My first post on this site treated the toxic Melbourne air as a result of the large bushfires burning around the country. In that post I considered how the toxicity of the air changed the way air looked and smelled, making us suddenly aware of its presence. The threat of bad air heightened our awareness of our senses, allowing us to pick up on any irregularities in the air. I would argue that it changed the way that we interacted with the space around us, including the normally unnoticed gaseous aspects of that space. Although today, the continued fires around Australia are all but vanished from our minds, a similar awareness of the space around us is evident during the current coronavirus pandemic. The disease has sensitised us to the air and spaces around us and their potential harmfulness. The virus, just like the toxic air, makes us attentive to space in new and unexpectant ways.

To demonstrate, think of your most recent visit to the supermarket. Weren’t you suddenly acutely aware of every part of your body (and even clothes) that were in direct contact with the spaces and objects around you? It was almost as if you were left with a burning invisible mark on your hand after having picked up the shopping basket. As you walked around the shop were you not intensely conscious of the way other people were moving in relation to you? Someone was standing too close to the brand of soymilk you wanted to grab so you hesitate for an extra movement, waiting for them to move on. As you turned around a corner, looking for the non-existent liquid hand soap did you not almost bump into someone moving towards you and suddenly, without thinking, you found yourself holding your breath? Some of us have taken to protective measures such as disposable gloves and face masks, attempting to create a protective barrier between ourselves and the outside world. Others, we are almost too fearful to go outside at all. As you escaped the supermarket you took your first deep breath in a while and made your way home, still feeling the germs burning the skin of your hands. The current health crisis has heightened our sense of touch to a point where we can feel the burning of unclean skin, it has sensitised us to our place in relation to the space and the people around us and it has made us intensely aware of the sounds and signs of flu symptoms.

These are new experiences for most of us and they can be understood as a different awareness of space. The invisible virus threatening us cannot be seen by the naked eye, yet it is perceived by every part of our body. The fact that we do not know if it is there makes us constantly assume that it is. Sure, we might slip up for a moment, moving our unclean hands to our faces, but we soon remember, kicking ourselves for our mistake. Of course, we were always aware that venturing into public space and the proximity of other people meant exposing ourselves to the risk of different forms of infections. However, never before have we been so keenly aware of the risk. Similar to the way the toxic air during the bushfire season made us aware of its existence, we are becoming cognisant of the fact that the virus might be present in the air that we move through or the places that we touch. Once this virus no longer is considered everywhere around us, most of us will return to moving through space in a manner similar to before. Nonetheless, just as with the air during the bushfires I think that, in a way, the virus pandemic will come to slightly change our relationship to space for quite some time.

For more considerations on the sounds of the pandemic and what it does to us, have a listen to the podcast ‘Listening to the city in a global pandemic’.