‘Selfies’ Under Quarantine: Exploring Networked Emotions in the Time of ‘Social Distancing’

Donatella Della Ratta

doi:10.17742/IMAGE.MM.12.2.11

Authors

Donatella Della Ratta John Cabot University, Rome

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17742/IMAGE.MM.12.2.11

Abstract

This essay focuses on auto-ethnography and auto-fiction as USEFUL tools to reflect on the ways in which networked identities are reshaped and reconfigured within the context of a global pandemic where social relationships, family life, work routines, and learning processes are increasingly migrating to the online domain. The piece builds upon the experience of an undergraduate class who collectively contributed to the blog series ‘Selfies Under Quarantine’ during the first severe lockdown in March 2020. It discusses the question of methods and suggests looking at the ‘draft’ as both an aesthetics and an ethics to navigate the current context of crisis.

Author Biography

Donatella Della Ratta, John Cabot University, Rome

Donatella holds a PhD from the University of Copenhagen and is former Affiliate of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. She has managed the Arabic speaking community for the international organization Creative Commons from 2007 until 2013. In 2012 she co-founded the website SyriaUntold, recipient of the Digital Communities award at Ars Electronica 2014. She has curated several international art exhibitions and film programs on Syria. She is author and editor of a wide range of books and essays on Arab media and networked technologies. Shooting a Revolution: Visual Media and Warfare in Syria (Pluto Press, 2018) is her latest monograph. Shot Theory is her most recent essay.

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