demotivations brought by the shift to online teaching. To characterize the situation as a symptom­of­the­overall­alienation­of­a­generation­(see­Kirchmeier­2020)­is­ misguided,­since­it­blanks­out­the­different­membership­statuses­of­all­the­ people involved and overvalues the importance of the classroom in contrast to­the­rest­of­campus­life.­The­difference­in­perception­is­also­caused­by­the­ forgetting7: For­the­mature­researcher,­it­is­easy­to­forget­the­barriers­and­blockages­ that­the­newcomer­faces;­as­communities­of­practice­converge­with­wider- scale­information­systems,­the­categories­come­to­seem­entirely­natural­ rather­than­negotiated.­(Star,­Bowker,­and­Neumann­2003,­251) When the process of seeing oneself in another light is mandatory to obtain membership­status­at­university,­it­could­be­a­good­exercise­to­imagine­one- self as outside of it from time to time. References Eng,­Norman.­2020.­“Should­Students­Show­their­Faces­on­Zoom?”­Norman Eng 10x Your Teaching. Accessed­June­30,­2020.­https://normaneng.org/should-students-show-their-faces-on-zoom/. Higgins,­Hannah­B.­2009.­The Grid Book.­Cambridge,­MA:­MIT­Press. Kirchmeier,­Christian.­2020.­“Generation­unsichtbar.”­Süddeutsche Zeitung.­Accessed­June­30,­ 2020.­https://www.sueddeutsche.de/bildung/videokonferenzen-video-studium-1.4926852. Larkin,­Brian.­2013.­“The­Politics­and­Poetics­of­Infrastructure.”­Annual Review of Anthropology 42:­327–43. Preciado,­Paul­B.­2020.­“Learning­from­the­Virus.”­Artforum.­Accessed­June­30,­2020.­https:// www.artforum.com/print/202005/paul-b-preciado-82823. Siegert,­Bernhard.­2003.­“(Nicht)­am­Ort.­Zum­Raster­als­Kulturtechnik.”­Thesis­3:­92–104. Star,­Susan­Leigh.­1999.­“The­Ethnography­of­Infrastructure.”­American Behavioral Scientist­43­(3):­ 377–91. Star,­Susan­Leigh,­Geoffrey­C.­Bowker,­and­Laura­J.­Neumann.­2003.­“Transparency­beyond­ the Individual Level of Scale: Convergence between Information Artifacts and Communities of­Practice.”­In­Digital Library Use Social Practice in Design and Evaluation,­edited­by­Ann­ Peterson-Kemp,­Nancy­A.­Van­House,­and­Barbara­P.­Buttenfield,­241–69.­Cambridge,­MA:­ MIT Press. 7­ Wagner­also­addresses­the­forgetting:­“Since­I’ve­known­the­academy,­I’ve­been­con- stantly accompanied by colleagues whining about how much worse current students are than those of the past. It might absolutely be that this has to do with the growing glorification­of­one’s­own­student­past”­(Wagner­2007,­70). Face Off 285 Wagner,­Wolf.­1973.­“Der­Bluff:­Die­Institution­Universität­in­ihrer­Wirkung­auf­die­Arbeitsweise­ und­das­Bewußtsein­ihrer­Mitglieder.”­Prokla­7:­43–81. —­—­—­.­2007.­Uni-Angst und Uni-Bluff heute: Wie studieren und sich nicht verlieren. Berlin: Rotbuch Verlag. Waitz,­Thomas.­2019.­“Nach­der­Maschine:­Über­‘Uni-Angst­und­Uni-Bluff.’”­Zeitschrift für Medienwissenschaft­20:­15–24. Wiarda,­Jan-Martin.­2020.­“Im­Hörsaal­zu­Hause.”­Die Zeit 26:­35–36,­June­18. KURZFILMTAGE OBERHAUSEN ONLINE FILM FESTIVAL TEMPORALITY ASYNCHRONICITY (SELF-)CENSORSHIP [ 2 9 ] Let’s Go to Oberhausen! Some Notes on an Online Film Festival Experience Wanda Strauven ONLINE FILM FESTIVAL This short essay reflects on the different spatio- temporal layers of “going” to an online film festival during the COVID-19 lockdown. Particularly, it looks at the case of the 66th edition of the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, which made its competition and other programs accessible in blocks, each for 48 hours. Furthermore, it illustrates the concept of “con- nected asynchronicity” by discussing the censorship of an archival film that had first been made available (and viewable). During­the­COVID-19­lockdown,­the­notion­of­“virtual”­experience­came­to­be­ the new norm of life: from virtual meetings with your best friends to virtual museum­visits,­conferences,­roundtables,­and­film­festivals.­The­“virtual”­did­ (and­still­does)­not­stand­in­opposition­to­the­real,­but­to­the­fact­that­the­only­ real­happened­(and­still­happens)­online.­In­this­essay,­I­will­briefly­reflect­on­ my­first­experience­of­“going”­to­the­online­film­festival.­I­do­not­want­to­make­ predictions­about­the­future­by­assuming­that­this­will­be­the­“new­normal.”­ (SELF-)CENSORSHIP The­scope­is­merely­to­reflect­on­how­this­specific­experience­affected­me­as­a­scholar­and­as­a­person,­in­a­situation­of­very­strict­confinement,­while­living­ in­Italy,­where­the­first-wave­lockdown­(from­early­March­to­early­June­2020)­ was heavily regulated. 288 Pandemic Media I­attended­the­online­version­of­the­66th edition of the International Short Film­Festival­Oberhausen­(13–18­May­2020)­as­part­of­an­MA­course­on­film­ archiving and festival programming that I was co-teaching with Marc Siegel at Johannes­Gutenberg­University­Mainz.­Originally,­we­had­planned­a­physical­ excursion­or­“field­trip”­to­Oberhausen­for­our­students,­but­we­were­forced­ to­revise­the­course­concept­due­to­the­COVID-19­lockdown.­When­the­festival­ announced­that­they­would­go­online,­showing­not­only­the­competition­pro- grams,­but­also­the­selections­made­by­archives­and­distributors,­we­decided­ to­take­the­students­on­this,­for­us­too,­new­adventure. A­personal­code­in­lieu­of­a­festival­pass­provided­access­to­around­350­short­ films,­talks,­and­presentations,­in­addition­to­live­DJ­sets­every­night.­Among­ the­various­programs,­which­were­uploaded­in­blocks­according­to­a­precise­ schedule­and­remained­accessible­for­48­hours­each,­we­preselected­for­our­ students­a­couple­of­competition­programs,­the­archive­programs­(curated,­ for­this­year’s­edition,­by­the­Russian­CYLAND­video­archive­and­the­Polish­ Fundacja­Arton),­the­Dutch­EYE­presentation­of­Henri­Plaat,­and­the­Austrian­ sixfilmpack­distribution­selection.­Besides­this­compulsory­viewing,­students­ were­free­to­navigate­through­all­the­programs­and­films­on­offer. However,­not­all­the­programs­of­the­66th­edition­of­Kurzfilmtage­Oberhausen­ were­made­available­online.­The­concepts­of­the­“Conditional­Cinema”­and­ “Labs”­sections,­for­instance,­were­not­compatible­with­the­new­COVID-19­ lockdown­format,­due­to­their­emphasis­on­and­celebration­of­“live”­perform- ance­and­projection.­The­“Labs”­section,­curated­by­Vassily­Bourikas,­is­all­ about­the­experience­of­watching­handmade­photochemical­films­as­material­ artifacts,­as­film­strips­running­through­a­projector.­This­reminds­us­of­the­ fact­that­analog­cinema­has­a­different­kind­of­temporality,­depending­on­ the­sequentiality­of­the­film­frames,­once­defined­by­Garrett­Stewart­as­the­ “mechanical­frame­time­of­the­track”­(2007,­127).­Freed­from­the­linear­trans- portation­of­the­celluloid­strip,­digital­cinema­is­in­this­sense­more­apt­for,­ or­more­akin­to,­online­viewing­practices.­The­absence­of­“Labs”­at­the­66th edition­of­Kurzfilmtage­Oberhausen­is,­for­sure,­to­be­read­as­a­statement,­as­a­ rejection­of­converting­16mm­films­into­digital­files,­in­order­to­stay­true­to­the­ section’s­original­aim,­which­is,­however,­not­to­fetishize­celluloid,­but­rather­ “to­maintain­the­availability­of­different­forms­of­cinema,­not­to­privilege­one­ over­another”­(Rapfogel­2018). The­variety­of­different­forms­of­cinema­was­indeed­annulled,­at­least­ in­material­terms,­by­the­online­platform­that­presented­each­film­as­an­ individually­clickable­item,­albeit­with­a­predetermined­position­in­a­pro- gram.­Viewers­were­not­“forced”­to­sit­through­an­entire­program,­but­could­ easily­jump­from­(within)­one­horizontal­program­strip­to­the­next,­as­long­as­ they­were­simultaneously­available­on­the­platform.­Deceptively,­the­typical­ anxiety about missing out on the gems of the festival ebbed away thanks Let’s Go to Oberhausen! 289 to­the­“flexibility­of­internet­time”­(Otto­2015),­which­underlies­the­different­ temporality of digitally streamed cinema. Viewers experienced a great sense of­freedom,­since­they­could­not­only­interrupt­and­restart­their­viewing­ whenever­they­wanted,­but­also­go­back­and­forth­in­a­specific­program,­ watch­certain­scenes­or­entire­short­films­again,­freeze­the­image,­etcetera.­ This­flexibility­also­led­to­impatience­among­some­of­our­students,­who­found­ themselves­skipping­the­more­“boring”­parts­of­the­program. Not­exactly­24/7­but­rather­48/2­(that­is,­48-hour­program­availability­spread­ over­two­full­days­including­night­time),­the­festival­became­a­form­of­“non- stop­work­site,”­which­was­to­some­extent­(at­least­within­the­context­of­the­ strictly regulated Italian lockdown) comparable to an “always open shopping mall­of­infinite­choices,­tasks,­selections,­and­digressions”­(Crary­2014,­17).­This­ 24/7­logic­of­sleeplessness­had­to­be­combined­with­some­form­of­“normal”­ family­life,­which­for­me­made­it­personally­quite­challenging­and­exhausting,­ very­different­from­previous­film­festival­visits,­during­which­I­usually­put­all­ other (daily) activities on hold. Yet the simultaneous running of private and professional­“timetables”­also­had­its­charms.­I­especially­enjoyed­sharing­the­ highlights­of­the­Children’s­Film­Competition­programs,­which­I­followed­out­of­ interest­for­my­ongoing­research­on­children­and­media,­with­my­12-year-old­ daughter­whose­genuine­reactions­to­the­touching­short­films­I­could­more­ easily­observe­(and­anticipate),­as­it­was­a­repeated­viewing­for­myself.1 I made an­exception­for­the­Children’s­Film­Competition­3+,­which­we­watched­directly­ together and both loved. It was a nice surprise to discover afterwards that our favorite,­The Shoe of a Little Girl­by­Kedar­Shrestha,­was­awarded.2 Halfway­through­the­festival,­we­met­with­the­students­in­a­virtual­room­ in order to exchange ideas and experiences. This is how we found out that our­asynchronous­viewings­actually­led,­at­least­in­one­specific­case,­to­the­ reception/consumption of altered content. For the CYLAND video archive had­taken­the­drastic­decision­to­remove­one­of­their­films­on­the­grounds­ of­recent­homophobic­accusations­against­the­filmmaker.­While­I­was­able­to­ watch­the­video­art­performance­film­in­question—New Icarus­(1991)­by­Edward­ Shelganov—before the act of curatorial self-censorship took place and as such­experienced­the­program­as­a­1990s­framing­of­more­recent­work­(fig.­1),­ 1­ This­discrepancy­between­our­viewing­experiences­was­the­most­“effective”­in­respect­to­ the Dutch short En route­by­Marit­Weerheijm,­which­follows­two­children­and­their­father­ on­an­early­morning­trip­to­the­city.­Only­at­the­very­end­does­the­viewer,­together­with­ the­young­female­protagonist,­realize­that­they­are­a­poor­family­relying­on­aid­from­the­ food­bank,­which­is­the­destination­of­their­trip. 2­ This­Nepalese­short­is­about­a­5-year-old­girl­who­always­wears­her­shoes­the­wrong­ way,­mixing­up­left­and­right,­until­she­finds­an­inventive­way­to­remember:­drawing­a­ black dot on her left shoe at the same spot where she has a birthmark on her left foot. 290 Pandemic Media others­only­got­to­see­the­“Statement”­by­festival­director­Lars­Henrik­Gass­ (fig.2).3 [Figure­1]­Screenshot­of­New Icarus­(1991)­by­Edward­Shelganov­ [Figure­2]­Screenshot­of­“Statement”­by­the­Oberhausen­festival­director4 Regarding­the­Q&A­with­CYLAND­curator­Victoria­Ilyushkina­we­were­equally­ out­of­synch,­mainly­because­not­all­of­us­had­understood­that­the­discussion­ could­be­followed­“live”­on­a­different­platform,­separate­from­the­program­ streaming.­In­other­words,­our­simultaneous­digital­connectivity­brought­ 3­ The­CYLAND­program­opened­with­Nestlings of the Sea (Boris­Kazakov),­a­1996­experi- ment­of­drawing­and­scratching­on­old­archive­films,­followed­by­three­videos­from­the­ last decade: Formal Portrait­(Polina­Kanis,­2014),­Horizon­(Sid­Iandovka­and­Anya­Tsyrlina,­ 2019),­and­The Sun Monopoly­(Dimitri­Lurie,­2018). 4­ The­full­statement­can­be­found­at­https://www.facebook.com/kurzfilmtage/ posts/10158715466976807. Let’s Go to Oberhausen! 291 about­a­multiplicity­of­temporal­experiences,­not­only­quantitatively­but­also­ qualitatively­differentiable.­Picking­up­Robert­Hassan’s­notion­of­“connected­ asynchronicity,”­one­could­say­we­were­all­forming­our­own­times­through­the­ “juxtaposition­of­asynchronous­spaces”­(Otto­2015,­91);­more­generally,­we­ were­just­experiencing­how­the­“time­of­the­clock”­was­undermined­and­dis- placed­by­the­internet­or­network­time­(Hassan­2007,­51).­ The­collective­viewing­experience­and­social­interaction,­so­typical­of­on- site­film­festivals,­is­what­we­all­missed­the­most.­Yet,­despite­the­disparity­ and­fragmentation­of­our­different­times,­there­was­still­a­communal­feeling­ of­knowingness­that­“we­are­all­in­this­together”—not­only­this­new­online­ media­adventure,­but­also­the­global­COVID-19­confinement.­In­this­sense,­it­ was quite appropriate that the Grand Prize of the City of Oberhausen went to Barbara­Hammer’s­Duneshack­material,­filmed­during­a­residency­in­solitude­ without water or electricity and revisited twenty years later by Lynne Sachs: A Month of Single Frames­(2019).­For­this­poetic­film­inscribes­the­audience­very­ literally­within­its­images:­“You­are­alone.­/­I­am­here­with­you­in­this­film.­/­ There­are­others­here­with­us.­/­We­are­all­together.” References Crary,­Jonathan.­2014.­24/7: Late Capitalism and the Ends of Sleep. London: Verso. Hassan,­Robert.­2007.­“Network­Time.”­In­Time and Temporality in the Network Society,­edited­by­ Robert­Hassan­and­Ronald­E.­Purser,­37–61.­Stanford,­CA:­Stanford­University­Press. Otto,­Isabell.­2015.­“Flexibility­of­Internet­Time.­Network­Society­and­the­Fleeting­Stability­of­ Sociotechnical­Collectives.”­In­Rethinking Order: Idioms of Stability and Destabilization,­edited­ by­Nicole­Falkenhayner,­Andreas­Langenohl, Johannes­Scheu, Doris­Schweitzer, and­Kacper­ Szulecki,­87–104.­Bielefeld:­transcript­Verlag. Rapfogel,­Jared.­2018.­“The­2018­International­Short­Film­Festival­Oberhausen.”­Cineaste­43­(4).­ Accessed­June­25,­2020.­https://www.cineaste.com/fall2018/international-short-film-festival- oberhausen-2018.­ Stewart,­Garrett.­2007.­Framed Time: Towards a Postfilmic Cinema. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. A C T I V I S M / S O C I A B I L I T Y LIVENESS ARCHIVES EUROVISION FANDOM [ 3 0 ] This Is Our Night: Eurovision Again and Liveness through Archives Abby S . Waysdorf Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there was no Euro- vision Song Contest for the first time in 65 years. For fans of the contest, this was distressing, at a time when life was distressing enough. Without the live event to watch and comment on, how could they par- ticipate in their fandom and connect with fellow fans? In this essay, I look at how the fan initiative Euro- vision Again works to solve this problem by recreating the experience of live viewing through the use of archives. Throughout the lockdown, Eurovision Again has chosen a “classic” Eurovision Grand Final for a Sat- urday night viewing, complete with Twitter hashtag and voting. I argue that in combining the “shared social reality” of live viewing with the shared culture of archives, Eurovision Again serves to sustain and reinforce a “Eurofan” identity while providing a break from the anxiety of everyday pandemic life. 296 Pandemic Media The 65th Eurovision Song Contest was to be held on May 16, 2020. As “Europe’s favorite television show,” the contest has been a fixture on screens across and outside of the continent for decades, with a set schedule of national finals and pre-contest events leading up to it. The Grand Final is met with an explosion of attention as the continent watches (and comments). All of this was underway when the COVID-19 pandemic hit Europe in March 2020. Within a short period, the pre-contest events were cancelled, the pro- motional tours stopped, and then, finally, the contest itself was called off. For the first time in 65 years, there would be no Eurovision. Eurovision was not the only media event to be postponed. COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on the television schedule. Live events are an important structuring element of contemporary media life. What happens when they disappear? For Eurovision fans, the answer was to recreate the experience with archives. Eurovision Again, developed by British journalist and Eurovision fan Rob Holley, selects a previous Grand Final for viewing at a set time on Saturday nights, followed along via a Twitter hashtag. (Post-lockdown, it has shifted from a weekly to a monthly event.) Originally set up as a fan initiative, Euro- vision itself has become involved, hosting the livestream on its YouTube channel and using its archivists to put together full versions of shows that are not easily accessible. There may have not been a Eurovision 2020 to participate in, but for much of the lockdown, there has been a Eurovision—and one that is seen as by and for the fans, rather than the general audience that also watches the regular version. In this essay, I will be exploring Eurovision Again. I argue here that in combining a form of “liveness” with archival material, it helps to sustain and enforce a “Eurofan” identity by both creating a specific public through the livestreams and encouraging increased engagement with (selected) Eurovision history. This serves as a way to “escape” from the pandemic, if just for a night, and keep the Eurofan identity alive in the absence of its structuring event. The Live Event The Eurovision Song Contest is just what it sounds like—a (televised) song competition, where every country in a loose definition of Europe can send a song and a performer. From its early versions as a short bit of light entertain- ment, participated in by a handful of western European countries, Eurovision has evolved into a week-long mega-event, broadcast across the continent and world. The Rotterdam edition would have hosted 41 performing countries and thousands of fans, coming not just to cheer on their own country, but to generally appreciate the contest and the fan community that has been built This Is Our Night 297 up in recent years. It would have been broadcast to over 180 million people, mainly via the European public broadcasters that make up the sponsoring European Broadcasting Union, but also through official livestreams that bring the contest to a worldwide audience. In its 65th year, Eurovision is a media institution—a quintessential “media event” as described by Dayan and Katz (1992). It is scheduled and anticipated, but outside of normal broadcasting—an interruption, made all the more special for how it disrupts the normal flow of media life. Dayan and Katz compare these events to holidays, in that they are disruptive, but pleasantly so. They promise a break from everyday life, a time for celebration, and particularly, a time for celebration with others. People gather together to watch media events, and in doing so, join spiritually with others who are doing the same thing. They disturb the normal atomization of media, in which every household is watching something different, and instead make people “aware of all the other homes in which the same thing is taking place at the same time” (Dayan and Katz 1992, 131). While “normal” media consumption is dis- persed and atomized, media events bring people together to view the same thing at the same time. This “at the same time” is the crucial point of a media event, and what makes it different from just a popular program. A media event is an event that is viewed “live” on television. The promise of live media, and especially live audiovisual media, is that we can experience important events as they happen, regardless of where we physically are, at the same time as others who also agree on its importance. It is this dual connection that Couldry stresses when talking about live transmission as a ritual category of media—it “guarantees a potential connection to our shared social realities as they are happening” (2003, 96–97). The connection is both to the event and to the broader society that makes the event meaningful and worth experiencing in the moment. As Couldry points out, “‘liveness’ naturalizes the idea that, through the media, we achieve a shared attention to the realities that matter to us as a society” (2003, 99). Without this connection to others, liveness as an idea is less valuable. While Dayan and Katz saw the connection made between members of the public through televised events as imagined, as one could only react to the celebrants in your immediate vicinity, social media has made this explicit by showing how others are reacting and making it possible to respond directly to them. As van Es (2017) discusses, television increasingly “enhances” its liveness through the direct connections of social media. During a media event, the imagined other celebrants become very real. This is especially true for Twitter, which, even compared to other social media, emphasizes its up-to-date con- nectivity and facilitates it through a constantly refreshing feed and clickable hashtags that collect tweets about subjects in one place. Commenting on Twitter (and to some extent other social media) during a major media event 298 Pandemic Media is therefore an important way of connecting to others. In a time when media consumption is even more atomized than when Dayan and Katz were writing due to on-demand media streaming, the rare moments of connectivity through a live event are even more valuable. This idea of celebratory, connected liveness is at the heart of the Euro- vision experience. Couldry’s reading of Dayan and Katz’s original concept emphasizes that media events are “times when large societies are ‘together,’ but when this togetherness is experienced as something positive” (2003, 62). Eurovision is quite explicit about this being a goal, stressing its ability to bring the disparate cultures of Europe together, at the same time, in common celebration. As a media event, it embraces festival and holiday qualities rather than sacredness and solemnity. Dayan and Katz tend to emphasize the top-down nature of media events, stressing their connection to a society’s elite center and celebrating its main- stream values, but with Eurovision, the situation is different. While conceived of as a classic contest between nations, fans of the contest have given it other meanings. Its fan culture is less concerned with the nationalistic clash as it is with the entertainment value of each entry and the joyous togetherness of the event itself. It has also been widely adopted as a gay and queer event (Baker 2017; Halliwell 2018). Gathering for Eurovision, both online and offline, has taken on this iden- tity. The ideal of Eurovision fandom is not that of opposing nations asserting their superiority, but of marginalized groups coming together to celebrate through music and spectacle. The connection is not with the center, but with other members of the outside. Its break from the everyday is a break from everyday oppression. However, this still happens within the framework of a major media event that “everyone” is watching. There are few other events that so entwine the mainstream and the marginalized. It is this that was missed with the unprecedented cancellation of the con- test. Silverstone (1994) and Coman (2008) stress the ontological security that comes with reoccurring media events, in knowing that this celebration will be repeated yearly. For Eurovision fans, this means connection with other marginalized