Atemporalities and Becomings in the Age of Covid
by Barbara Zecchi
‘Atemporalities and Becomings in the Age of Covid’ juxtaposes two distinct visual experiences: clips from the Spanish television series Estoy Vivo, a tragicomedy I watched during the evenings of the COVID-19 lockdown as a way to relax and disconnect from the horror of the outside; and news on the pandemic, which I compulsively consumed during the daytime at my computer desk.
In crafting this video essay, I combine three techniques: Catherine Fowler’s videographic diptych, Nick Warr’s constraints[1] developed by Ariel Avissar, and Colleen Laird’s use of these constraints in ‘Equinox Flower’.[2] While my work engages with Fowler’s concept of the comparison-as-method, it does not aim to contrast opposites or juxtapose similarities. Instead, it focuses on what Fowler calls ‘two-ness’, a way of thinking about the single image, ‘generating a durational viewing experience’.[3] I loosely follow Warr’s parameters by duplicating and flipping the newsreels and running them in reverse order. However, I do not apply this technique to the clips from Estoy Vivo, as the series itself disrupts linear temporality, with its characters dying and later being resuscitated or reincarnated in other bodies. Laird’s approach, in which media objects remain embedded within their original platforms, informs my work as well. This technique generates a sense of materiality, revealing the traces of the digital sources and underscoring the constructedness of the media.
The theoretical framework of my video essay is grounded in Rosi Braidotti’s neo-materialist concept of non-linearity, the powers of memory and imagination, and the strategy of de-familiarisation.[4] In this framework, approaching the present produces a multi-faceted effect: a simultaneous awareness of what is ceasing to be, and the perception of what we are becoming. The visible traces of the media’s origins reflect this sense of ongoing transformation, as they exist within a network of relations – platforms and histories – that constantly shape and reshape them. Life is not confined to the present moment or a single body, and death is reimagined as part of an ongoing, interconnected process of memories and becoming.
Author
Barbara Zecchi is Professor and Director of the Interdepartmental Program in Film Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. With a focus on feminist film theory, women filmmakers, aging studies, and videographic criticism, she has published over 100 scholarly articles and eleven volumes, including the monograph Women Out of Focus (Icaria 2014) (named ‘the most influential book of the decade’ by the Spanish daily newspaper El Diario), and the co-edited book Gender-Based Violence in Latin American and Iberian Cinemas (Routledge 2021). Zecchi’s prolific videographic work, featured in the Sight and Sound ‘Best Video Essay’ polls since 2021, is discussed in Episode 31 of the ‘Video Essay Podcast’.
References
Braidotti, R. ‘Affirming the Affirmative: On Nomadic Affectivity’, Rhizomes, 2005-06: 11-12.
_____. The posthuman. Polity Press, 2013.
Fowler, C. ‘Feminist Videographic Diptychs’, [in]Transition, 10.3, 2023.
Laird, C. ‘彼岸花 /Equinox Flower (Warr’s Constraint)’, [in]Transition, 11.3, 2024.
Warr, N. ‘Honolulu Mon Amour’, [in]Transition, 3.2, 2016.
[1] Warr 2016.
[2] Laird 2024.
[3] Fowler 2023.
[4] Braidotti 2005-06; 2013.