Experimentations in pandemic boredom

Abstract

The lockdowns and quarantines within the global COVID-19 pandemic have been associated with an epidemic boredom resulting from shrunken life-spheres. In fact, the COVID-19 pandemic has been framed as an experiment in both experiencing boredom and studying it. Starting with the pandemic moment of affective flatness, this chapter explores continuities, discontinuities and paradoxes in zeitgeist diagnoses of boredom in cultural inquiry. It addresses the argued specificity of boredom as a modern mood and form experience, asking what methodological choices have contributed to broad consensus on the issue. Moving from cultural theory to contextual circumstance and back again, the chapter asks what kinds of worlds boredom is seen to build as it is presented as a problem, a solution and a more ambiguously positioned rhythm of experience. Finally, by addressing ambiguity in studies of affect, it argues against dualistic divides drawn between that which paralyses (boredom) and that which animates (excitement) bodies, tending towards seemingly irreconcilable yet coexisting dynamics of feeling instead.