people, both in-person and electronically, will be provided through the long-standing structure of the contest. The moments of recon- nection were greatly anticipated. As one travelling Eurovision fan put it, “it ’s the one time of year we see our family from Europe and abroad.” (Segalov 2020) The pandemic abruptly cancelled this just as it was beginning for the new year. Alongside all the other COVID-19 interruptions, this caused considerable distress among fans. Eurovision was a constant, having endured longer than most of its fans were alive. Its late cancellation, coming after much of its This Is Our Night 299 preliminaries had been completed and fans were eagerly anticipating the con- test itself, was the confirmation that the pandemic was serious and worrying. At the same time, the cancellation removed one of the major support systems that fans had to turn to—the contest itself, and the coming-together that the contest provides, both through media and in person. When fans most needed the togetherness and ontological security of this media event, it was taken away. Archives and Eurofandom “Watch in sync. Tweet along. Vote for your hero, that’s what you must do.” This is how Eurovision Again explains itself. It goes like this: every Saturday at 7:45 PM BST a new “classic” Eurovision grand final is revealed as this week’s show. Fifteen minutes later, it begins. Viewers are encouraged to tweet along with the hashtag #EurovisionAgain, and to vote on a polling website once the songs have finished. It has clear appeal—the official Twitter account, begun in March 2020, now has over ten thousand followers, tweets using the hashtag (or related terms) are regularly in the tens of thousands, and Eurovision itself has begun to provide assistance, helping to source (and in some cases, put together) previous contests and airing the stream from its official YouTube account in order to better synchronize viewers. Essentially, it reproduces the experience of watching Eurovision on television, complete with reactions from others and the ranking of favorites. In doing this, Eurovision Again aims to recreate the celebratory liveness of Eurovision, at a time when fans feel like they need it most. While the contest itself, and all its attendant celebrations, are cancelled, fans can still come together through social media and act as they would without the pandemic. Indeed, escapism and positivity are the main tones of Eurovision Again. Those who participate do not want to be reminded that the contest was cancelled and that the world is experiencing a global pandemic. They want the disrup- tion from the everyday that Eurovision has always represented. In watching Eurovision, again, the idea is that the joyous togetherness of the media event is also reexperienced, at a time when this is most needed. If the everyday is anxiety and fear, Eurovision provides a break. However, there is one crucial difference. Rather than the eternal present of the main contest, Eurovision Again orients itself towards the past. Media events have a complex relationship with the past. Dayan and Katz discuss how an event that finishes immediately loses some of its aura and meaning as it finishes and we must return to everyday life, the event “a record in the archives.” (1992, 106) At the same time, media events become “mne- monics for organizing personal and historical time.” (1992, 212) Media events 300 Pandemic Media shape the way in which we remember our lives, defining both personal and collective memories of an era. Both of these uses of the past are present in the liveness of Eurovision Again. The livestreams are given an introduction by historian Catherine Baker, who puts the contest about to be viewed in historical and cultural context. During the livestream, viewers not only react to what they’re seeing, but what they remember about seeing it for the first time—how they felt as youth for older contests, memories of being there for newer ones. Photographs of trips to Lisbon or Copenhagen are shared, with recollections of what it was “really like” on the ground and how that compares to watching now. While it is, of course, possible to remember without the impetus of the livestream, watching it with others brings the connectivity of liveness to memory. Not only the contest, but the memory of the contest, is experienced with others. For those who don’t have an existing memory of the contest being viewed, they can connect to the memories of others and gain a better understanding of Eurovision’s past. In this, Eurovision Again works to sustain and foster a distinct “Eurofan” identity, distinct from the general viewership of the main contest. A sense of shared history and heritage is an important part of any group identity. Having a shared sense of the past, and what this past means, is crucial in “securing a sense of togetherness and cultural solidarity” (McDowell 2008, 41). While this has largely been theorized in terms of national and ethnic identity, in the con- temporary era, it is not only national and ethnic identities that matter. Many find equal value in popular-culture based identities—fandoms. Here, too, a sense of history is important. De Kosnik argues that “archives provide this connection through giving members of a community a sense of shared culture” (2016, 124). Access to the shared past facilitates a shared identity, which, as De Kosnik argues, is especially critical for fandom as it is generally chosen, rather than “innate.” Establishing a shared culture through use of the past and access to historical records of an identity establishes it as legitimate. For Eurovision fans, knowledge of history is also crucial in distinguishing “Eurofans” from general Eurovision viewers. While the general public watches Eurovision as it airs, Eurofans pride themselves on deeper engagement— knowing more about the artists and songs before the show and, increasingly, knowledge of past contests. Interest in Eurovision’s past, as well as its present, is a key marker of being a Eurofan. Eurovision Again is both created by and marketed to such fans. Even knowing about, much less participating in, Eurovision Again requires a certain amount of awareness of broader Eurofandom. This means that Eurovision is remem- bered in a particular way. Archives are structures of power (Schwartz and Cook, 2002), shaping memory in specific ways. In selecting and displaying This Is Our Night 301 certain contests and not others, narratives about what Eurovisions were important to the Eurofan identity are created—these are the contests to remember and/or learn about. The casual queerness of Eurovision and Eurovision fandom are also reinforced, both by the organizers, who solicit donations for LGBT charities with each livestream, and by the audience, who make reference to their own and others’ assumed queerness. Accepting this is part of Eurofandom. The kinds of songs and moments—campy, energetic, queer-friendly—that are celebrated by this audience become the way of remembering Eurovision. Eurovision Again did not create this way of reading and appreciating Eurovision, but it does enforce it through its selection of con- tests and voting process. In this, it both complements and separates from the general remembering that is part of the Eurovision broadcast, which also seeks to use the power of memory and reminiscence in its stated goal of bringing Europe together. However, that the official Eurovision broadcast is institutional puts limits on it that a fan organization does not have. Eurovision’s official response to the cancellation of the contest, the special Europe Shine A Light, needed to take a more solemn approach to Eurovision’s history and the particular moment of the pandemic. It reflected on the cancellation as a trauma that needed addressing and used Eurovision’s history to do so. Eurovision Again has no such institutional demands. While increasingly embraced by Eurovision—a subject for another paper—it stands outside of its official commemorative culture. Rather, it is a way for Eurofans to experience the fun and connectivity of a Eurovision broadcast at a time when collective levity is hard to come by. Its point is to have fun and recall better times. Euro- vision Again is not about mourning Eurovision, but celebrating it. In this, the potential threat to the ontological security of Eurovision fandom— the cancellation of the media event that it is based around—is mitigated. Fans can recreate at least one of the experiences around Eurovision, while, at the same time, reinforcing their fandom through gaining (or remembering) knowledge about the fan object through the use of archives. At a time when non-mediated connectivity is disrupted, as well as anxiety-provoking, Euro- vision Again provides at least a bit of connection to (accepting) others and happier times. Conclusion What happens when live events are cancelled or postponed by the COVID- 19 crisis? For fans of the Eurovision Song Contest, the answer is a turn to archives. In reproducing the live viewing experience with archival footage, the promise of liveness—a shared social reality—is combined with a sense of shared history. This shared history helps to sustain and reinforce a “Eurofan” 302 Pandemic Media identity at a time when fans were missing this connectivity most keenly. It must be noted that it was not the only initiative created for Eurofans to come together, as national fan clubs and broadcasters held “alternative” contests, Eurovision hosted “home concerts” with artists, and fans continued to com- municate online with each other. However, the combination of liveness—of a large amount of fellow fans participating at the same time—and archives—of remembering the event in a specific way—is unique. Through it, the loss of the contest, while keenly felt, is mitigated. Watching Eurovision Again is not the same as watching a new Eurovision Song Contest, but it does remind fans of why they like Eurovision in the first place. It provides an escape from the anxieties of everyday pandemic life and ensures that Eurovision fandom, while disrupted, is not forgotten. References Baker, Catherine. 2017. “The ‘gay Olympics’? The Eurovision song contest and the politics of LGBT/European belonging.” European Journal of International Relations 23 (1): 97–121. Coman, Mihai. 2008. “Liminality in Media Studies: From Everday Life to Media Events.” In Victor Turner and Contemporary Cultural Performance, edited by Graham St. John, 94–108. New York: Berghahn Books. Couldry, Nick. 2003. Media Rituals: A critical approach. London and New York: Routledge. — — — . 2004. “Liveness, ‘Reality,’ and the Mediated Habitus from Television to the Mobile Phone.” The Communication Review 7 (4): 353–61 Dayan, Daniel and Elihu Katz. 1992. Media Events: The Live Broadcasting of History. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. De Kosnik, Abigail. 2016. Rogue Archives: Digital Cultural Memory and Media Fandom. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Halliwell, Jamie. 2018. “‘All Kinds of Everything’? Queer Visibility in Online and Offline Eurovision Fandom.” Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture 13 (2): 113–20. McDowell, Sara. 2008. “Heritage, Memory, and Identity.” In The Ashgate Research Companion to Heritage and Identity, edited by Brian Graham and Peter Howard, 37–54. Aldershot: Ashgate. Schwartz, Joan M., and Terry Cook. 2002. “Archives, Records, and Power: The Making of Modern Memory.” Archival Science 2 (1–2): 1–19. Segalov, Michael. 2020. “The Show Must Go on: Eurovision Is Cancelled but Superfans still Celebrate.” The Observer, May 10. Accessed December 19, 2020. https://www.theguardian. com/tv-and-radio/2020/may/10/the-show-must-go-on-eurovision-is-cancelled-but- superfans-still-celebrate. Silverstone, Roger. 1994. Television and Everyday Life. London: Routledge. van Es, Karin. 2017. The Future of Live. Cambridge: Polity Press. DATING APPS QUEER WOMEN CARE COMMUNITY ONLINE DATING [ 3 1 ] More than You Bargained for: Care, Community, and Sexual Expression through Queer Women’s Dating Apps during the COVID-19 Pandemic Stefanie Duguay The COVID-19 pandemic raises questions about the safety and relevance of location-based dating apps in light of physical distancing guidelines. This essay draws on research into dating apps’ responses to the pandemic to share preliminary findings about how apps for queer women, in particular, are re-construct- ing their meaning, use, and services. The apps Her and Lex have taken steps to position their technologies as facilitating self-care and the care of others, enabling community and political dialogue, and allowing for responsible sexual expression. However, these aims are shaped by, and often in tension with, dating apps’ business models and the broader commercialization of health and wellbeing by digital technologies. None- theless, such apps can serve as digital queer alcoves, offering new possibilities for connecting people during times of crisis. 306 Pandemic Media “…s’en tenir à un ou une conjointe seulement.” Quebec’s Premier François Legault responded to a question about dating during a COVID-19 press con- ference in April 2020. English media outlets translated this as, “Stick to one partner only” (Moore 2020). The province’s National Director of Public Health, Dr. Horacio Arruda, agreed: “Oui, oui, disons que la monogamie est préférable à ce temps-ci,” confirming jokingly that monogamy is preferable at this time. This was not the only instance of governments and health officials attending to questions of partner-seeking during the pandemic. Newfoundland’s health minister warned, “If you use Tinder and Grindr and you swipe right, you might get more than you bargained for” (Belmonte 2020). With officials asking people to remain mostly at home and stay two meters apart in public, the proximity and interpersonal contact associated with dating raises red flags in light of attempts to contain the virus. Thus, the COVID-19 pandemic presents several challenges for dating apps, as mobile technologies used to facilitate romantic and sexual encounters. Dating apps are designed to catalyze in-person interactions among nearby others. They harness smartphones’ geolocational capacities to organize users and their activities according to proximity. Further, their use is intertwined with mobility, granting the freedom to browse partners across city landscapes and arrange spontaneous face-to-face encounters. When meeting in-person suddenly becomes a dangerous act, these apps’ mandates, features, designs, and business models are called into question. App companies run the risk of being perceived as facilitating virus transmission, and users disbanding without the promise of potential in-person encounters. Queer Dating in Pandemic Times This essay outlines themes I observed in the responses of two dating apps for queer women to the COVID-19 pandemic. Although apps like Tinder and Grindr are well known for targeting large user bases, heterosexuals and men seeking men respectively, less familiar apps cater to a niche of women seeking women as well as transgender and non-binary users. One such app, Her, originally launched in 2013 as the lesbian dating app Dattch, has been embedded in start-up culture and sustained by venture capital, reinforcing its focus on a narrow lesbian market instantiated in the app’s “aesthetic of white fem- ininity” (Murray and Ankerson 2016). However, Her has undergone substantial rebranding in recent years to open its user base to a broader, yet undefined category of “queer womxn.” Her reports uptake by four million women world- wide (Apple Inc. 2020a) and includes swipe-based profile browsing, similar to Tinder, with an emphasis on visual content. In contrast, Lex is a text-based app modelled after print media personal ads (Apple Inc. 2020b). Originating as an Instagram account circulating user More than You Bargained for 307 submissions, the standalone app launched in 2019, allowing users to submit and respond to personal ads and, optionally, link an Instagram account to sup- plement ads with images. Lex is crowdfunded and its userbase is specified in Apple’s app store as “womxn, trans, genderqueer, intersex, two spirit and non- binary” people. While it also adopts the fluid but nebulous term “womxn,” the further specification provides a sense of inclusivity toward a range of users. As global response to COVID-19 began to mount in 2020, I worked collabora- tively with other scholars to collect dating apps’ press releases, blog posts, and social media while conducting non-participant observation of in-app messages and design changes from March until June. The following sections describe findings from a preliminary thematic analysis of these materials and discuss the bargains inherent in these different apps stepping into roles that appear to support forms of care, community, and sexual expression during crisis. Discourses of Care Following suit with other dating apps, Her and Lex circulated in-app messages advising users to change their behavior in light of COVID-19. Her stated, “Your safety is our priority. We recommend to keep things online, for now” while suggesting users meet through video calling apps and providing a link to the World Health Organization’s website. “We encourage virtual lover + friend connections during this potentially isolating time,” noted an in-app message on Lex, pinned to the top of the browse screen. These safety warnings were paired with further messages and imagery that positioned dating apps not as posing a risk but as a means of promoting healthy behaviors while caring for oneself and others. Accordingly, these companies presented their apps as a remedy for social iso- lation and loneliness. Lex later pinned a message prompting users, “Check on all your friends!” while sharing users’ stories on Instagram about connecting with each other for support. Her’s Instagram account spotlighted a photo documentary series, Queerantine, to share queer people’s stories of resiliency. Building on the notion that dating apps are central to connecting socially while distancing physically, Her offered a time-limited free trial of its premium features while Lex increased the number of posts users could make on the app. These changes to features and functionality reflect business-oriented decisions, with the capacity to attract more users and activity, as well as material reinforcement of discourses about app participation as an expression of care. These app messages and material updates reflect the multiplicity of roles that care assumes within neoliberal capitalism. The framing of digital apps on individualized devices as mechanisms for self-care is tied to a broader ecology 308 Pandemic Media of digital technologies sold as integral to the self-management of health (Hobart and Kneese 2020). In this sense, swiping on profiles may be akin to other individualized strategies peddled by wellness industries—from bubble baths to fad diets—to give a semblance of agency and distract from broader structures that constrain individual action. Such structures are steered by powerful actors, such as government and health institutions, which provide authoritative instruction during crisis that can overlook individualized needs, especially the needs of queer and other marginalized people. On the other hand, Hobart and Kneese (2020) remind us that care of the self and others can serve as a form of survival in light of institutional disregard and neglect. The apps’ showcasing of horizontal and grassroots initiatives that provide caring bonds and resources in absence of institutional apparatuses for supporting queer resilience indeed publicizes and reinforces these more radical forms of care. Community Support The notion of dating apps as the solution to pandemic loneliness was fur- ther reflected in encouragements for users to connect as a community. Her’s mobilization of community discourse resonates both with the strategies of popular platforms like Facebook and Twitter, which appeal to community to promote rule-abiding participation, and the app’s existing approach to bol- stering engagement by hosting queer events. Her redirected its ambassador network, comprised of volunteers and paid individuals who host events in urban centers, toward hosting a high volume of gatherings over the video- conferencing platform Zoom. Although some events were regional and others catered to North American time zones, all were free and open for anyone to attend. While many events replicated themes of speed dating and nightlife, common across Her’s in-person events, the addition of stress management, financial education, and wellbeing workshops recognized the strain users could be experiencing while also providing individualized solutions (e.g. yoga, cooking class) for enacting self-care. Coordinating and hosting affective, community-building events involves not only the dedication of time and energy but also emotional labor, especially in times of crisis. Her’s job postings for paid ambassadors, “City Leads,” indicate that these contracted individuals receive 50% of the profits they generate from events.1 This raises questions as to whether and how much individuals are paid for hosting free, online events when emotional labor (Hochschild 1983) and immaterial digital labor often go uncompensated ( Jarrett 2015), especially in the name of doing good or serving community. 1 Described in the online application form: https://her.typeform.com/to/rfea2f. More than You Bargained for 309 Alternatively, Lex let users develop their own sense of community, publishing user-led initiatives to its Instagram account. These ranged from regional Zoom brunches to pen pal systems and the circulation of “mutual aid” resources. Lex also highlighted users’ experiences and eff orts to help others through an Instagram series called #QueerantineStories. Both apps contributed to political discourses and grassroots initiatives, circulating calls of support for rent relief as well as aid to local businesses and individuals aff ected by job loss. Such eff orts promote decentralized initiatives led by existing com- munities and not artifi cially grouped under Silicon Valley’s discursive umbrella of “community.” They support the kind of longstanding coalitional care work organized by groups of queer, feminist, and racialized people (Cohen 2005), which draws strength from existing community connections to quickly redirect help and resources during crisis. Sexual Expression In a series of Instagram posts with the caption “WE STAN2 ESSENTIAL WORKERS,” Lex shared users’ posts expressing thanks to essential workers and off ering to send nudes as a form of stress relief, bridging the app’s community-related communication with an acknowledgement that sexual desire endures even in crisis. Both Her and Lex posted content related to sex, including Instagram images featuring vibrators, and encouraged masturbation as a way to access sexual pleasure without physical contact. Her accentuated this message through a Zoom workshop on “Masturbation and Self Love” as well as Instagram photos of women in bikinis or underwear captioned “day- dream material” to help users pass time in quarantine and as inspiration for “sending socially distant pics.” Lex circulated user requests for “nude swaps,” identifying sexting as a viable means of connecting. The apps’ encouragement of sexual activity that respects physical distancing recognizes the role of these technologies in facilitating the fulfi llment of sexual needs. Such a stance is more realistic than campaigns by apps targeting more mainstream audiences, such as Tinder and Match, whose blog posts discussed the postponement of physical contact as a means to deepening emotional relationships, messaging akin to abstinence-only approaches. This builds on mainstream apps’ promotion of heteronormative courtship narratives, where marriage is the ultimate success story, to dislodge connotations of immorality and risk associated with being perceived as hook-up apps for casual sex (Albury 2018). Such contrasting approaches to sexuality refl ect the association of apps like Her and Lex with queer histories of digital technologies as useful mediators in sexual encounters, especially by men seeking men leading the early uptake of mobile media and apps for partner-seeking (Mowlabocus 2 A term indicating enthusiastic support. 