Paper short abstract:

How can ethnographers explore experiences of social isolation in "fine grained details"? Ethnographically based on an experimental practice-methodology, this paper reports preliminary results of a research realized during pandemic isolation in Italy and Portugal during 2021.

Paper long abstract:

Covid-19 imposed dramatic changes on human life on a global scale, moulding behaviors and sociality in order to contain the spread of Covid-19 virus. New conditions visibilized and increased old inequalities: differences for the access to resources (as the internet connection, laptops or PCs), cut off millions of people from online interactions, while others intensified so much screen-based activities that the neologism "Zoom Fatigue" was coined to express the new efforts for the social performances in virtual spaces.

This paper is interested in discussing a practice-based ethnography developed in virtual Italy and Portugal during 2021 about practices individuals address to themselves. How the body perception and the acts of body cares were influenced by pandemic restrictions and the over-exposure to screens?

Research's results suggest that measures to limits Covid, such as home-isolation, use of masks and social distancing, affected how we think the body and we take care of us in order to enhance our social performativity. Pandemic shaped new human experiences and cultural behaviors connected to the biology of the virus and of the humans: this paper presents visual material co-created with research-partners offering the chance to unfold the embodiment of old inequalities and new strategies based on post-colonial and Eurocentric models of excellence.

This paper originates from a doctoral project (FCT grant SFRH/BD/131914/2017), in cooperation with «EXCEL», supported by Foundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (grant PTDC/SOC-ANT/30572/2017), Instituto de Ciências Sociais da Universidade de Lisboa - PI Chiara Pussetti.