The pandemic and the ordinary: Notes on the affinity between pandemic experience and everyday records

Abstract

This essay aims to discuss the affinity between the aesthetics of everyday report, testimonial and diaries with the specificity of Covid-19 pandemic experience. It was noted the focus on the traces of this historical moment in everyday life as a very shared experience of the pandemic, which resulted in a boost to presentification. Our hypothesis is that a structure of feeling was formed in the experience of pandemic phase of social distancing and isolation. This structure was matured through the production and fruition of ordinary records as a valorization of the aesthetic forms as diaries and testimonials of ordinary people. Through the experience of a virtual group for sharing reports and the mapping of several initiatives on report collection, the essay analyses how certain Covid-19 pandemic experiences are related with the notions of trauma, mourning and extraordinary.