310 Pandemic Media 2010). Her and Lex helped users to identify modes of solo and partnered sexual expression, acknowledging sexuality as part of preserving one’s overall health during crisis. It is notable, however, that commercial arrangements intertwine with sexual content and permissible user activity. Her’s sexual material often included product placements and brand sponsorships. Durex sponsored the self-love workshop, followed by a blog post recap with prominent placement of the brand’s logo and links to product pages. Sexy Instagram posts tagged stores selling lingerie and sex toys. While this accords with Her’s frequent product placement in its blog and email newsletters, and inclusion of ads in-app, it points to the uneasy tension that has long existed between commercialization and community-building in queer spaces, including online spaces (Camp- bell 2007). Commercialization can contribute to the mainstreaming and de-politicization of queer communities, reducing them to a market niche, but it is also often a necessary means of sustaining queer initiatives. Like many apps and platforms, Her carries a dual responsibility to its tech investors and users. However, its responsibility to not allow commercial content to crowd out community exchange is heighted by the app’s aim to be welcoming for sexually and gender diverse “womxn.” Although Lex’s crowdfunded model has enabled it to be free from advertising, this raises questions as to how long such a model can endure. Further, Lex’s reliance on app stores and its connection with Instagram render it unusable as a conduit for the sexts and nude exchanges the company supports, with these other businesses imposing restrictions that safeguard their ability to profit from pornography-averse advertisers and investors. Digital Queer Alcoves with Tensions Heighted by Crisis While monogamy may be preferable in terms of physical contact during the pandemic, isolation is not. As these apps play a role in care, community- building, and supporting sexual expression, their purpose deviates from being merely dating apps to serving as alcoves for queer connection and life. The diversification of these apps resembles the multiple queer uses of past digital technologies, from email to chat rooms and web portals, for forming social networks as hubs of overlapping sexual, social, and political action (see O’Riordan and Phillips 2007). However, these apps function within existing platform ecologies and social, political, and economic structures that raise tension with regard to their role in such activities that are vital to the survival of often-marginalized people. The embedding of these apps within neoliberal capitalist structures means that the kind of care and community-building they seek to reinforce may also perpetuate individualized, illusory solutions, More than You Bargained for 311 initiatives reliant on unpaid and under-recognized labor, and commercial interests disguised as sex-positive politics. Nonetheless, these apps also have the capacity to support existing initiatives of coalitional care. They can provide technological scaffolding for meaningful connection and the reinforcement of efforts to address gaps in institutional and normative responses to crisis. For this reason, we must hope that such digital queer alcoves find ways of sustaining both their operations and their diverse communities, as they provide an alternative to the monopoly of main- stream platforms narrowing our outlets for interpersonal, social, and political connection. As their responses to COVID-19 progress, these apps have the opportunity to reinforce this shift from a focus on location-constrained dating toward serving as digital queer alcoves for restoration, mobilization, and thriving both in times of crisis and the everyday. This essay reflects elements of a larger research project conducted with Dr. David Myles (Affiliate Professor, Université du Québec à Montréal and Postdoctoral Researcher, McGill University) and Christopher Dietzel (PhD Candidate, McGill University). References Albury, Kath. 2018. “Heterosexual Casual Sex: From Free Love to Tinder.” In The Routledge Companion to Media, Sex and Sexuality, edited by Clarissa Smith, Feona Attwood, and Brian McNair, 81–90. New York: Routledge. Apple Inc. 2020a. “Her: Lesbian Dating & Chat App.” Apple Inc. Accessed June 11, 2020. https:// apps.apple.com/gb/app/dattch-lesbian-dating-lesbian/id573328837. — — — . 2020b. “Lex: Queer Lovers & Friends.” Apple Inc. Accessed July 31, 2020. https://apps. apple.com/ca/app/lex-lesbian-queer-dating/id1436964232. Belmonte, Lisa. 2020. “A Provincial Health Minister’s Tinder and Grindr Warning Is Going Viral.” Narcity, April 2. Accessed December 19, 2020. https://www.narcity.com/news/ca/nl/ john-haggie-warning-people-about-using-tinder-and-grindr-is-going-viral. Campbell, John Edward. 2007. “Virtual Citizens or Dream Consumers: Looking for Civic Community on Gay.com.” In Queer Online: Media, Technology and Sexuality, edited by Kate O’Riordan and David J. Phillips, 177–96. New York: Peter Lang. Cohen, Cathy. 2005. “Punks, Bulldaggers, and Welfare Queens: The Radical Potential of Queer Politics.” In Black Queer Studies: A Critical Anthology, edited by E. Patrick Johnson and Mae G. Henderson, 21-51. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Hobart, Hi’ilei Julia Kawehipuaakahaopulani and Tamara Kneese. 2020. “Radical Care: Survival Strategies for Uncertain Times.” Social Text 38 (1): 1–16. Hochschild, Arlie. 1983. “The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling.” Berkeley: University of California Press. Jarrett, Kylie. 2015. “Feminism, Labour and Digital Media: The Digital Housewife.” New York: Routledge. Moore, Alanna. 2020. “Legault & Dr. Arruda Unfortunately Ask That You Please Be Monogamous Right Now.” MTL Blog, April 8. Accessed December 19, 2020. https://www.mtlblog.com/news/ canada/qc/government-of-quebec-unfortunately-asks-that-you-please-be-monogamous- right-now. 312 Pandemic Media Mowlabocus, Sharif. 2010. “Gaydar Culture: Gay Men, Technology and Embodiment in the Digital Age.” Farnham: Ashgate. Murray, Sarah, and Megan Sapnar Ankerson. 2016. “Lez Takes Time: Designing Lesbian Contact in Geosocial Networking Apps.” Critical Studies in Media Communication 33 (1): 53–69. O’Riordan, Kate, and David J. Phillips, eds. 2007. Queer Online: Media, Technology and Sexuality. New York: Peter Lang. PHENOMENOLOGY SERIALITY JEAN-PAUL SARTRE VIDEOCONFERENCING [ 3 2 ] “Thus isolation is a project.” Notes toward a Phenomenology of Screen-Mediated Life Shane Denson The COVID-19 pandemic abruptly shifted the parameters of our lives, focusing much of our activity onto screens as we communicated with one another online. Videoconferencing took on an unprecedented importance in many peoples’ daily lives, drawing attention to paradoxes of screen-mediated inter- actions, which serve at once to connect and to iso- late. This essay foregrounds these paradoxes for the purposes of a social and existential phenomenology of screen-mediated life. 316 Pandemic Media [Figure 1] Screenshot of Zoom conversation with Vivian Sobchack, Scott Bukatman, Elizabeth Kessler, Karin Denson, and the author (Source: Shane Denson 2020) “Thus isolation is a project.” I encountered these words again in May 2020—a good two months into California’s statewide shelter-in-place order during the COVID-19 pandemic but still a week or so before video of George Floyd’s brutal murder at the hands of the Minneapolis police would spark tremendous protests, bringing millions of people back into the streets across the US and around the world. In this fragile, liminal moment I found myself confronted with what felt like an illuminating paradox as I repeated the words: “Thus iso- lation is a project.” This sentence, originally published in 1960, appears in the middle of Jean-Paul Sartre’s massive Critique of Dialectical Reason (Sartre 2004, 258)—a later work in which the philosopher turns from the apparently individualistic, subject- centric approach of his early existentialism to a more socially oriented project, one that is explicitly Marxist in its politics. The book’s central problem can be summed up in the question of how the modern subject, existentially free and yet structurally and materially alienated, can overcome its isolation and establish robust forms of political collectivity that would embrace radical freedom for liberatory projects. For Sartre, the problem is that all too often we choose not to even attempt this endeavor, instead embracing isolation or anonymity as an existential “project” in a social form of bad faith. Under conditions of quarantine and social distancing, however, isolation had become a different kind of project: one designed to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. There was something paradoxical, if not downright tragic, afoot: being “together apart”—despite the prosaic propaganda of such slogans—had become an important political project, but a wedge was thereby driven into “Thus isolation is a project.” 317 the heart of social reality, complicating the conditions of collectivity by making our collective well-being depend precisely on the alienation of social distance that Sartre had hoped to overcome.1 Thus, some six decades after Sartre discovered the project of isolation, many of us re-discovered it in a new form. We began distancing ourselves physically while at the same time accelerating and multiplying the connections we made via screens—communicating with one another over Skype, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet and Hangouts, and the suddenly omnipresent Zoom. Life itself suddenly took place on screen. We held virtual meetings, Zoom-based happy hours, video calls with distant friends and family (fig. 1). For academics, teaching and advising was abruptly shifted online, much of it taking place in the form of videoconferencing. In this new world, the screen both connected us and kept us apart, driving home Stanley Cavell’s insight that the screen had always led a double existence as both a window and a shield, simultaneously extending our perception out into the world while also screening us from the world (Cavell 1979)—in this case, serving as a physical barrier, a virtual face shield. The multistability of the screen now became even more apparent as we found our vision bouncing around between the many faces arrayed in grids across our screens, shifting from box to box, frame to frame, peering into others’ apartments, and quite often winding up looking at our own faces as if in a glitchy digital mirror. Phenomenologically, this also meant that we were constantly oscillating between what philosopher of technology Don Ihde calls “embodiment relations,” in which we look through the screen as if through a window, and “hermeneutic relations,” in which we re-focus our perception to look at the screen (Ihde 1990)—for example, when we relax our focus on a speaker and scan the screen as a whole to see who’s talking now, alternating from figure to ground and back again.2 The screen’s duality, as both com- munication device and as personal protective equipment, requires rapid shifts of focus and attention.3 This new project of isolation, we quickly learned, was utterly exhausting.4 1 “Together Apart” is the title of a New York Times-produced podcast: https://www. nytimes.com/column/together-apart. Similar slogans, such as “together at a distance” or “together at home” (the title of an event organized by Lady Gaga in support of the World Health Organization), abounded in the early days and weeks of social distancing and foregrounded these paradoxes. 2 For an application of Ihde’s concepts to cinema, see Sobchack 1992. See also Denson 2020 for an application to digital images. 3 As my references to the screen’s function as “personal protective equipment” or a “vir- tual face shield” suggest, the screen in question here—at least in the context of the pan- demic—must be seen in relation also to the face mask and its own oscillations between visibility and invisibility, distance and proximity. Both the screen and the mask are at the center of simultaneously phenomenological, epidemiological, and sociopolitical transformations. 4 A variety of popular articles and op-eds have dealt with the phenomenon of “Zoom exhaustion” or “Zoom fatigue.” See, for example, Bailenson 2020; Fosslien and Duffy 318 Pandemic Media Nevertheless, safety demanded it, and “thus isolation is a project.” I had read this sentence many times before without taking much notice. But now it positively jumped out at me while re-reading Sartre’s Critique in preparation for a directed reading class with a graduate student—conducted, of course, remotely via Zoom. The sentence, previously unobtrusive but now com- manding all of my attention, itself oscillated like my screen between trans- parency and opacity and thereby illuminated the screen’s paradoxical role as both a condition of and an obstacle to collective life in the present. Sartre’s sentence thus raised a crucial question about media, but this was also a ques- tion about a radical transformation in the function of media in the constitution of our experiential and social worlds. In order to appreciate this transformation, consider the sentence’s original context. Sartre is describing a modern city, presumably postwar Paris. He suggests that the city is a “medium” rich with agency, the “exigencies” of its infrastructure shaping our comportment towards the world and one another (Sartre 2004, 257, 187–96). He conjures a mundane scene: people are waiting for the bus at a bus stop. These people—who may differ greatly in age, sex, class, and social milieu—realise, within the ordinariness of everyday life, the relation of isolation, of reciprocity and of unification (and massification) from outside which is characteristic of, for example, the residents of a big city in so far as they are united though not integrated through work, through struggle or through any other activity in an organised group common to them all. (Sartre 2004, 256) In short, the assembled people just happen to be at the same place at the same time; they have no common project, though their individual projects require that they share a common relation, instrumental in nature, to the built environment—in this case, to the bus stop and the bus that they await to take them, each individually, where they need to go. Sartre terms this loose, anonymous collective a “seriality,” as opposed to a proper “group,” which involves a common goal and operates more like a collective subject.5 In the seriality, individuals are obstacles to one another, not categorically different from the dumb materiality of the built environment itself—what Sartre calls the “practico-inert” in recognition of the way structures and technologies store human praxis, or past living labor, while condensing it into 2020. The present essay intends to add a phenomenological dimension to such analyses. 5 As examples of the seriality, in addition to the queue at the bus stop (Sartre 2004, 256–69), Sartre also considers radio broadcasts (270–76) and markets (277–93). In Fredric Jameson’s opinion, in his 2004 foreword to the Critique, “the notion of seriality developed here is the only philosophically satisfactory theory of public opinion, the only genuine philosophy of the media, that anyone has proposed to date” (Sartre 2004, xxviii). “Thus isolation is a project.” 319 inert objective form.6 In the practico-inert, the active component of praxis carries over into the present and towards the future, as the built environ- ment and its technologies present themselves as instruments to be utilized towards the realization of our goals; but the inertia of the material object and its rootedness in the past (the time of its manufacture) stands as an obstacle, resisting the facility of use with a “coefficient of adversity”—a term that Sartre, as early as 1943 in his magnum opus Being and Nothingness, had borrowed from Gaston Bachelard in recognition of the friction that materi- ality and embodiment introduced into phenomenology (Sartre 1992, 324). In the circumstantial collective of the seriality, the individual Others gathered at the bus stop similarly tend to present themselves instrumentally, oscillating between coefficients of utility and adversity, and thus standing out quite often as obstacles to the realization of my goals. There are a limited number of seats on the bus, and everyone else becomes a competitor for a seat. But the competition is anonymous and passive, the individuals ignoring rather than confronting one another while occupying the same physical space. Alienation is therefore not just a psychological shortcoming, but materially enforced by way of the built environment, with its underlying exigencies and scarcities. And in this situation, one might embrace anonymity and further materialize it: a newspaper serves as a shield, protecting me from the other’s gaze—and “thus isolation is a project,” as I choose to wield the practico-inert and rein- force the separation constitutive of the seriality (Sartre 2004, 257–58). Today, of course, this familiar fact of public transportation persists, but with a difference: Sartre’s newspaper has now become a mobile screen, e.g. a smartphone or a tablet. The gestural cliché (inauthenticity-become-habit) of shielding one’s vision persists, but the medium is radically different, both technically and existentially.7 Rather than an inert object that, like the newspaper, simply records or preserves past labor, the screen is dynamic and changing; importantly, its dynamism is based in a feedback loop that incorporates present use, the casual or incidental labor of clicking and 6 Sartre identifies an “anti-dialectic, or dialectic against the dialectic (dialectic of pas- sivity), [which] must reveal series to us as a type of human gathering and alienation as a mediated relation to the other and to the objects of labour in the element of seriality as a serial mode of co-existence. At this level we will discover an equivalence between alienated praxis and worked inertia, and we shall call the domain of this equivalence the practico-inert ” (Sartre 2004, 66-67). For Sartre, in other words, this “anti-dialectic” describes the force or exigency of matter, which constrains existential freedom and commingles human and inanimate agencies in the serial production and con- sumption practices of industrial capitalism and the anonymous collective life of urban environments. 7 Various accounts of digital media foreground their isolating effects; see, for example, Turkle 2011. What is missing from most such accounts, however, is close phenomenological attention to the spatial and temporal vicissitudes of these new technical and existential forms. 320 Pandemic Media scrolling, into the ongoing production of value.8 Moreover, screen-phenomena are generated out of predictive, future-oriented processes, like autocorrect algorithms, that actively anticipate and thereby shape the subjectivity of the user.9 This anticipatory logic is also at the heart of our videoconferencing ses- sions, which depend on compression protocols that predict changes at the level of the pixel, microtemporally generating images on the basis of which parts of the scene are expected to remain static (e.g. the background) or change (e.g. the figure of the speaking subject). As a technological artifact, the screen remains a practico-inert object, storing the labor of factory workers and engineers while embodying a dumb physicality: it sits there, inert on my desk or in my lap, a material barrier between me and my interlocutors. But in operation, the screen instantiates a new temporality that transcends its physical inertia. Its protentional, predictive processes endow it with greater agency as its anticipatory dimensions intertwine with my own being-towards- the-future.10 Engaging with one another through these digital mirrors, our reflections warped both by microtemporal delays and by predictive generativities, the present of our subjectivities—and the conditions of life itself—are radically altered. Life now takes place in what Vivian Sobchack has called the “screen-sphere” (Sobchack 2016). Importantly, this condition does not end when we leave the bubble of the video chat, when the world “re-opens” and we emerge from quarantine. For what the pandemic-induced project of isolation reveals to us is a more basic transformation: the practico-inert, while still very much a condition of our social existence, has given way to a new condition that might be termed the practico-alert. Alertness, always being ready, is both a technical fact of pre- dictive computation and a constant demand on our attention; present experi- ence no longer takes place against a neutral background of the past distilled in the form of inert objects and built environments, but in concert with “smart” devices, even “smart cities” that anticipate our every move.11 Our predictive technologies, always alert to the contingencies of the ever-shifting future, demand that we too are always alert—and it is exhausting.12 8 See, for example, Pasquinelli 2009. 9 These generative, future-oriented processes, which distinguish computational media from the past-oriented recording processes common to cinema, photography, and phonography, for example, are a major focus of my book Discorrelated Images (2020). 10 As I argue in Discorrelated Images, this intertwinement means that computationally rendered images affect us on a pre-personal, “metabolic” level. 11 On smart cities and the way their computational infrastructures enforce new forms of governmentality, see Halpern 2015. For an argument that cities have always, in a sense, been “smart,” see Mattern 2017. 12 This shift from the practico-inert to the practico-alert, along with the phenomenological, aesthetic, and political implications of the transformation of media technologies from a recording-based or retentional to a predictive or protentional functionality, is the topic of my next book project, tentatively titled The New Seriality: Political Aesthetics in a Digital Lifeworld. “Thus isolation is a project.” 