Abstract
Our collective understanding of the social effects of the Covid-19 pandemic has been greatly informed (and also misinformed) by a range of images that were reproduced in the media over the last year and a half. Some of these images pull at one’s heart strings (nurses with bruised faces after long work shifts wearing masks, for example, or family members communicating from spaces separated by glass or plastic), while others portrayed the dramatic transformation of cities that took place all over the world (animals roaming freely along formerly-busy streets, or profoundly quiet and empty urban spaces that are usually filled with tourists). In an analysis of a range of media images from this later category, the unique poignancy of the absence of human beings in human spaces is felt on a deeper level, which is both hard to define and emotionally resonant. Such images from the era of the pandemic therefore remind us of our unspoken connections to urban spaces and the collective sense of “place” that has developed organically over time in cities across the world.
Presenters
Michael FreemanProfessor of Art History, Art Department, Western Oregon University, Oregon, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2021 Special Focus - Picture a Pandemic: The Visual Construction of Meaning in Digital Networks
KEYWORDS
Empty Cities, Human Connection, Sense of Place, Pandemic, Urban History
