Touching Matters: Affective Entanglements in Coronatime.

Area of Science:

• Phenomenology
• Digital Humanities
• Sociology of Technology

Background:

• The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated remote interactions, challenging traditional notions of embodied presence and academic collaboration.
• The concept of 'touch' was re-examined in the context of virtual environments and affective experiences.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the nature of virtual touch and affective connection within an online academic setting during the pandemic.
• To explore how digital platforms can facilitate intimacy, pedagogy, and creativity despite physical separation.

Main Methods:

• Formation of an online Barad reading/writing group engaging in daily Zoom meetings.
• Utilizing a montage of writing fragments and a collective artwork (Massive_Micro project) to represent virtual touching.
• Adopting a diffractive methodology to analyze the multiplicity of human/nonhuman interactions.

Main Results:

• Virtual interactions fostered a sense of intimacy and pedagogical engagement, transforming the 'void' of physical distance into a 'plenitude' of possibilities.
• The study highlights the affective dimensions of virtual touch, demonstrating its capacity to connect individuals across geographical barriers.
• The collective creation process revealed a reconfigured, diffractive multiplicity of participants and their interactions.

Conclusions:

• Virtual touch can be a meaningful mode of connection, fostering affective bonds and pedagogical innovation in remote academic communities.
• Digital spaces offer rich opportunities for intimacy, learning, and creative collaboration, challenging the necessity of physical proximity.
• The research underscores the potential for emergent, non-traditional forms of academic practice and collective being in digital environments.