321 Returning to the streets, for example to protest police brutality and pro- claim that Black Lives Matter, is thus hardly an escape from screen-mediated life. Rather, we subject ourselves to increased state surveillance and media scrutiny, thus appearing as bodies and biometric data on countless screens. But mobile screens can also serve, in this environment, as literal shields, when the camera is turned towards the police for purposes of accountability and deterrence. And our screens are of course essential to organizing. Thus, the duality of the screen, which the project of isolation foregrounded in dramatic fashion, might be seized upon as the basis of reversal, from seriality to sol- idarity, from passive alienation to active resistance. This more deliberate form of union will require hard work and redoubled alertness—but perhaps there is a sliver of hope for a more just future amidst the horrors, injustices, and iso- lations of screen-mediated life. I would like to thank Vivian Sobchack, Scott Bukatman, Elizabeth A. Kessler, and Karin Denson for their comments on an early draft of this essay, which we appropriately discussed “together apart” during a virtual happy hour via Zoom. Thanks also to the participants in the “Media Technology Theory” seminar, co-taught with Fred Turner at Stanford in Spring 2020, during which we conducted, again via Zoom, a phenomenological interrogation of the interface and screen-space of Zoom; and to Hank Gerba, with whom I worked through Sartre’s notion of seriality in the independent study course mentioned above. And thank you, finally, to the two anonymous reviewers and to the editors of this volume for their valuable feedback. References Bailenson, Jeremy. 2020. “Why Zoom Meetings Can Exhaust Us.” Wall Street Journal, April 3. Accessed June 15, 2020. https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-zoom-meetings-can-exhaust-us- 11585953336. Cavell, Stanley. 1979. The World Viewed: Reflections on the Ontology of Film. Enlarged ed. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Denson, Shane. 2020. Discorrelated Images. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Fosslien, Liz, and Molly West Duffy. 2020. “How to Combat Zoom Fatigue.” Harvard Business Review, April 29. Accessed June 15, 2020. https://hbr.org/2020/04/how-to-combat-zoom- fatigue. Halpern, Orit. 2015. Beautiful Data: A History of Vision and Reason since 1945. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Ihde, Don. 1990. Technology and the Lifeworld: From Garden to Earth. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Mattern, Shannon. 2017. Code and Clay, Data and Dirt: Five Thousand Years of Urban Media. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Pasquinelli, Matteo. 2009. “Google’s PageRank Algorithm: A Diagram of Cognitive Capitalism and the Rentier of the Common Intellect.” In Deep Search: The Politics of Search beyond Google, edited by Konrad Becker and Felix Stadler, 152–63. London: Transaction Publishers. Sartre, Jean-Paul. 1992 [1943]. Being and Nothingness: A Phenomenological Essay on Ontology. Translated by Hazel E. Barnes. New York: Washington Square Press. 322 Pandemic Media — — — . 2004 [1960]. Critique of Dialectical Reason, Volume One: Theory of Practical Ensembles. Translated by Alan Sheridan-Smith. London: Verso. Sobchack, Vivian. 1992. The Address of the Eye: A Phenomenology of Film Experience. Princeton: Princeton University Press. — — — . 2016. “From Screen-Scape to Screen-Sphere: A Mediation in Medias Res.” In Screens: From Materiality to Spectatorship, edited by Dominique Chateau and José Moure, 157–75. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. Turkle, Sherry. 2011. Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other. New York: Basic Books. SOCIAL MEDIA VIRAL IMAGES DISCURSIVE SPACE MIRGRANT WORKERS [ 3 3 ] Mapping Mutations: Tracing the Travel of a Viral Image Amrita Biswas This paper seeks to map the circuit of travel of an image that went viral on social media during the pan- demic-induced lockdown. The viral image pervaded the Indian mediascape, triggering its mutation into diverse media forms that critically commented on the socio-political context of the viral image. Analyzing the social media circulation of the viral image and the subsequent media texts that it inspired, this paper studies how social media was employed as a site of discourse generation during the pandemic. Saturating the sensory regime of Indians, remaining locked down in their homes during the pandemic, was a familiar image: of millions of migrant workers clinging on to their scant possessions, while covering distances of hundreds of kilometers on foot. As a preventive measure for flattening the curve of the spread of the coronavirus disease, the Prime Minister of India announced a nationwide lockdown on the 24th of March, 2020. Ironically, the announcement was made only four hours in advance of its imposition, trigger- ing a mass exodus of migrant workers who formed the backbone of the urban informal economy. 326 Pandemic Media Acquiring Visibility: The Plight of Migrant Workers With the lockdown triggering a massive humanitarian crisis, the dehumanized “hidden, silent underbelly” of the city, who mostly “appear as lifeless statis- tics or as problems to be tackled,” erupted as a potent visible force to reckon with (Pendse 1996, 4). The apathy of the state towards the migrants neces- sitated various solidarity networks, media organizations, civic volunteers, and oppositional political parties to bear the responsibility of providing relief to the stranded migrants. The afore-mentioned collectives, by tracing and map- ping the narratives of the laborers’ experiences through images and videos, significantly contributed to an awareness about the severity of the exodus crisis. These haunting visuals, on being uploaded to social media, gripped the national imaginary by acquiring an affective virality. In this paper, I study a specific image that went viral on social media and analyze its circuit of travel as it mutated into several allusive media texts that were also circulated on social networking sites as a response to the initial viral image. [Figure 1] The image of the toddler tugging at the shroud that covered his mother in a railway station in Bihar, India. (Source: Online article by Aljazeera 2020, https://www. aljazeera.com/news/2020/05/india-toddler-waking-dead-mother-highlights-migrants-mis- ery-200528043019019.html) A video that went viral on social media showed a toddler playfully tugging at the shroud of his dead mother, in an attempt to wake her up, while she lay motionless on the Muzaffarpur railway platform in Bihar (fig. 1). The woman Mapping Mutations 327 had boarded the Shramik Special train1 along with her family to reach home but had collapsed due to extreme heat and lack of food and water. The video, which had first been uploaded to social media by Sanjay Yadav, political advi- sor to the leader of opposition in the Bihar State Assembly, punctured the con- science of netizens and evoked an affective response from them. The specific moment of the child’s pulling of the shroud became crystallized in people’s memory as the image was extracted from the video and ossified, with all it ’s tragic overtones, in several media texts. [Figure 2] Screenshot from the Facebook page of Bollywood actor Taapsee Pannu where she shared the film Pravaasi. (Source: Facebook page of Taapsee Pannu 2020, https://www.face- book.com/watch/?v=542005483133079&extid=DOgPT2vasBL5TmBs) This viral video formed one of the many viral visuals that were collated in a short animation film by Kireet Khurana, titled Pravaasi/Migrant, in which Bollywood actor Taapsee Pannu lent her voice in an apologetic tone (fig. 2). In his adaptation of the viral video, the filmmaker strategically stripped the visual of all situational and background information to carefully direct the audience’s attention solely towards the individual tragic incident. Using potent red, black, and white, the film captures the specific moment of the toddler tugging at the shroud while earnest infantile wails are heard on the soundtrack. Assuming the identity and the collective voice of the community of migrant workers, the voiceover pierces through the personal moment of loss, pleading that the community only demands to be treated as dignified humans. The image of the toddler is suggestively followed by a haunting refrain that creates a rupture in the intimate tragic event by evoking the socio-political context of the tragedy: 1 After migrant workers protested against their inability to go home, the government allowed the operation of special trains to allow the workers to travel. However, faulty planning and lack of co-ordination among states resulted in a number of trains reaching wrong destinations. This made the train journeys arduous, resulting in a lack of food and water during the duration of travel, which triggered further deaths. 328 Pandemic Media “Hum toh bus pravasi hain / We are just migrants/ Kya iss desh ke vaasi hain? / Are we citizens of this nation?” This subtle conjunction was aimed at making people conscious of the strate- gies by which the state had deprived the internal migrants of their dignified subject position of a citizen of the nation. The film offers an insight into the notion of citizenship as conceptualized by the state, besides critiquing the nexus of class-caste privileges that the state ensured for the urban elites and the international migrants. Being marginalized by structural injustices that are operative along class-caste co-ordinates, migrant workers have been doubly oppressed. This is because they “are not formally recognized either as citizens nor as workers” by the state with the lack of legal employment protec- tion guarantees gnawing at their precarious urban existences (Ahmed and Deshingkar 2020). Realizing how urban elites had condemned the migrants for being carriers of the virus, Khurana wanted to offer a counter-perspective by empathizing with the ordeals that the migrants underwent (quoted in Sebas- tian 2020). In an interview with HuffPost, Khurana stated that his motivation behind making the film was to ensure that the harrowing viral images were never erased from the collective memory. Reading through the comments section on Facebook where Taapsee Pannu had shared the film, it became evident that the video had enabled the initia- tion of a discursive realm on the website. While a section of users trolled the Bollywood actor for criticizing the government from the comfort of her home, others supported her right to voice her opinion about the migrant crisis. Further, some users slammed the video as a publicity stunt while others stated that the video exposed the dehumanization that the migrant workers had been subjected to during the pandemic. What is significant is that the viral image of the toddler inspired another media text, the circulation and subse- quent virality of which triggered social media users to further engage with and reflect on the tragic incident, thereby fostering a discursive space (Abdo 2018). Irrespective of how individual users reacted to the toddler’s personal loss, what is crucial is that the image of the toddler could not be unseen. The mold- ing of the initial viral image into subsequent media texts also points towards how the image had attained a visual pervasiveness, suggesting that the image and its context would be common knowledge among the people of the nation. Besides depicting the incident with all its affective textures, the filmmaker imbued the viral image with a critical value by associating the personal tragedy with the statist conception of citizenship. That the video resonated with neti- zens who were touched by the apologetic voiceover and the evocative refrain is evidenced by its virality. Mapping Mutations 329 [Figure 3] Screenshot from the Facebook page of Cartoonist Bala, where he shared his rendition of the viral image of the toddler. (Source: Facebook page of Cartoonist Bala 2020, https://www. facebook.com/167570143299823/photos/a.385032944886874/3103293496394125/) The viral video of the toddler also inspired a cartoon by cartoonist Bala, where those in power are seen sleeping peacefully, unaffected by the plight of the toddler while he tries to wake them up from their apathy (fig. 3). The artist uses the frozen moment of the toddler tugging at the blanket but he shifts the focal point of attention from that of the deceased mother to the Prime Minister and Home Minister of India who occupy the foreground of the image. This shift provides a crucial vantage point to critique the statist response to the lockdown-induced migrant exodus. By associating the heads of state with the crisis of the toddler, the artist punctures the intimate moment of per- sonal loss to comment on the institutional indifference that was meted out to the community of workers. Simultaneously underlining the individual tragic moment that befell the toddler and the apathy of the government administra- tion, the cartoon resonated with netizens. Attempting to understand netizens’ reaction to the artist’s rendition of the viral image, I read the comments on the Facebook page of the cartoonist where the cartoon was uploaded. A user stated that he could not imagine the pain that the mother underwent before her death, being unable to provide food for her hungry son. Another netizen commented that the woes of the migrants would be overlooked by the televi- sion channels that would proclaim the financial aid offered by the government to the migrants. With arguments and counter-arguments, political responses and emotional outcries, the comments section emerged as a powerful partici- patory interface. 330 Pandemic Media Social Media Websites as a Site of Discourse Generation The plethora of ocular and aural signifiers of the migrant crisis encoded an emotive dimension that acted as a catalyst for their virality (Berger and Milk- man 2012). The image of the toddler is, thus, one of the many evocative images that went viral on social media during the pandemic. With the subsequent mutation of the viral image into multiple media objects (such as illustrations, video essays, cartoons, and animation films) that were further circulated on social media, the virtual platforms sustained a dialogic engagement with the context of the image. This can be significantly attributed to the fact that social media users recognized the virtual domain as a potent interface with the external social world while being locked down in their homes (Pybus 2013). This virtual communicative network was crucial to the process of discourse generation where users reflected on the viral image and its specific contexts that were being critically addressed by the allusive media texts (Schrøder 2007; Roese 2018). While the artists referred to the viral image to offer a socio- political critique of the exodus, the users collaborated to foster a “space of interpretation that has the power to make meaning through its ability to privi- lege certain discourses over others” (Pybus 2013, 140). Thus, with the develop- ment of such “collaborative” processes, where artists and users both partici- pated in adding critical meaning to a viral image, social media emerged as an active discursive domain ( Jackson 2020, 93). It has already been suggested that the socially marginalized community of migrant workers acquired a media visibility during the pandemic (Chatterjee 2020; Dharker 2020). I argue that the visibility of the community of migrant workers was sustained by the employ- ment of social media websites as an active site of discourse generation. This was achieved by the social media circulation of viral images as well as media texts that critically commented on the viral images. Both the processes helped build networks of sociality during the lockdown, ushering in the possibility for netizens to circulate, engage with and respond to the viral media objects on social networking websites. Social media, therefore, contributed to an ever “evolving tableau of public memory” by ensuring that the viral image of the toddler left an indelible mark in the visual and discursive regime of the nation (Haskins 2015, 49). Significant to the process, however, has been the employment of social media as a crucial discursive arena that has helped attribute critical value and meaning to a viral image by ushering in an interactive and participatory interface. Interest- ingly, the social network witnessed analytical reflections on not only the viral image but also its multiple mutations that were circulated as a commentary on the viral image. This paper, thus, analyzes the virality and ocular centrality Mapping Mutations 331 of the image of the toddler by tracing the trajectory of its social media travel through a mapping of the different media adaptations that it engendered. References Abdo, Alex. 2018. “Facebook Is Shaping Public Discourse: We Need to Understand How.” The Guardian, September 15. Accessed August 16, 2020. https://www.theguardian.com/ commentisfree/2018/sep/15/facebook-twitter-social-media-public-discourse. Ahmed, Nabeela and Priya Deshingkar. 2020. “Locked Out Under Coronavirus Lockdown—Con- tinuing Exclusion Of India’s Migrant Workforce.” Discover Society, April 1. Accessed June 7, 2020. https://discoversociety.org/2020/04/01/locked-out-under-coronavirus- lockdown-continuing-exclusion-of-indias-migrant-workforce/. Berger, Jonah, and Katherine L. Milkman. 2012. “What Makes Online Content Viral?” Journal of Marketing Research 49 (2): 192–205. Chatterjee, Patralekha. 2020. “The Pandemic Exposes India’s Apathy Toward Migrant Work- ers.” The Atlantic, April 12. Accessed August 17, 2020. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/ archive/2020/04/the-pandemic-exposes-indias-two-worlds/609838/. Dharker, Anil. 2020. “Covid-19 Has Made Migrant Workers’ Plight, State Apathy Visible.” The Indian Express, May 25. Accessed August 15, 2020. https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/ columns/invisible-india-migrant-exodus-coronavirus-6425627/. Garde-Hansen, Joanne. 2011. Media and Memory. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Haskins, Ekaterina V. 2015. Popular Memories: Commemoration, Participatory Culture, and Democratic Citizenship. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press. Pendse, Sandeep. 1996. “Toil, Sweat & the City.” In Bombay: Metaphor for Modern India, edited by Sujata Patel and Alice Thorner, 3–25. Bombay: Oxford University Press. Pybus, Jennifer. 2013. “Social Networks and Cultural Workers.” Journal of Cultural Economy 6 (2): 137–52. doi:10.1080/17530350.2012.742850. Roese, Vivian. 2018. “You Won’t Believe How Co-Dependent They Are: Or: Media Hype and the Interaction of News Media, Social Media, and the User.” In From Media Hype to Twitter Storm, edited by Peter Vasterman, 313–32. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. doi: 10.2307/j. ctt21215m0.19. Schrøder, Kim Christian. 2007. “Media Discourse Analysis: Researching Cultural Meanings from Inception to Reception.” Textual Cultures 2 (2): 77–99. Sebastian, Meryl. 2020. “Nation Failed Migrants, Says Director Of Viral Short ‘Pravaasi.’” HuffPost India. June 12. Accessed August 10, 2020. https://www.huffingtonpost.in/entry/ migrant-crisis-film-pravaasi-taapsee-pannu-kireet-khurana_in_5ee2fa80c5b67fa8b892228f. K-POP SOCIAL MEDIA PROTEST FANDOM [ 3 4 ] Pandemic Media: Protest Repertoires and K-pop’s Double Visions Michelle Cho Starting in late May of 2020, following the protests that erupted after the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, fans of Korean idol pop (K-pop)—a loose coalition of individuals identified by their sub- cultural consumption of South Korean youth-oriented pop performance culture—found their collective identity shifting from one of an often denigrated, caricatured fandom into an activist bloc, best- equipped to respond to the intertwined conditions of police violence and the COVID-19 pandemic’s intensification of structural and environmental racism in global cities in North America and Europe. This essay recounts two forms of pandemic media: K-pop fans’ online, antiracist protests and transmedia K-pop content on YouTube and Twitter that has afforded K-pop a new visibility as a crossover youth culture throughout 2020, to query the ways in which COVID-19 has reoriented the global media landscape, to both 334 Pandemic Media create new modes and spaces of protest and assem- blage online, while also ensnaring K-pop fan protest further in a commercialized platform ecology that commodifies fans’ attention and activist impulses. Overall, K-pop fan protest repertoires illustrate the ways in which contemporary media structure a dialectic of reification and resistance that delimits forms of mediated “direct action” in the U.S.—the region hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic. 2020 began with a bang for the Korean pop group BTS. Following weeks of anticipation and record-breaking pre-sales, their album Map of the Soul: 7 was released to great fanfare in February 2020, becoming the biggest selling album of all time in South Korea, and topping pop music charts in over twenty countries, including Billboard’s illustrious albums chart in the U.S. Despite alarmingly fast spread of a South Korean cluster of COVID-19 cases, and the government’s large-scale containment efforts there, the group released multiple music videos for the album’s two lead tracks, and promoted the album and forthcoming world tour on several American television shows and media outlets during February and early March. But as the pandemic spread through North America (mainly via Europe, rather than East Asia), BTS and its powerful fandom called ARMY had to shelve their plans to gather on the group’s tour, forgoing the excitement of the mass spectacles that have become a feature of live, K-pop performance. Instead, the group’s international fandom were left to cling to the digital intimacies that the group has fostered with fans through a steady and robust stream of social media content on Twitter, VLive (South Korean tech company Naver’s celebrity live-streaming app), and the proprietary fandom platform Weverse, developed and owned by the band’s management company Big Hit Entertainment. The period of pandemic self-isolation not only heightened digital connections between fans and their favorite groups, but also brought new initiates into the fold. One might argue that pandemic conditions have increased the power of media companies, whether broadcast or digital, since captive audiences under lockdown have grown increasingly dependent on forms of mediated connection. The prolonged period of homebound isolation seems also to have channeled vital energies of critique, especially among the young, who have been forced to suspend their lives in the face of a bleak economic forecast and public health crisis, with no relief in sight. This growing critical consciousness Pandemic Media 335 erupted in the uprisings that followed the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25, 2020. As protesters surged into the streets to express their grief and rage at the unmitigated cruelty and injustice of Floyd’s death, many fans across the globe contributed their efforts through the conversion of fan activities into a repertoire of anti-racist protest: hash-tag activism, attention-jacking, and online fundraising and organizing, many in the name of K-pop fandom and the BTS ARMY. This essay proposes two forms of pandemic media: first, media released and consumed during the pandemic, which has kneecapped most brick and mortar enterprises, but invigorated digital teleconferencing, streaming, and content-sharing platforms. Indeed big tech has seen its profits grow handsomely from the shift of work and leisure, alike, to online platforms, and K-pop entertainment industries, which already cultivate multi-sited, mediated intimacies through technological means, have emerged as leaders of remote, live-streamed pop concerts that will likely transform the business of pop performance. The other form of pandemic media that I address is media that responds specifically to the intertwining pandemic conditions of the public health crisis caused by COVID-19 and the latter’s unveiling of the necropolitical intersection of structural inequities of race and class, specifically the way that K-pop’s media fandom swiftly joined the coalition of anti-racist protesters through their hashtag and attention-jacking activism. The first section of what follows details the citation practices characteristic of K-pop content. As a cultural form that moves across media regions and platforms, K-pop innovates on a model of polyvocality best enacted by American culture industries. Spe- cifically, I look at BTS’s music video output, released in the early days of the pandemic. In the second section, I discuss the transformative use that fans have made of the first form of pandemic media, to use the legibility and ready- made networks built through their fandom to make a deft pivot to activism. K-pop’s Double Visions The first single from Map of the Soul: 7 to be released with accompanying music videos was an EDM/R&B track called “Black Swan.” BTS’s content is famously dense with intertextual citations, and this wasn’t the first time that the group paid homage to a cinematic inspiration.1 The reference here is unmistakable— Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan (2010)—cited in the song’s title, accompanying live performance choreography, and official music video. Aronofsky’s film is of course itself an adaptation of Tchaikovsky’s 1877 ballet Swan Lake, a work centered on the trope of the doppelganger/evil twin that is found in numerous 1 The group released a series of albums in 2015–16 called “The Most Beautiful Moment in Life” trilogy. This is the English translation of the idiom HwaYangYeonHwa, the Korean version of 花樣年華, which is also the Chinese title of Wong Kar Wai’s In the Mood for Love (2000). 