Touch in the time of corona : reflections on love, care, and vulnerability in the pandemic

Open Access A chronicle, a memoir, a reflection on the pandemic, and a cultural analysis of the new spatial, social, and epistemological forms that have arisen with it, this volume weaves together cultural history, aesthetics, and urban and digital studies. It looks at the particular ways in which the possibilities for touch, touching and being touched, both physically and affectively, are reconfigured by the pandemic. How are love, care, and humanity’s complex relationships with technology and nature played out in the interval between abandoned city centres and digitally mediated gatherings? How can we comprehend the reconfiguration of relationships through the human response to the pandemic as an experience that concerns us all but affects each of us in different ways? How do we think through the technological and material dependencies that the pandemic situation establishes? And how does this allow us to imagine the world beyond the pandemic—both utopian and dystopian? The essays in this book explore the new forms of intimacy and distance that are developing in the wake of COVID-19, offering a distinctive, topical analysis in the fields of urban and digital studies. The book: - offers reflections on how touching and being touched is being reconfigured by the pandemic - weaves together cultural history, aesthetics, and urban and digital studies - reflects on the practice of cowriting Acknowledgements 7 Table of Contents 9 List of Figures 11 Introduction 15 1 The Digital Hug: Love and Care from a Distance 29 2 On the Politics of Face Masks: A Danish Example 49 3 Dancing with the Virus: Moving through the Streets 69 4 Pandemic Stuckness: Cruise Ships and Home Isolation 89 5 The Tales of a Virus: Corona Temporalities 103 Coda 117 Endnotes 123 Bibliography 137 Index 143 The COVID-19 pandemic has hooked us all into digital networks as our access to cities, work and social gatherings is restricted and reconfigured. Weaving together cultural history, aesthetics, and urban and digital studies, this short volume reflects on how the possibilities for touch, touching and being touched, both physically and affectively, are reconfigured by the pandemic