336 Pandemic Media works from the romantic period, as well as SF, fantasy, and psychological thriller genres in Hollywood and abroad.2 Aronofsky is known to be a fan of the virtuosic Japanese animator, Kon Satoshi, a fellow doppelganger-obsessed auteur, and BTS’s Black Swan also ports works like Kon’s Perfect Blue and Paprika, alongside Aronofsky’s film.3 The group’s official music video for the single was filmed at the Los Angeles Theater, the art deco movie house that was the last to be built in the city’s historic downtown in 1930, before the center of film exhibition moved to Hollywood Boulevard. Closed as a screening venue since the mid-1990s, the Los Angeles Theater now only opens its doors as a filming location and special-event rental space, serving as a dramatic setting for BTS’s theatrical concept, while signaling the layered significance of inter-mediation, Hollywood’s displacement, and cinema’s fading glory. Yet, if Black Swan presents an elegiac image of cinema, as defined by nos- talgia for Old Hollywood glamour and its high-modernist, split psyche, the music video “Daechwita” released as a solo venture by BTS member Suga (Min Yoon-ki) in May, 2020 after months of COVID-19 isolation and just three days before George Floyd’s murder, announced an altogether different approach to cinema, history, and identity. Daechwita looks to South Korean cinema for inspiration, especially its fabricated scenes of Korean history, which have been worked and reworked through the film and TV genre of sageuk, or Choseon period historical drama.4 Set in the Choseon era, Daechwita is named after the highly codified, ceremonial musical accompaniment (the characters in the word Daechwita are “Dae”—large, grand, great; “Chwi”—to blow (a horn or wind instrument); “Ta”—to hit (a drum)) to the Choseon king’s procession. The story told by the video is adapted from the 2012 Korean film Masquerade (dir. Choo Chang-min), also known by its Korean title Gwanghae: The Man who Became King. Constructing a doppelganger story on the scaffolding of the historical account of Gwanghae, the fifteenth ruler in the long Choseon Dynasty, Masquerade suggests that the cruel and paranoid King Gwanghae 2 For an incisive analysis of the doppelganger as a hallmark of Japanese film and lit- erature, from the period of interwar modernization through the present, see Posadas 2018. 3 Fans of BTS are skilled close-readers and detectives, and often share their analyses of the group’s work in articles such as Nakeisha Campbell’s “All the Details You Need to Know About BTS’ ‘Black Swan’ Music Video,” which finds the visual matches from Aronofsky’s Black Swan (2010) and the group’s music video: https://www.distractify. com/p/where-was-bts-black-swan-filmed. Accessed June 16, 2020. 4 The Choseon (also romanized as Joseon or Choson) period refers to the era in which the Korean peninsula was governed as a dynastic kingdom under the Choseon Dynasty from 1392 to 1897. The culture of the Choseon period is widely accepted today as synony- mous with Korean traditional culture and history; the latter owes in large part to the meticulous court records that were kept in almost continuous daily logs throughout the dynasty. Most period dramas involve historical figures from these court chron- icles, though a genre of “fusion saguk ” has emerged since the mid 2000s, which fuses elements of sageuk—historical drama—with fictional elements. Pandemic Media 337 used a commoner double in his official appearances, for fear of assassination. Masquerade was a major box office hit in South Korea that swept the Grand Bell Awards, South Korea’s equivalent of the Oscars. Given the signal boost garnered by South Korean cinema when Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite won Holly- wood’s greatest accolade earlier in 2020—the Academy Award for Best Picture—it is now clear that U.S. culture industries eye South Korea, just as K-pop’s double visions center Hollywood and the US market.5 Embedded in Masquerade’s thoroughly commercialized revisionist history is a tense con- tradiction between the desire to place populism at the core of Korean culture and a move to affirm the pageantry and grandeur of the royal Choseon court, the acme of a feudal society structured by caste hierarchies. Pop Protest Ultimately, Masquerade’s retelling of King Gwanghae’s story advocates a populist message, in keeping with South Korea’s hard-won status as a daz- zling twenty-first century beacon of democratic reform across a region that is otherwise overshadowed by right-wing xenophobia in Shinzo Abe’s Japan and repressive Chinese state action in Hong Kong and Xinjiang, home to China’s Muslim Uighur community. South Korea’s emphatically liberal national character was consolidated by 2016’s Candlelight Protest movement that led to the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye, the daughter of the dictatorial President Park Chung-hee, who governed the country during its postwar industrialization from 1961–1979. However, despite the public’s deci- sive rejection of Park’s dynastic presidency and its embrace of direct-action protest as national character, South Korea remains deeply implicated in a neoliberal order that keeps its citizenry in a state of individualized alienation. Although South Korea and its liberal leader Moon Jae-in have been lauded for the country’s swift response to the coronavirus, the management of COVID relies on a surveillance system unrivaled in the world, which operates through the ICT infrastructure of ubiquitous computing ushered in by the dream of global cities and special economic zones.6 Pandemic conditions put a paradoxical, benevolent face on a system of control that recalls the dictator- ship era and shores up the profits of multinational big data, like the mirror image of Odette and her evil doppelganger. 5 As others have also noted, Parasite ’s story of lives of underground confinement and the crushing weight of poverty also seems to have foretold the coming catastrophe, as COVID-19 laid bare the pervasive, systemic injustices of late capitalist life. See Suzy Kim’s post for the positions blog, “Parasites in the Time of Coronavirus,” http://position- swebsite.org/episteme-2-kim/. 6 See Orit Halperin and Joseph Jeon’s discussions of the smart city project of Songdo in the Prologue and Conclusion of Halperin’s Beautiful Data: A History of Vision and Reason Since 1945 (Durham, NC: Duke UP, 2015) and Jeon’s Vicious Circuits: Korea’s IMF Cinema and the End of the American Century (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2019), 116–21. 338 Pandemic Media In Daechwita, BTS’s Suga (Min Yoon-ki) plays two roles as both the tyrannical king and the commoner double. While the actual King Gwanghae was dethroned and exiled in a coup d’etat perpetrated by an opposing faction of court officials, Daechwita’s Gwanghae is deposed in a populist revolt by his double, the commoner. Daechwita thus chooses to stage a fantasy of Choseon-era rebellion, whereas the close to 500-year dynasty dealt with intermittent peasant rebellion with a brutal hand; instead, it was definitively overcome by a modern world order that brought Japanese colonial incursions by the end of the nineteenth century, as students of Korean history will know quite well. Daechwita’s fantasy scenario also turns the pauper-against-prince antagonism into a psychological struggle between Suga’s current, chart-top- ping celebrity persona, full of arrogance and bluster, and his prior, hard- working rookie self. Daechwita’s ambivalent approach to populist resistance is clear in the ways that it uses the latter as an allegory for the integration of the artist’s dual image as both K-pop royalty and humble underdog that serves as the core of BTS’s star text. [Figure 1] Screenshot from Daechwita MV During the first week of June, when the protests against systemic racism in the US were raging on the streets of most American cities, K-pop fans quickly mobilized to spam police snitching apps like iDallas and take over hashtags like #whitelivesmatter and #calminkirkland, the latter of which asked citizens to surveil each other and publicize video evidence of criminal activity by pro- testers.7 What I saw in screenshots of K-pop fans’ takedowns of the iDallas app and later instances of K-pop twitter hashtag activism on behalf of Black Lives Matter were images and clips from the Daechwita video, especially scenes from the fiery moments preceding the overthrow of the sadistic ruler. The scenes from Daechwita were often, at first glance, plausible scenes of youthful 7 For an overview of online anti-racist activism attributed to K-pop fans, see “QAnon followers melt down after K-pop fans take over their hashtags” by Parker Molloy, June 5, 2020, on the Media Matters site: https://www.mediamatters.org/qanon-conspiracy- theory/qanon-followers-melt-down-after-k-pop-fans-take-over-their-hashtag?fbclid=- IwAR3fhki32yB13VhUy2c6Dd5tRVwV0-nKftWdiGuam54pNnVM04xP6VZs3D8. Pandemic Media 339 revolt (fig. 1), and seemed to serve as foils to the more satirical and playful stream of “fancam” clips—fan-recorded footage of pop idol performances— and GIFs of pop idols cutely mugging for the camera. The protest gesture of attention-jacking racist hashtags or snitch apps with Daechwita images con- veyed both the seriousness of activist intent and an ironic, disaffected stance that adopted Daechwita’s ambivalence towards revolutionary collectivity. Perhaps this is the best that commercial pop culture can offer as a source of resistance to the social institutions that preserve and protect the circulation of pop commodities in the first place. By adapting Daechwita’s commercialized images of populist, youth rebellion into the repertoire of contemporary protest techniques in pandemic con- ditions, BTS fans politicize their fandom and convert fan networks into a form of activist organizing. Wrestling hashtags away from white supremacists con- stitutes strategic fan participation in spaces that are not expressly intended as platforms for such gestures, yet there is also a potential for these activities to revert to mere amplification for the sake of promoting the celebrity idol. This seems to be the outcome of the summer of 2020, when K-pop fans became interpellated as Tik-Tok and Twitter warriors against white supremacy. In the months since the upsurge of street protests led by the Black Lives Matter movement in the U.S., K-pop fans have resumed their regular activities of promoting K-pop artists’ releases on global and US-based singles and albums charts. Notably for BTS, “Dynamite,” their follow-up single to the Map of the Soul: 7 album, made history as the first K-pop song to reach the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, demonstrating that the ARMY’s growth through the summer of COVID and the consciousness-raising activities of K-pop fandom has led to the group’s convincing commercial breakthrough on the pop charts. This is hardly the political victory that BLM and activists calling for defunding the police are looking for. Yet, this is perhaps an unsurprising demonstration of the power of publicity. The notion of youth rebellion against authority is both inspiring and trite, and Daechwita’s incitement against authority can be both at the same time, as is the case with youth culture, at large. None- theless, what BTS’s COVID-era music video aesthetics confirm is the mutable, and always uncertain pull of co-option in pop protest, especially the sort that coalesces around fan identity as the basis for coalition-building. What we may see from K-pop fans in the future is not fixed, however, as the duality that is built into the form continues to make the urge to visibility of the fandom avail- able to future collective actions. The lessons of K-pop’s pandemic media have coalesced into a fan-activist repertoire that may yet be mobilized, long after the resolution of COVID-19. 340 Pandemic Media References Campbell, Nakeisha. 2020. “All the Details You Need to Know About BTS’ “Black Swan” Music Video.” Distractify. Accessed June 16, 2020. https://www.distractify.com/p/where-was- bts-black-swan-filmed. Halperin, Orit. 2015. Beautiful Data: A History of Vision and Reason Since 1945. Durham, NC: Duke UP. Jeon Jonghyun, Joseph. 2019. Vicious Circuits: Korea’s IMF Cinema and the End of the American Century. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. Kim, Suzy. 2020. "Parasites in the Time of Coronavirus." positions politics. Accessed December 20, 2020 http://positionswebsite.org/episteme-2-kim/. Molloy, Parker. 2020. "QAnon followers melt down after K-pop fans take over their hashtags.” Media Matters, June 5. Accessed December 20, 2020. https://www.mediamatters.org/qanon- conspiracy-theory/qanon-followers-melt-down-after-k-pop-fans-take-over-their- hashtag?fbclid=-IwAR3fhki32yB13VhUy2c6Dd5tRVwV0-nKftWdiGuam54pNnVM04xP6VZs3D8. Posadas, Baryon Tensor. 2018. Double Visions, Double Fictions: The Doppelgänger in Japanese Film and Literature. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. MEDIA AND GOVERNANCE TELEVISION STUDIES PARASOCIAL INTERACTION HOME SHOPPING [ 3 5 ] How to Fight a Pandemic with Status Elevation: The Home Shopping Governance of Donald J. Trump Vinzenz Hediger In the last few months, US president Donald J. Trump has repeatedly scandalized observers by applying the presentational modes of home shopping television to his public pronouncements on the pandemic. This con- tribution argues that Trump’s home shopping mode of address is not another in a long series of taste- less aberrations and breaches of protocol. Rather, it is an intrinsic element of his television personality, a source of his political leverage and a key to under- standing his mode of governance. 344 Pandemic Media [Figure 1] The Bible Salesman (Source: Screenshot of https://www.newyorker.com/news/ daily-comment/an-abuse-of-sacred-symbols-trump-a-bible-and-a-sanctuary) If Trump gets blown out, Trumpism will be remem- bered as a luxury good for well-off white people and less a response to economic desperation. Matthew Zeitlin, July 7, 2020 I On June 2, 2020, The New Yorker published an article by Evan Osnos entitled “‘An Abuse of Sacred Symbols’: Trump, a Bible, and a Sanctuary” with the above photograph and caption (fig. 1). On June 1, had Trump ordered a teargas attack on peaceful protesters to clear the way for a photo opportunity at St. John’s Church across from the White House. Standing in front of the church, Trump presented a Bible to the camera, a signal to his core constituency, racist white southern evangelicals. The stunt was widely condemned, among others by Mariann Budde, the Episcopalian bishop of Washington D.C., who expressed her outrage that Trump “felt he had the license … to abuse our How to Fight a Pandemic with Status Elevation 345 sacred symbols and our sacred space in that way.” Osnos expressed his dis- approval not least through his framing: Trump “held up a Bible and posed with it for the cameras, clasping it to his chest, bouncing it in his hand, turning it to and fro, like a product on QVC.” Describing the photo-op as a “crude simu- lation of leadership,” Osnos continued: “He assembled a pageant of symbols that he knows have power over others—the Bible, the gun, and the shield. And he tossed them together in a cruel jumble of nonsense.” QVC, a cable shopping channel founded in 1986—the acronym stands for “Quality Value Convenience”—reaches 360 million households in seven coun- tries: the US, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, and China, i.e. the G7 minus Canada plus the PRC, where QVC operates a joint-venture with state TV. On QVC slick hosts—often celebrities like comedian Joan Rivers—plug fashion, household appliances, and jewelry for phone and online orders. If The New Yorker represents the apogee of cultural prestige in American media, QVC is located near the opposite end of that spectrum. From the height of his standing, Osnos wields the QVC reference for cultural leverage and moral condemnation. But in his indignation, he misses out on its heuristic and analytic power. What the current pandemic throws into high relief is that the home shopping template is not another tasteless aberration or breach of protocol, but an intrinsic element of Trump’s television per- sonality and, therefore, his mode of governing. Foregrounding, as it does, the intimate space of home shopping to obfuscate the macro sites of maintenance and care, the teleshopping template also helps us understand the limitations of Trump’s governance in the face of a global health crisis. II In a keynote titled “Poor Old Television” at the 2010 Istanbul NECS conference, Charlotte Brunsdon, a key figure in television studies, offered an ironic paean to what was arguably still the most powerful audiovisual medium, and how it had fallen out of academic fashion: linear television. Trump’s win in 2016 revealed this to be a problem. “Quality TV” had turned television into a safe subject for professors of English. But the real story of the twenty-first century was the global ascendancy of reality TV. Much has been witten on Big Brother, Survivor and The Bachelor. But The Apprentice, which turned a failing tycoon into an emblem of business acumen, only attracted scant attention, mostly as a cautionary tale about neoliberalism (e.g. Couldry 2008; Windle 2010; Couldry and Littler 2011).1 Only when it was too late, i.e. with Trump well on the way to the White House, did television studies really start to pay attention. A dossier in Television and New Media in the summer of 2016 assembled short “ruminations on Trump” as “apotheosis of the new culture of promotionalism” 1 E.g. Couldry (2008), Windle (2010), Couldry and Littler (2011). 346 Pandemic Media (Negra 2016, 646). One title spelled out the field’s sin of omission—“Don’t misunderestimate the Donald (like we did)”—while Laurie Oulette highlighted “reality TV’s long-established role in governing practices” and its resonance with the “illiberal pressure points of free market political rationalities” to circumscribe the work that should have been done (Ouelette 2016, 649).2 Maybe Trump managed to fly under the radar of critical media studies for so long because he has no secret and is “just boring,” as Stephen Colbert recently put it. This may also be why Audience of One, the one book so far on Trump the TV character, thoroughly researched and engagingly written by New York Times TV critic James Poniewozik, reveals nothing really new (Poniewozik 2019). Still, scholars should have paid attention. After all, there are prominent historical templates. For instance, Mussolini’s similarity with Bartolomeo Pagano’s strongman film hero Maciste suggests that both “drew on common discourses, images, and commodities” including “the cult of the muscled male body, nationalism, colonialism, stardom, and fashion” (Rich 2015, 188). But then, analogies with twentieth-century fascism only go so far, as they distract “us from how we made Trump over decades” (Moyn 2020). Considering the fields’ feminist origins, it would be a sexist joke to blame television studies for not saving the world from Trump. But it is not too late for smaller things – for instance to understand why Trump has resorted to the home shopping template with increasing frequency in his response to the pandemic. Apart from the photo-op, which brought QVC to Evan Osnos’s mind, four episodes offer points of attack: After winning primaries in Michigan and Mis- sissippi on March 8, 2016, Trump plugged Trump products including vodka, steaks, water and wine, some of which had long gone out of production, at his press conference (fig.2). During the early briefings on the pandemic, Trump promoted the malaria drug Hydroxichloroquine, in which he owned shares (Voytko 2020). On March 29, he bought Mike Lindell, a teleshopping bedroom gear tycoon known as “The Pillow Guy,” to the Rose Garden to celebrate Trump’s leadership (fig. 3). And on July 15, Trump posted a photo of himself at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office promoting Goya products, a company which, according to its website, offers “authentic Latino food” and became the focus of a boycott after CEO Robert Unanue delivered another Rose Garden paean to Trump’s leadership (fig. 4). If we further consider that a pro-Trump book from 2016 is called Planes, Steaks and Water: Defending Donald J. Trump (Pruitt 2016) we see, as Trump himself would say, the need to “get to the bottom of this.” 2 Interestingly, one of the first collections of in-depth critical studies of Trump and tele- vision was published in Germany, where Trump has taken von Stroheim’s succession as “The Man You Love to Hate” across the political spectrum: Maeder et al. (2020). How to Fight a Pandemic with Status Elevation 347 [Figure 2] Trump products on display at the press conference after Trump's primary wins in Mississippi and Michigan on March 8, 2016. (Source: Mychal Watts/WireImage/Getty Images) [Figure 3] Mike Lindell praising Donald Tump in the Rose Garden, March 30, 2020 (Source: Alex Brandon/AP, https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/30/trump-nudging- mypillow-lindell-run-office-156195) [Figure 4] Gawking Goya Products to Chase Latino Votes: Trump at the Resolute Desk on July 2015 (Source: @realdonaldtrump/Instagram 2020) 348 Pandemic Media III “I admit that I am a QVC shopper”: David Gudelunas opens his essay QVC: Retail and Ritual (2002) with a confession, a performative illustration of his main claim that teleshopping is a “media ritual of status elevation” tied to status anxiety. Teleshopping starts out on local TV in Florida but enters the mainstream in 1986 with QVC, a company founded in West Chester, an affluent suburb of Philadelphia. Hollywood executive Barry Diller, who built Fox TV and came to teleshopping through his wife, fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg, turned QVC into a multinational company in the 1990s. Sales were USD 11 billion in 2019 (up from 8.7 in 2017, and 1.5 times more than Paramount Pictures), 70% of which came from the US market (Statista 2020). Unlike that vanishing hallmark of twentieth-century consumerism, the mall, QVC has adapted well to online retailing and now streams three channels on a mail order website. Like the “weepies” of 1950s Hollywood, teleshopping pimarily targets relatively affluent white suburban middle-class women, who represent close to 90% of QVC’s audience. Gudelunas argues that QVC was “a more successful home shopping channel than its now defunct competitors because it was able to establish a high level of para-social interaction by interacting with guests” (2002, 108). Para-social interaction is a form of impersonal intimacy which television personalities develop as they address absent audiences as if present (Horton and Wohl 1956). QVC’s trademark features include call-in segments introduced by the phrase “let’s go to the phones,” which has become part of the American lexicon. In these segments viewer-shoppers chat up the hosts and gush about products. As Gudelunas argues, “QVC viewer-shoppers are clearly members of a congregation as opposed to an audience” (2002, 110). Studies of language and behavior in up-scale department stores like Saks Fifth Avenue show that sales personnel strive for the prestige of their wealthy customers. As Mary Bucholtz argues, in the QVC congregation the roles are reversed: the host becomes an aspirational figure and customers “strive for the prestige of the sales representative” (Bucholtz 1999, 356).3 QVC prices allow for impulse buying, making viewer-shoppers, who often reference their bank balance in calls (Ridgway and Kukar-Kinney 2005) “able to rise up from their current economic position and renew themselves as members of an elevated class” (Gundelunas 2002, 112–13). QVC holds up so well against more prosaic online retailers like 3 This role reversal provides a storyline in Amy Sherman-Palladino’s amazon prime series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (2017–), whose main character is modelled in part after Joan Rivers. To earn a living after the break-up of her marriage, the eponymous budding comedienne and daughter of well-to do parents takes a job at B. Altman on Fifth Avenue selling cosmetics, a job at which she excels because she used to be a customer there herself. How to Fight a Pandemic with Status Elevation 349 Amazon precisely because it offers a “media ritual of status elevation” with a focus on non-essential luxury goods. Status elevation through consumption is also the core of the Trump brand. It should not surprise us that the extended Trump family has long-standing ties with QVC. In 2007, Trump marketed Trump Steaks through QVC and the mail order service The Sharper Image. On QVC, Trump personally appeard against a backdrop of black boxes with Trump Steaks in gold lttering to signal that the “Trump brand was masculine, decadent, upscale.” Trump Steaks sales failed to exceed five figures after two months and were discontinued, with the trademark expiring in 2014. The Trump women have been more successful. Raising breast cancer awareness while selling shoes and handbags from her Trump Tower apartment, Ivanka has been a familiar face on QVC for years (fig. 5). [Figure 5] Ivanka signing shoes for QVC Shoppers in her Trump Tower Apartment, and also sup- porting breast cancer research (Source: YouTube 2014, https://youtu.be/-ge99mf0540) Melania Trump’s collection of timepieces and jewelry, which she herself described as “something that you could afford and easily buy on QVC” (HollywoodLife 2012), reportedly sold out in 45 minutes during the first QVC broadcast in 2010 (fig. 6). Melania’s line of caviar-infused skin creams was less successful and remained at the conceptual stage. On “Celebrity Apprentice” former basketball great and personal friend of Kim Jong-Un Dennis Rodman got fired for misspelling Melania’s name on a caviar skin care ad. When Trump became president, Melania continued to cross-fertilize her business with a link 350 Pandemic Media to her QVC online shop on her personal White House page, until public outcry forced her to take it down (Hardy 2017). [Figure 6] Something that You Could Afford and Easily Buy on QVC: Melania, Timepieces, and Jewelry (Source: YouTube 2012, https://youtu.be/ID0KKalefqw) The Trump family has in other words been occupying the community space of the teleshopping congregation for years. Ivanka and Melania may well have contributed to Trump’s political success by attuning QVC’s white middle-class audience to the brand. S.R. Srinivas has shown how in Southern India film fan clubs become political parties, paving the way for film starts to run for office, with long-time Tamil Nadu governors M.K. Ramachandran or Jayalalithaa as the prime examples (Srinivas 2006). A similar form of fluid mobilization could be said to be at work in Trump’s rise. As the authors of a study on Trump as a “networked political brand” write, “the experience of community that emerges from [the convergence of branding and political communication] gains increasing importance” (Billard and Moran 2020, 589). While Lisa Kelly is right to insist that television continues to be central to Trump and political culture even in a “post-TV” age (Kelly 2019), a crucial driver of this experience is Trump’s twitter game, which closely replicates the relationship of host, caller and viewer-shopper that produces the QVC congregation. Poniewozik describes Trump’s twitter personality as a Hobbesian Leviathan. By inter- acting with followers Trump makes them feel that they are “all part of on mighty body of which he was the head.” In particular, retweets signal “I am not ashamed of you. I am simply of you” (Poniewozik 2019, 191). Similarly, Trump’s brand—status elevation through consumption—thrives on himself being an avid consumer. This is why news about the President spending his days at the White House watching TV and gobbling up fast food strengthens, rather than undermines, his legitimacy with his followers. And while Trump’s frequent calls into his favorite morning show “Fox and Friends” are a breach of presidential protocol, they redefine the presidency in terms of the teleshopping protocol How to Fight a Pandemic with Status Elevation 351 by demonstrating the soothing, egalitarian ease with which the leader of the free world can move from host to viewer-shopper and back.4 Far from a “cruel jumble of nonsense,” the teleshopping template boils the brand of Trump the politician down to its essentials. As I will argue, it also defines his limitations as a leader in a global health crisis. Parading Trump products after primary wins is not just a rebuttal of criticisms of his track record of business failure: it is a reminder that he is the candidate of status elevation, and he is winning. Inviting Mike Lindell to praise him in the Rose Garden is not just an attempt to stroke his ego: it is a move to strengthen his legitimacy in a moment of crisis through the endorsement of another teleshopping star. The template serves to mobilize the home shopping con- gregation for political ends. Nowhere was this more glaringly obvious than in early July 2020, when Trump first enlisted QVC star Ivanka and then himself to plug Goya products from the White House, accidentally repositioning Latino staples as white middle class luxury goods in the process (fig. 7). [Figure 7] From Shoes to Beans: Ivanaka joining her father’s boycott of the Goya Boycott through her social media accounts (Source: Twitter/Ivanka Trump 2020) The shopping channel template also sheds light on Trump’s speaking style. Barack Obama put himself on the path to the presidency with a soaring Emer- sonian speech about unity at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston. Trump’s rally speaking style is famously disjointed and free-flowing, and prepared notes are the death of his appeal. Where Obama strives to enlist 4 The extent to which the Trump organization operates as a TV company became clear when they trademarked the term “Telerally” after the cancellation of the Republican National Convention in Jacksonville, Florida, to charge customers, like the Repub- lican Party, for “organizing events in the field of politics and political campaigning” (Fahrenthold and Itkowitz 2020). 352 Pandemic Media the entire citizenry in the arduous task of building a more perfect union (to quote his 2008 speech on race), Trump’s colloquial mode of address offers a ready-made community experience in a congregation that is both open and exclusive. In 2016, CNN and the networks streamed Trump rallies not because they were news, but because they were low-cost, instant gratification reality programming for white middle-class audiences with status anxiety—not good for America, as then CBS head Les Moonves put it, who has since been fired for sexual harassment, but great television (Bond 2016). And the teleshopping template may even help to explain the cruelty. If your promise is status elevation for your in-group rather than opportunity for all,5 and if you believe the economy is a zero-sum game—an idea Trump learned on the Manhattan real estate market, as Josh Marshall points out (2017)—then the out-group has to lose, and making the out-group suffer for all to see is an indicator of your success. Mary Trump, a clinical psychologist and the president’s niece, describes Trump as a Frankenstein monster sewn together from his father’s pathologies (Trump 2020). He can also be described as a self-made Frankenstein of American television and new media, stitched together from the dominant modes of twenty-first-century television. He draws his lifeblood from formats which appear as mere dregs and refuse from a patrician critical point of view but which have considerable purchase with audiences, with teleshopping most strongly resonating with Trump’s personal brand. Trump’s legitimacy, rather than vertical and reasoned, is fluid, mobile, and horizontal, based on affectual ties of instant gratification which are impervious to the deferred satisfaction calculus which political science models usually assume. It is not coincidence that Trump voters are often described as fans rather than party loyalists (Einwächter 2020; Hediger 2020). Trump voters are, in any case, affluent: They had twice the income of Clinton voters (Silver 2016) and were typically the rich people in poor places (Blum 2017). Their status anxiety is not existential, and their politics are quite literally luxury politics: Not government of, by and for the people, but governance of status elevation for the already safe and secure who can afford to impulse-buy cruelty to others. The limitation of Trump’s teleshopping governance in a crisis like the COVID- 19 pandemic is this: In it, the only way to care is to care for yourself through consumption. This is why rather than let experts speak and assume the role 5 Trump favors oligarchs and has notoriously decorated the Oval Office with a portrait of Andrew Jackson, a genocidal racist, but the president whom his teleshopping govern- ance of status elevation through consumption most strongly echoes may be Theodore Roosevelt. As Heather Cox Richardson writes: “While Lincoln called for a government that helped workingmen rather than oligarchs, Roosevelt ’s vision inherently privileged upwardly mobile white men over people of color, independent women, or anyone mired in poverty” (Cox Richardson 2020, 126–27). How to Fight a Pandemic with Status Elevation 353 of comforter-in-chief, the president used the briefings on the pandemic as a teleshopping platform for products that would make the virus go away, up to, and including, bleach. When Boris Johnson brandished his new-born baby boy about in the tabloids just as the failure of his COVID-19 strategy became apparent, he engaged in diversion. When Trump projects the para-social intimacy of home shopping where a public space of care and grieving should be built, he is just being himself. But the pandemic is one problem shopping won’t solve. Once that became clear Trump, being Trump, was left with a choice of wishing the virus away or ignoring it. Ever the glutton, he picked both. “The television culture that Donald Trump grew up with, thrived in, and embodies is not the only kind of television,” writes Poniewozik (2019, 273), trying to keep our hope for a better kind of television, and thus a better world, alive. Home shopping, we can infer, is not that kind of television. Consid- ering QVC’s robust business, it is also not going away any time soon. Which may have political repercussions even after Trump no longer occupies the White House. Ivanka has been derided as a mere “handbag designer” who erroneously got to be in the same room with Angela Merkel. But being a handbag designer is what got her there in the first place. In the age of home shopping governance, a QVC pedigree confers political standing. And Trump has encouraged the “Pillow Guy,” Mike Lindell, to run for office (Lippman and Nguyen 2020). In the future, America may well be governed by dynasties of home shopping hosts rather than the Adams, Kennedys, Bushes, or Clintons of yore. Is the world’s last, best hope, then, for a teleshopping host who understands that the economy is not a zero-sum game? Mary Trump argues that we need to focus not on her uncle but on those who surround and enable him. This includes the whole congregation. It has been said that supporting Trump is a moral choice. Home shopping governance also makes it a matter of taste. And taste, as John Ruskin once said, is not a ques- tion of morality. It is the only morality. * Trump contracted COVID-19 in September 2020. He was treated at Walter Reed Medical Center with the REGN-COV2 antibody cocktail developed by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, a company run by a major Trump donor. Upon returning to the White House, Trump praised the treatment in a brief tele- vision address and said: “That’s what I want for everybody”. The “Lincoln Project”, a Political Action Committee of disgruntled Republican operatives known for their well-crafted anti-Trump TV ads, edited and framed the key parts of the speech as a 1980s style home shopping ad (https://vimeo. com/470748710/b93b5371d4). The Enyclopedia Britannica defines satire as a 354 Pandemic Media genre “in which vices, follies, abuses and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, corporations, government, or society itself into improvement.” As satire, the Lincoln Project video fails because Trump knows no shame, and because he has no room for self- improvement. He is exactly what the video says he is. What the video does show is a breakthrough in the home shopping governance response to the pandemic: Trump has finally found a product which, different from hydroxy- chloroquine and bleach, appears to work, reflects his lifestyle and can be sold, with his personal endorsement, on television. 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Voytko, Lisette. 2020. “Trump Has ‘Small,’ ‘Distant Link’ To Sanofi, French Drugmaker Of Hydroxychloroquine.” Forbes, April 7. Accessed August 28, 2020. https://www.forbes.com/ sites/lisettevoytko/2020/04/07/trump-has-small-distant-link-to-sanofi-french-drugmaker-of- hydroxychloroquine/#76253c817260. Windle, Joel. 2010. “‘Anyone Can Make it, but there Can only Be One Winner’: Modelling Neoliberal Learning and Work on Reality Television.” Critical Studies in Education 51 (3): 251–63. CAPITALISM DE-COLONIZATION ARCHIVES COLONIALISM IMPERIALISM [ 3 6 ] A New Period in History: Decolonizing Film Archives in a Time of Pandemic Capitalism Didi Cheeka 26 years ago, carried away by the bourgeois euphoria over the fall of the Soviet Union, Francis Fukuyama made the now infamous prediction that history had ended—its final expression, the capitalist mode of production. But, unfortunately for Fukuyama, his- tory is not easily disposed of—by merely proclaiming its demise on the pages of a book. It has re-asserted itself with vengeance and its funeral orator was forced to re-edit his oratory. Things, as Hegel said, become their opposite: statues and monuments erected in celebration of slavery and colonization are being pulled-down and, rather than an end, what we are witnessing is the opening of a new period in world history. My attitude, as a researcher of (de)colonial film archives—in a time of the pandemic crisis of capi- talism—is to theorize and historicize this study within the ongoing political struggle for decolonization. 358 Pandemic Media All that is solid melts into air Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels A specter stalks the world: the specter of the COVID-19 pandemic. To further deploy the words of Marx and Engels set down in The Communist Manifesto, “The need of a constantly expanding market for its products chases the bourgeoisie over the entire surface of the globe.” It is this, the establishment and exploitation of the world market, that has given a cosmopolitan charac- ter not just to production and consumption but also to epidemics. The same instruments—improved and immensely facilitated means of production and communication—by which the bourgeoisie, in its nascent period, had drawn ex-colonial societies into capitalist civilization have become, in the period of its senile decay, facilitators of newly-emerging infectious diseases from country to country.  No doubt, referring to Marx and Engels evokes, already, the question of the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism. Whereas I subscribe to the Marxist ideology, I particularly reference Marx to evoke the capitalist phase of primi- tive accumulation—I deploy this to the coloniality of imperial archives, that is, as owing their existence to the violent extraction of visual raw materials from ex-colonies. The extraction of colonized bodies from colonies and subse- quent enslavement in imperial countries, the extraction of raw materials from colonies to feed imperial industry were complemented by the extraction of artefacts and visual [human] raw material framed in celluloid to feed imperial anthropological museums and audio-visual archives. In a sense, then, it is correct to say that colonial [film] archives—as sources/ sites of knowledge—are not, to reference Azoulay, “benign sites of research,” and to uncritically engage with these sources/sites is to “take part in the conflation of violence and scholarship.” To treat them otherwise leads, further referencing Azoulay, to “easily inhabiting the scripted roles offered to us as scholars, curators, photographers, and spectators.” In the wake of growing protests over the latest racist police killing in the US, Afua Hirsch has written in The Guardian that “the racism that killed George Floyd was built in Britain.” While agreeing with the body of the writing, I insist that the racism responsible for the recent killing was built in ex-colonies. It is through this prism that I will engage with researching, theorizing, and historicizing colonial cinema and archives in a time of pandemic capitalism. I was already engaged in this task before the new coronavirus achieved pan- demic level. In foregrounding the problem posed to this task by the pandemic, my intention is to reference, not the earlier phase of research but the period just before the viral wave—which took shape during the Everything Passes, A New Period in History 359 Except the Past - (De)colonial Film Archives workshop held in Lisbon. (I’m referring to the archival workshop in Lisbon, 2019, when a group of filmmak- ers, activists, and researchers from Africa and Europe gathered to discuss the past, present, and future of archives with film material from colonial and anti-colonial contexts. The workshop, run by Goethe Institut Portugal, was intended to initiate a platform for a call to action and reflection on decoloniz- ing film archives.) As both fall-out and follow-up to the workshop, a Call for Action & Reflection on Decolonising Archives was migrated digitally at the Latitude Festival - Rethinking Power Relations due to restrictions imposed by the pandemic. The digital festival, involving readings and panel discussions via Zoom video meet- ings, revealed digital possibilities and, at the same time, sharply underlined geographical inequalities and limitations inherent in usage—for instance, I experienced technical difficulties participating from Nigeria. The spread of the virus will dramatically accelerate protectionist tendencies on a world scale—I mean this not in reference to international trade, but rather, to cultural exchange, since travel barriers would seriously impact international research and residencies. Digital migration, triggered by the pandemic, will likely increase, ushering in less reliance on humans and more on automa- tion—an increase in remote working, videoconferencing, and other new workplace communication technologies will further widen the north-south abyss and bring into sharp focus the (neo)colonial structures responsible for the cultural-historical circumstances in the ex-colonies.  Under the impact of the new coronavirus, which has set in motion a rapidly unfolding chain reaction on a world scale—from protests against systemic rac- ism to the struggle for decolonization of monuments—all the contradictions of capitalism are coming crashing to the surface. Necessity, to reference Engels, expresses itself as accident. The virus is only an accidental trigger for all the accumulated tensions of colonization—expressed in Black Lives Matter, the Monuments Must Fall movement, and demands for decolonization and resti- tution. These movements and demands are part of the crisis of the capitalist system heightened by the pandemic.  Writing about the far reaching and enduring effects of May ‘68 on film criticism and theory, Donato Totaro has stated: “Cahiers du Cinéma, once an auteurist journal, became politically surcharged... Cinéthique, which began publication in January 1969, took a more radical position than Cahiers by abandoning nar- rative cinema and championing marginal cinema (documentary, avant-garde)” (Totaro 1998). What would (de)colonial archives look like post-pandemic—what new life and meaning would they acquire? What form would researching, theorizing, and historicizing these archives assume? Who will have access to 360 Pandemic Media these archives—from the standpoint of power relations inherent in ownership and interpretation? In this period of politicization of artistic and academic life—with calls to decolonize film studies, cinema, and archives—researching, theorizing, and historicizing (de)colonial film archives demands a terminological approach previously mostly specific to political economy. I turn to Marx, therefore, who wrote in the pages of Capital that “the turning of Africa into a warren for the commercial hunting of black-skins... are the chief momenta of primitive accu- mulation.” Activist author Naomi Klein has described what she calls “disaster capitalism”—a profit-driven approach to natural and man-made disasters. In the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, the world seems set for the shock doctrine to strike again.  To elaborate: Among the first films made in Nigeria as part of the colonial enterprise is the film Anti-Plague Operations (1929), on the effort to curtail an earlier pandemic—the bubonic plague. Much like the method, in primitive accumulation, of appropriating colonial raw materials for private imperial profit, colonial audio-visual productions have been privatized in commercial film archives in the UK—commodifying colonized bodies visually and effec- tively denying ex-colonial users access to their visual bodies. The continuing holding of films from former colonies in commercial archives, especially in the current pandemic, preventing non-commercial access in imperial countries smacks of Klein’s label.  So, to refer to the violence of primitive accumulation archived in colonial audio-visual sites means more than actual physical violence—it is in reference, also, to the violence inherent in its presumption, the violence of presuming the sole right of ownership of images of colonized people and excluding them, in practice, from right and access to these images. The violence is not, therefore, solely in the method of acquisition, but also in the power relations inherent in the repository, on what to archive, and who has access to them. This violence extends to research: how do we research films from (de)colonial archives in a time of pandemic crisis of capitalism? To consider the question: Contrary to claims by the archives, most, if not all, European archives have only a fraction of their archival holdings online—so research, even if digital possibilities permit, can hardly be conducted online. This, again, underlines the restrictions imposed by the pandemic on scholars from the south—research requires on-site presence, rendered impossible by travel restrictions. Distance research, via digital possibilities, is further encum- bered by power relations—the imperial power to name colonized people. For instance, researching Angola’s struggles against colonization in Portuguese archives turns up nothing like revolutionaries or freedom fighters—except under the imperial label of Angolan terrorists. A New Period in History 361 Perhaps, related somewhat to the above, it would be possible to mention a colonial production, Daybreak in Udi, which won an Oscar (1950) at the Acad- emy Awards for Best Documentary and also received a BAFTA Award for Best Documentary Film, without much digression—Daybreak, filmed in eastern Nigeria about the building of a community health center, is a fictional film presented as documentary. I mention this film to highlight how the imperial camera’s access to colonized human raw material could produce a regime of truth for scholars, curators, artists, and researchers to consult as benign sites of knowledge.  It is possible to say that these issues are only tangentially connected with the problems of researching (de)colonial film archives in a pandemic. I connect one with the other, however tenuously, to highlight an ignored aspect of the pandemic—ex-colonies handled the outbreak better than imperial countries. This speaks to the fight to decolonize film archives: the cliché is that ex- colonies are incapable of handling their own archives, hence, the refusal to restitute. To end by posing questions that go to the heart of the struggle to decolonize archives, questions calculated not to provide ready-made answers but serve, rather, to trigger discourse: how would films from (de)colonial archives be pre- sented post-pandemic, so as not to reproduce the violence inherent in their production? What new truth, in terms of speculating and repurposing these materials, would post-pandemic researchers of these archives bring to bear? And how do we decolonize archives when colonialism still exists in a different form? Perhaps, then, as Marx said, the thing is not to theorize decoloniza- tion but, rather, to overthrow the very structure that periodically gives rise to pandemics. References Azoulay, Ariella Aïsha. 2019. Potential History: Unlearning Imperialism. New York: Verso. Engels, Friedrich, and Karl Marx. 1848. The Communist Manifesto. London: German Workers Educational Association. Fukuyama, Francis. 1992. The End of History and the Last Man. New York: Free Press. Klein, Naomi. 2007. The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. Toronto: Random House Canada. Marx, Karl. 1867. Das Kapital, Band 1. Hamburg: Verlag von Otto Meisner. Totaro, Donato. 1998. “May 1968 and After: Cinema in France and Beyond, part 1.” Offscreen 2 (2). Accessed October 8, 2020. https://offscreen.com/view/may_1968. COLONIALISM CO-RESISTANCE EPISTEMIC PRIVILEGE HORROR INDIGENOUS FILM RECIPROCITY [ 3 7 ] Anticipating the Colonial Apocalypse: Jeff Barnaby’s Blood Quantum Kester Dyer This article considers how Jeff Barnaby’s Indigenous zombie feature Blood Quantum, released online during the COVID-19 pandemic, underscores long- standing Indigenous viewpoints which anticipate the tensions magnified by this crisis. Drawing on the film’s reception in the media as well as interviews with creative personnel, this essay frames its analyses within Indigenous theoretical paradigms while mobi- lizing the feminist concept of “epistemic privilege.” Thus, it argues that Blood Quantum, partly through intertextual allusions to earlier anti-racist horror cinema, highlights the convergence of Indigenous responses to colonialism with interventions that oppose anti-Black racism. In addition, this essay finds that Blood Quantum innovates with genre in ways that mirror the emphasis placed on reciprocity by Indige- nous thinkers, while firmly rejecting the recenter- ing of Indigenous struggles around white allyship. 364 Pandemic Media Although Blood Quantum succeeds in stressing the crucial significance of Indigenous perspectives for contesting injustices compounded by COVID-19, mis- comprehension yet remains about the link between the lived realities of Indigenous peoples and the film’s aesthetic choices. This essay concludes that such persistent biases confirm the vital urgency of ensur- ing the increased prominence and broad influence of Indigenous viewpoints to counter the homogenizing tendency of Eurocentric culture. Introduction Mi’kmaw director Jeff Barnaby’s much anticipated second feature Blood Quantum portrays an apocalyptic contagion in a strikingly topical way. Pre- miering at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2019, its theatrical release, planned for spring 2020, was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Never- theless, Blood Quantum, fully exploiting the allegorical potential of the zombie subgenre, remarkably echoes current global health and political crises. Premised on the spread of a horrific disease that turns non-Indigenous people into zombies but to which Indigenous people are immune, the film’s narrative, coupled with an online release coincident with racial tensions in the wake of COVID-19, intensifies engagement with the history and legacy of colonialism in North America. As such, Blood Quantum illuminates the crucial significance of Indigenous perspectives for contesting flawed hegemonic social and political structures, and urges viewers to more incisively critique the bases of colonial violence long denounced by Indigenous artists, scholars, activists, and leaders. Set in 1981 on a fictional reserve that stands in for Barnaby’s home community of Listuguj, which was raided by Québec provincial police that same year, Blood Quantum builds on this historical moment.1 This approach correlates with patterns observed by Grace L. Dillon, who notes that Indigenous genre authors often imagine alternate histories to “well-known cataclysms” where 1 On June 12 and 20, 1981, Québec minister for Recreation, Hunting and Fishing Lucien Lessard ordered two provincial police raids on the Mi’kmaw community of Listuguj, aiming to forcibly limit their fishing activities. These events are documented in the 1984 NFB documentary Incident at Restigouche by celebrated Abenaki filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin. Barnaby has credited Obomsawin’s work, and this film in particular, as having had a profound impact on his filmmaking career. Anticipating the Colonial Apocalypse 365 historical circumstances are inverted, with Indigenous figures either coming out as victors or at least being at the center of the narrative (2012, 9). In Barnaby’s case, the 1981 Restigouche raids clearly correspond to such an event and are combined in Blood Quantum with the history of decimating epidemics following Indigenous encounters with Europeans. In the film, Indigenous characters, led by Traylor, the reserve’s head of police, Joss, his ex-partner and mother of his youngest son Joseph, and Traylor’s father Gisigu, a sword-wielding elder, do battle with the zombified white population and struggle to deal with white survivors seeking refuge on their territory. In parallel, the group also contends with internal discord catalyzed by Lysol, Traylor’s troubled older son from a previous relationship, who opposes the accommodation of white survivors. By deploying the zombie, a figure associated with the history of Black enslavement, Blood Quantum aligns itself with other non-white peoples oppressed by European colonialism, a move consistent with Leanne Betasamosake Simpson’s call for Indigenous activists to form “constellations of co-resistance with other movements,” including “radical communities of color” (2016, 27). Meanwhile, Blood Quantum focusses firmly on a struggle over land in accordance with Glen Coulthard’s concept of “grounded normativity,” which emphasizes connections between land, knowledge, and ethical relationships (2014, 13). Thus, drawing on the film’s reception in the media and interviews with creative personnel, this essay argues that Blood Quantum ’s basis in Indigenous thought, redeployment of genre, and thematic relevance highlight the perspicuity of Indigenous concerns and the vital importance of scholarly, pedagogical and cultural spaces that center on and heed unobstructed Indigenous viewpoints and epistemologies. Epistemic Privilege Several film critics describe Blood Quantum ’s unsettling relevance as “timely” or “prescient” (Crucchiola 2020; Tallerico 2020; Yamato 2020), but the film rearticulates core ideas long held by Indigenous scholars, leaders, and artists. Accordingly, though he acknowledges the film’s timing in terms of reflecting the current sociopolitical moment, Barnaby himself distinguishes this from prescience. “What I am doing here isn’t even prescient,” he explains, “because it’s a pulse that was already in the culture. It ’s always been in the culture” (Bramesco 2020). Indeed, global human and environmental crises anticipated by Barnaby’s film constitute lived reality for Indigenous peoples. The film thus brings perspective to the broader effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Barnaby downplays Blood Quantum ’s insight in anticipating the wide-ranging consequences of the virus as a mere reflection of longstanding Indigenous realities (Monkman 2020), and points out that “what’s interesting about this virus is … it’s the way Native people have always lived. It ’s nothing new for 366 Pandemic Media a Native community to face record unemployment while at the same time dealing with large amounts of diseases” (Crucchiola 2020). Indeed, Dillon’s analysis of Indigenous futurism confirms that “it is almost commonplace to think that the Native Apocalypse, if contemplated seriously, has already taken place” (2012, 8). Likewise, Simpson describes her own nation’s experience of colonialism as “four centuries of apocalyptic violence in the name of dispos- session” (Simpson 2016, 21). Echoing these views, Michael Greyeyes, who plays Traylor in Blood Quantum, describes the colonial settler state as “another kind of apocalypse,” noting that “his community knows only too well what it feels like to fight against annihilation.” Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, who plays Joss, concurs with Greyeyes. Indigenous people live with “the daily reality of state- sanctioned systemic violence,” she explains, “zombie apocalypse or not, our realities wouldn’t be all that different” (Wong 2019). And, although some critics fail to comprehend the film’s dialogue and acting choices (Ehrlich 2020; Hertz 2020; Tallerico 2020), others recognize the appropriateness of Indigenous actors’ performances, acknowledging, for example, that Traylor’s father Gisigu (Stonehorse Lone Goeman) reacts to events in a manner that is suit- ably horrified, yet composed, evidence that this elder has “seen and survived plenty before zombies” (Yamato 2020) (fig. 1). As Greyeyes summarizes, “We’re survivors. We totally get it …. Who would be the best survivor in an actual apocalypse? Us” (Wong 2019). [Figure 1] Gisigu (Stonehorse Lone Goeman), composed as he prepares to defend the land against white zombies (Blood Quantum (2019), Jeff Barnaby). These views speak to the notion of “epistemic privilege,” which, contrary to economic, social, and political privilege, transpires as the possession of a deep understanding of systemic inequalities through one’s material disadvantages and the lived experience of discrimination. The concept of epistemic privilege was developed most notably by feminist standpoint theorists and applies to Anticipating the Colonial Apocalypse 367 any marginalized group. Starting from the basis that knowledge is socially situated, it posits that the lived experiences of marginalized groups enable them to discern the deep structural patterns of systems that oppress them, which tend to remain invisible to those in positions of social, political, and eco- nomic privilege. Thus, according to Sandra Harding, “standpoint theories map how a social or political disadvantage can be turned into an epistemological, scientific, and political advantage” (2004, 7–8). Blood Quantum combines this idea with an innovative take on the zombie movie that links it to analogous Black struggles. Indeed, the film recollects and builds on the resourceful- ness attributed to Ben (Duane Jones), the Black hero of George A. Romero’s classic Night of The Living Dead (1968). Like his Indigenous counterparts in Blood Quantum, Ben proves better equipped than white characters to withstand the zombie apocalypse, having personally experienced the legacy of slavery (fig. 2). Likewise, in Barnaby’s own allegory, Indigenous characters have devel- oped a physical immunity to the contagion, presumably due to their prior exposure to colonialism and its ongoing iterations. No Black characters appear in Blood Quantum, just as no characters from other non-white groups appear in Night of the Living Dead. Yet, Romero’s film has been compellingly read as a critique of other forms of oppression and imperialism due to the socio- political context of its release (the same year as the Tet offensive in Vietnam, and of the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy), and also because of the interconnectedness of class and ethnic conflicts implied by the film, as well as an “absent presence” of other oppressed peoples in its narrative and aesthetics (Higashi 1990). By extension, the absence of non- Indigenous, non-white characters in Blood Quantum reciprocates Romero’s far- reaching condemnation of white supremacy. Thus, Blood Quantum ’s implicit reference to its legendary precursor suggests co-resistance against European colonialism manifested as hordes of ravenous white zombies. [Figure 2] Ben (Duane Jones), better equipped than white characters to withstand the zombie apocalypse (Night of the Living Dead (1968), George A. Romero). 368 Pandemic Media Indigenous Reciprocity Eurocentrism posits western knowledge as inherently superior, obscures its own contradictions, and encourages intrinsically dehumanizing attitudes that preclude reciprocity (Shohat and Stam 1996, 1–3). Its limitations prove not only destructive to those it oppresses, but also to itself. In contrast, many Indigenous thinkers value reciprocity for sustainable life. In Red Skins, White Masks, Coulthard draws on anticolonial thinker Frantz Fanon and adapts Marxist theory, rendering the latter compatible with core Indigenous principles. These enriching exchanges mirror Barnaby’s genre innovations. Both Blood Quantum and Night of the Living Dead depict the warning Jean-Paul Sartre directs to Europeans in his introduction to Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth. “In these shadows from whence a new dawn will break, it is you who are the zombies” (1963, 13), Sartre writes. But Blood Quantum enhances the portrayal of (self-)destructive and (self-)dehumanizing colonialism. Shifting the emphasis of Marxism, Coulthard specifies that the settler state primarily targets Indigenous land over Indigenous labor, and that Indigenous struggles are “not only for land in a material sense, but also deeply informed by what the land as a system of reciprocal relations and obligations can teach us about living our lives in relation to one another and the natural world in nondomi- nating and nonexploitative terms” (2014, 13). Blood Quantum dramatizes this conflict as white survivors covet reserve space above the bodily protection afforded by their Mi’kmaw hosts. Survivors hide the truth to enter the reserve as an emergency measure, not as an opportunity to fundamentally redefine their relationship to the land and others. This epitomizes the west’s persistent unwillingness to discern and genuinely tackle the root cause of global crises. Indeed, white survivors and some Mi’kmaq, like Traylor’s oldest son Lysol (Kiowa Gordon), replicate the brutality of the colonial system, and end up polluting Indigenous territory as a last viable refuge (fig. 3). Anticipating the Colonial Apocalypse 369 [Figure 3] Lysol’s (Kiowa Gordon) anger, though warranted, comes to replicate colonial brutality (Blood Quantum (2019), Jeff Barnaby). By continuing to ignore and suppress Indigenous ideas, Blood Quantum suggests, the Eurocentric capitalist and colonialist worldview, unless effec- tively countered by the very epistemologies it occludes, will destroy itself and others. This aspect of the film’s social commentary echoes recent real- world conflicts such as the Wetʼsuwetʼen land defenders’ protests against the Coastal GasLink Pipeline through unceded Indigenous territory in British Columbia, a project oxymoronically justified as ecologically progressive (“Trudeau Touts”), and coercively enforced by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, an organization that has now finally acknowledged its own systemic racism (Ballingall 2020; Walsh, LeBlanc and Tait 2020). Indeed, it is telling that certain conservative politicians see the COVID-19 pandemic as a unique oppor- tunity to press on with pipeline building unimpeded by protestors during confinement (Bracken 2020). Seemingly mirroring such issues, Blood Quantum memorably visualizes elders’ struggles to protect the land when, in his final scene, Gisigu refuses to abandon Mi’kmaw territory again and, filmed in a long shot that emphasizes his tenacious struggle against overwhelming odds, single-handedly battles a swarm of zombies. Implicating Non-Indigenous Viewers, Decentering White Narratives Barnaby does not underestimate white society’s stubborn refusal to recognize the need for spaces where Indigenous knowledge can flourish unimpeded. Indeed, his hard-hitting style and adoption of the zombie subgenre astutely communicate, through irony and excess, the destructive contradictions of Eurocentrism and the imperative to listen to Indigenous ideas. Barnaby 370 Pandemic Media openly expresses his desire to deploy genre filmmaking to reach “younger and broader audiences,” and admits to deliberately instrumentalizing the current hyperpopularity of the zombie film to encourage viewer engagement with difficult issues, both historical and ongoing (Black 2020). Indeed, the premise of Blood Quantum is inherently edifying. As lead actor, Michael Greyeyes recognizes, the “idea that colonial history has been reenacted subversively is a message that even the most non-political, non-socially informed person will understand right away” (Yamato 2020). At the same time, Blood Quantum heeds Simpson’s warning against recentering Indigenous struggles around white allyship (Simpson 2016, 30). Non-Indigenous characters remain largely peripheral. Only Charlie, the pregnant girlfriend of Traylor’s and Joss’s teenage son Joseph, takes up significant narrative space. Barnaby’s initial difficulties in getting his project funded (Lipsett 2020; Wong 2019), however, reflect an ongoing reluctance to support Indigenous-centered stories.2 Commenting on why he found no takers when he proposed the project to financiers in 2007, Barnaby explains that “nobody was ready to hear that the great cap- italist dream was falling apart and colonialism was going to help usher us into destruction. So it was the culture that took catching up to the script. Nothing changed, just the cultural perception of it” (Yamato 2020). In Blood Quantum, signs of an attitudinal change are barely perceptible. Only in Charlie’s dying moments do we sense a recognition of the West’s absurd self-destructiveness. Having just given birth to a daughter, but doomed to die of a zombie bite, Charlie protects the child from herself by handing her over to Joseph and Joss. Charlie then asks to be killed before turning into “one of those dead people.” Her child’s entrustment to its Indigenous family ironically upturns Canada’s genocidal education and childcare policies, a reversal that is underscored in the film’s final shot of Joss holding the baby.3 Here, it is white society that is deemed “unfit” to educate the next generation (fig. 4). Hope for humanity amid the chaos rests partly on the decentering of whiteness signaled by Charlie’s self-effacement. 2 In spite of these initial difficulties, Blood Quantum was announced as boasting “the largest-ever production budget for an Indigenous film in Canada,” according to a 2019 imagineNATIVE report (Black). 3 Residential schools formed a central part of Canada’s policy to assimilate all Indigenous people (an aim explicitly stated in 1920 by Duncan Campbell Scott, Deputy Minister of Indian Affairs). This system forcibly separated Indigenous children from their families and communities, placing them in church-run institutions often located at great dis- tances away from their homes, and exposing them to institutionalized neglect, physical and sexual abuse, and high death rates. It is estimated that 150,000 Indigenous children attended residential schools in Canada from 1883 to the late 1990s (Truth and Reconcili- ation Commission 4). The “Sixties Scoop” is the term popularly attributed to the dis- proportionate, and largely non-consensual, removal of Indigenous children from their families into provincial childcare, foster care, and adoption programs, a phenomenon intensified in the 1960s but not limited to this decade, and which arguably continues today (Hanson 2009, Vowel 2016). Anticipating the Colonial Apocalypse 371 [Figure 4] Joss (Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers) holding her newborn granddaughter. (Blood Quantum (2019), Jeff Barnaby). Conclusion With Blood Quantum, Barnaby reiterates viewpoints long-expressed by Indigenous commentators, but his innovations with genre and their implicit alignment with co-resistant communities find new ways of challenging western assumptions about the political crises surfacing with global pan- demics like COVID-19. In his own words, Barnaby Indigenizes horror (Bramesco 2020). However, not all mainstream critics understand or welcome the stylistic imperatives of these innovations. Unused to sharing communicative space with works anchored in other traditions, these critics blame the author’s creative choices for their own inability to follow narrative patterns or empathize with characters (Ehrlich 2020; Hertz 2020; Tallerico 2020; Vincentelli 2020). Such dissent doubtless rests in part with a disproportionate investment in individualism rather than in reciprocity, and with a lack of awareness of the lived realities of marginalized groups. Barry Hertz, for example, reproaches Barnaby for overemphasizing Lysol’s complexity, and describes this antagonist as a “side character,” thereby failing to grasp Lysol’s centrality to the film’s exploration of the legacy of colonial policies. Astonished that certain viewers fail to understand the motivations for Lysol’s anger even though the film makes clear this character’s traumatic experience of the childcare system (Crucchiola 2020), Barnaby elaborates on the considerable burden of informing non-Indigenous audiences about the historical roots of colonialism and white privilege. “A lot of people are not ‘getting’ the film because they don’t know the contextual history underlying the ideas,” he observes. “That’s always the issue when you’re dealing with a non-Native audience; they’re not going to understand where you’re coming from” (Black 2020). In contrast with the above-mentioned commentators who divorce their appraisal of the film 372 Pandemic Media from anything beyond a superficial understanding of its historical resonance, Joe Lipsett, whose article probes the historical and sociopolitical significance of the film more incisively, praises its character development as well-crafted and its performances as compelling and soliciting audience investment. Thus, although meaningful understanding of Indigenous narrative and its aes- thetic logic is attainable for viewers open to non-hegemonic worldviews and approaches, continued miscomprehension only confirms the urgent need to counter the homogenizing tendency of Eurocentric culture. Meanwhile, Blood Quantum also signals its solidarity with parallel inter- ventions opposing anti-Black and other forms of racism. Tellingly, not only is Lysol a character whose complexity exposes him to being misunderstood, he is also the character who most explicitly articulates co-resistance with non-white allies when he stresses the threat posed by white survivors seeking shelter and describes them as “never [having] seen a brown person since their grandparents owned one.” In light of recent Black Lives Matter protests, fueled also by the exposure of racial injustice during COVID-19, this alignment further augments the film’s apparent prescience. And while enduring Eurocentric stereotypes of Indigenous ghosts tend to mobilize such supernatural figures as a way to “disappear” Indigenous presence from the territory now known as North America, for Michelle Raheja, works by Indigenous artists deploying Indigenous ghosts conversely “draw attention to the embodied present and future” of Indigenous peoples (2011, 146). As such, even though Blood Quantum engages with the zombie rather than the ghost, the clairvoyance attributed to this film appears to correlate with Raheja’s theorization of Indigenous prophecy. Indeed, Blood Quantum combines the zombie’s origins in the idea of eternal Black slavery with the parallel idea of eternal Indigenous dispos- session. Appropriating both of these tropes, Blood Quantum instead casts the white population as eternally (self-)enslaved to boundless systems of accu- mulation and (self-)dispossessed of the rich reciprocal possibilities of learning from non-western epistemologies. References Ballingall, Alex. 2020. “Top Mountie Now Says ‘Systemic Racism’ Exists.” Toronto Star, June 13. Black, Sarah-Tai. 2020. “The History and Horror of Blood Quantum.” The Globe and Mail, April 28. Bracken, Amber. 2020. “Minister Says ‘Now is a Great Time’ to Build Pipelines, as Health Rules Limit Protests.” The Globe and Mail, May 26. Accessed August 27, 2020. https://www. theglobeandmail.com/canada/alberta/article-alberta-minister-says-its-a-great-time-to- build-a-pipeline-because/. Bramesco, Charles. 2020. “‘I’m indigenizing zombies’: behind gory First Nation horror Blood Quantum.” The Guardian, April 28. Accessed August 26, 2020. https://www.theguardian.com/ film/2020/apr/28/blood-quantum-horror-film. Comentale, Edward P. 2017. “Zombie Race.” In Zombie Theory: A Reader, ed. Sarah Juliet Lauro, 189-211. University of Minnesota Press. Coulthard, Glen Sean. 2014. Red Skin, White Masks: Rejecting the Colonial Politics of Recognition. University of Minnesota Press. Anticipating the Colonial Apocalypse 373 Crucchiola, Jordan. 2020. “Jeff Barnaby Made an Apocalypse Movie to Watch the System Fall. Then a Pandemic Hit.” Vulture, May 6. Accessed August 26, 2020. https://www.vulture. com/2020/05/jeff-barnaby-is-worried-white-people-wont-get-blood-quantum.html. Dillon, Grace L. 2012. “Imagining Indigenous Futurisms.” Walking the Clouds: An Anthology of Indigenous Science Fiction, edited by Grace L. Dillon 1–12. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. Ehrlich, David. 2020. “‘Blood Quantum’ Review: Indigenous Canadian Zombie Movie Bites Into Colonialism.” IndieWire, April 28. Accessed August 26, 2020. https://www.indiewire. com/2020/04/blood-quantum-review-indigenous-canadian-zombie-movie-1202227657/. Hanson, Erin. 2009. “Sixties Scoop.” UBC Indigenous Foundations. Accessed August 26, 2020. http://indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca/sixties_scoop/. Harding, Sandra. 2004. “Introduction: Standpoint Theory as Site of Political, Philosophic, and Scientific Debate.” In The Feminist Standpoint Theory Reader: Intellectual and Political Contro- versies, ed. Sandra Harding. 1–16. New York: Routledge. Hertz, Barry. 2020. “And Now, a Zombie Movie with Brains: Review.” The Globe and Mail, May 4. 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Reservation Reelism: Redfacing, Visual Sovereignty, and Representations of Native Americans in Film. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. Sartre, Jean-Paul. 1963. “Preface” to The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon, 7–30. Translated by Constance Farrington. New York: Grove Weidenfeld. Shohat, Ella, and Robert Stam. 1996. Unthinking Eurocentrism: Multiculturalism and the Media London: Routledge. Simpson, Leanne Betasamosake. 2016. “Indigenous Resurgence and Co-resistance.” Critical Ethnic Studies (2) 2: 19–34. Tallerico, Brian. 2020. “Blood Quantum.” RogerEbert.com, April 28. Accessed August 27, 2020. https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/blood-quantum-movie-review-2020. Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. 2015. Canada’s Residential Schools: The Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. Vol. 1. McGill-Queen’s Press- MQUP. https://nctr.ca/reports2.php. Vincentelli, Elisabeth. 2020. “‘Blood Quantum’ Review: Inspired Splatter” New York Times, April 28. Accessed August 27, 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/28/movies/blood- quantum-review-inspired-splatter.html. Vowel, Chelsea. 2016. “Our Stolen Generations: The Sixties and Millennial Scoops.” In Indigenous Writes: A Guide to First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Issues in Canada, 181–90. Winnipeg, MB: Highwater Press. Walsh, Marieke, Daniel LeBlanc, and Carrie Tait. 2020. “RCMP Say Systemic Racism Exists in Force.” The Globe and Mail, June 13. Wong, Jessica. 2019. “Blood Quantum’s Indigenous Actors Totally Get the Zombie Apocalypse.” CBC News, September 10. Accessed August 27, 2020. https://www.cbc.ca/news/ entertainment/tiff2019-bloodquantum-1.5273257. Yamato, Jen. 2020. “How Indigenous Zombie Horror Film ‘Blood Quantum’ Became Prescient in the Pandemic.” Los Angeles Times, May 8. Accessed August 27, 2020. https://www.latimes.com/ entertainment-arts/movies/story/2020-05-08/blood-quantum-indigenous-horror-zombie- pandemic-jeff-barnaby. Authors Ada Ackerman is a permanent researcher at THALIM/ CNRS (French National Research Center). An art historian and a specialist of Sergei Eisenstein’s work, she focuses on interartistic and intermedial circulations (cinema and other arts) as well as on cultural exchanges between USSR, Europe and the United States. Neta Alexander is assistant professor of Film and Media at Colgate University, New York and an Assistant Editor of JCMS: Journal of Cinema and Media Studies. Her research interests include digital culture, film theory, science and technol- ogy studies (STS), and disability studies. She is the co-author of Failure (Polity Books, 2020, with Arjun Appadurai), which studies how Silicon Valley and Wall Street have been monetizing failure and forgetfulness. Meredith A. Bak is assistant professor of Childhood Studies at Rutgers University-Camden. She is the author of Playful Visions: Optical Toys and the Emergence of Children’s Media Culture (MIT Press, 2020). Her research concen- trates on children’s media, visual, and material cultures from the nineteenth century to the present. Marie-Aude Baronian is associate professor in Visual Culture at the Media Studies department of the University of Amsterdam. Her research fields and interests are rather interdisciplinary and include media, memory and testi- mony, ethics and aesthetics, film-philosophy, French thought, fashion theory, material objects, and Armenian diasporic audiovisual practices. Ulrike Bergermann is professor of media studies at the University of the Arts Braunschweig. Her research interests include Postcolonial Theory, Gen- der Studies, and questions of (academic) knowledge production. See ulrikebergermann.de. Amrita Biswas is a PhD candidate in the Graduate Research Training Program “Konfigurationen des Films” at Goethe University, Frankfurt. Her research interests include post-partition trauma in the films of Ritwik Ghatak as well as media infrastructures of alternative and popular Bengali cinema. Teresa Castro is associate professor in Film Studies at the Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3. She has extensively worked on aerial imagery and was associate curator of the exhibition “Vues d’en haut”, held at the Centre Pompidou Metz (2013). Her current research interests include the links between film and animism, vegetal life forms in visual culture and eco-criticism. Didi Cheeka is the artistic director of Decasia—Berlin-Lagos Archival Film Festival. He is co-founder and curator of Lagos Film Society—an alternative cinema centre dedicated to founding Nigeria’s first arthouse cinema. Didi is 376 Pandemic Media currently engaged in digitizing and researching Nigeria’s rediscovered colonial and post-war (1967–70) audiovisual archives. Michelle Cho is an assistant professor of Korean film and media at the University of Toronto. Her research interests include Korean cinema, televi- sion, video, and pop music, genre cinemas, social media platforms, and Korean-wave pop culture fandoms. Shane Denson is associate professor of Film and Media Studies and, by Courtesy, of German Studies at Stanford University. His research interests span a variety of media and historical periods, including phenomenological and media-philosophical approaches to film, digital media, and serialized popular forms. See shanedenson.com for more information. Guilherme da Silva Machado is a PhD candidate at Université Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris 3 and Goethe University Frankfurt, where he is also a member of the Graduate Research Training Program “Konfigurationen des Films”. He is particularly interested in the relationship between techniques of observation and labor practices, from an aesthetic, epistemological and anthropological perspective. Marijke de Valck is associate professor of film and media studies at Utrecht University where she co-directs the master program in film and television culture. Her research deals with transnational media cultures, media industries, and art cinema. In her work on film festivals she combines critical theory, textual analysis and empirical approaches. Kerim Dogruel is a PhD candidate in the Graduate Research Training Program “Konfigurationen des Films” at Goethe University Frankfurt. His research inter- ests include media theory, animation and game studies. Stefanie Duguay is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Concordia University (Tiohtià:ke/Montreal, Canada). Her research focuses on the influence of digital media technologies in everyday life, with attention to the intersection of sexual identity, gender, and social media. Kester Dyer is assistant professor in Film Studies at Carleton University, which is located on unceded Algonquin territory. A settler scholar, his research focusses on Québec, Indigenous, and Canadian film and media. His areas of interest also include genre theory and postcolonial approaches to film. Christoph Engemann is postdoc for digital transformation and society at the Bauhaus University Weimar. His research interests include graphs & transactions, media of statehood and barns. Karin Fleck is a PhD candidate at the Graduate Research Training Program “Konfigurationen des Films” with a project titled “Future Oddities: Nostalgia, Authors 377 Music and Film”. Her research interests include nostalgia trends in cinema, popular music, reception theory and the history of analogue media. Bishnupriya Ghosh is professor of Global Studies and English at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her research interests include studies of environmental media, science-and-technology, global media, and postcolo- nial/decolonial theory. Sophia Gräfe is research associate in the project “Transdisciplinary Networks of Media Knowledge” at the Philipps-University of Marburg as well as guest researcher at the Museum of Natural History in Berlin. Her research interests include the history of the behavioral sciences, the media of science and scien- tific film. Malte Hagener is a professor of film and media studies at Philipps University Marburg and a Principal Investigator at the Graduate Research Training Pro- gram “Konfigurationen des Films”. His research interests include film history and historiography, film theory and media archaeology. Vinzenz Hediger is professor of cinema studies at Goethe University Frank- furt where he directs the Graduate Research Training Program “Konfigura- tionen des Films”. His research interests include the history of film theory, marginal film forms and global film industries. Florian Hoof is a research associate at the Institute of Advanced Study on Media Cultures of Computer Simulation, Leuphana University Lüneburg. Fields of research: film and media history, digital environments, media and organiza- tional theory. Recent publication: Angels of Efficiency: A Media History of Consulting (Oxford University Press, 2020). Marek Jancovic is assistant professor of Media Studies at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. His current research is centered around the materialities of the moving image, film preservation practices and format studies. Philipp Dominik Keidl is a postdoctoral fellow in the Graduate Research Training Program “Konfigurationen des Films” at Goethe University Frankfurt. His research concentrates on fandom, media and material culture, and moving image preservation and exhibition. Alice Leroy is a lecturer in film studies at the University of Gustave Eiffel (Paris). Her work focuses on the relationship between science and aesthetics through the visual imaginaries of the body. She is a member of the editorial board of the journal Cahiers du cinéma, and also an associate programmer at the international documentary film festival Cinéma du Réel at the Centre Pompidou, and the Stockholm French Film Festival. 378 Pandemic Media Juan Llamas-Rodriguez is assistant professor of critical media studies in the School of Arts, Technology, and Emerging Communication at the University of Texas at Dallas. His research spans digital media, border studies, infrastruc- ture studies, and Latin American film and television. Laliv Melamed is a postdoctoral fellow in the Graduate Research Training Program “Konfigurationen des Films” at Goethe University Frankfurt. Her research is dedicated to marginal forms and the intersection of state politics and media. Her current project focuses on operative images. John Mowitt is professor of Cultural and Media Studies and the Leadership Chair in the Critical Humanities at the University of Leeds. He is also a senior editor of Cultural Critique. His research interests include the history and geog- raphy of critical theory, sound studies and comparative literature. Joshua Neves is Canada Research Chair and director of the Global Emergent Media (GEM) Lab at Concordia University (Montréal). His research centers on digital media, cultural and political theory, and problems of development and legitimacy. He is the author of Underglobalization: Beijing’s Media Urbanism and the Chimera of Legitimacy (Duke 2020), and co-editor of Asian Video Cultures: In the Penumbra of the Global (Duke 2017). Alexandra Schneider is professor of Film Studies at Johannes Gutenberg-Uni- versity Mainz. She is affiliated with the Graduate Research Training Program “Konfigurationen des Films” and the director of the Gutenberg Graduates School of the Humanities and Social Science (GSHS). Her research interests include media archaeology, amateur media and format studies. Benjamín Schultz-Figueroa is an assistant professor in Film Studies at Seat- tle University. His research focuses on the history of scientific filmmaking, nontheatrical film, and animal studies. His book The Celluloid Specimen: Moving Image Research into Animal Life is due to be published by UC Press in 2022. Diego Semerene is Senior Lecturer in Film and Digital Media Production at Oxford Brookes University and a film critic for Slant Magazine. Their research interests include psychoanalysis, queer theory and fashion theory. Felix M. Simon is a Leverhulme Doctoral Scholar at the Oxford Internet Insti- tute (OII) and a research assistant at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Jour- nalism (RISJ) at the University of Oxford. His research broadly focuses on AI in the news, political communication in the digital age, and the changing nature of the media in the 21st century. Antonio Somaini is professor of Film, Media and Visual Culture Theory at the Université Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris, where he is also Chair of the Depart- ment of Film and Media Studies. His research interests include the history of film and media theories, as well as issues in contemporary visual culture, such Authors 379 as the implications of the high and low definition of images, and of the new technologies of machine vision. Marc Steinberg is associate professor of Cinema and director of The Platform Lab at Concordia University. His research examines the impacts of digital platforms on management practices, media industries, and cultural life, focus- ing on East Asia in particular. His most recent book is The Platform Economy: How Japan Transformed the Commercial Internet (University of Minnesota Press, 2019). Wanda Strauven is Privatdozentin of Media Studies at Goethe University Frankfurt and member of the Graduate Research Training Program “Konfigu- rationen des Films”. Her research focuses on early cinema, media archaeology, touch-based media and screenic practices of post-cinema (from interactive media installations to creative media hacking by today’s children). Jaap Verheul is a visiting research fellow in the Department of Film Studies at King’s College London, where his research focuses on the regulation of trans- national flows of film and television production in European media industries. He recently published an edited collection on The Cultural Life of James Bond: Specters of 007 with Amsterdam University Press (2020). Abby S. Waysdorf is a postdoctoral researcher at Utrecht University, where she is part of the CADEAH (Curation and Appropriation of European Audio- visual Heritage) project. Her research interests are audiovisual archives, fan cultures, and the relationship between viewers/users and the media industry. Rebecca Williams is senior lecturer in Communication, Culture and Media Studies at the University of South Wales. Her research interests include fandom and participatory cultures, mediated place and space, media tourism, and themed and immersive spaces. Leonie Zilch is a postdoctoral assistant researcher at the Institute of Film, Theater, Media and Cultural Studies at the Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz. Her fields of research include Porn Studies, Feminist Film Theory, Gen- der Studies, Documentary Practices and Popular Culture. Yvonne Zimmermann is professor of media studies at Philipps-University Marburg. She is the editor and co-author of a volume on useful cinema in Swit- zerland (Schaufenster Schweiz: Dokumentarische Gebrauchsfilme 1896–1964, 2011) and the co-author of the forthcoming book Advertising and the Transformation of Screen Cultures (AUP, 2021, with Bo Florin and Patrick Von- derau). Her current research focuses on the popular transfer of knowledge by magic lantern and on Asta Nielsen and the introduction of the star system before WWI. Philipp Dominik Keidl, Laliv Melamed, Vinzenz Hediger, and Antonio Somaini (eds.) Pandemic Media: Preliminary Notes Toward an Inventory With its unprecedented scale and consequences the COVID-19 pandemic has generated a variety of new con- figurations of media. Responding to demands for infor- mation, synchronization, regulation, and containment, these “pandemic media” reorder social interactions, spaces, and temporalities, thus contributing to a reconfiguration of media technologies and the cultures and polities with which they are entangled. Highlighting media’s adaptabil- ity, malleability, and scalability under the conditions of a pandemic, the contributions to this volume track and analyze how media emerge, operate, and change in  response to the global crisis and provide elements toward an understanding of the post-pandemic world to come. konfigurationen-des-films.de ISBN 978-3-95796-008-5 www.meson-press.com