TY - JOUR
T1 - Songs of the Pandemic
AU - Ulfstjerne, Michael Alexander
PY - 2020/10
Y1 - 2020/10
N2 - This article explores virtual common singing in the time of partial lockdown in Denmark through an auto-ethnographic account. The phenomenon of singing together on Danish public service television gained immense popularity as a response to the pandemic as one-fifth of the population tuned in, in many cases broadcasting themselves while signing. Looking at common singing as an emergent ‘infrastructure for troubling times’, this article takes up questions of digitally mediated intimacy during the COVID-19 lockdown, exploring who sings, what is sung, and the affective responses (tears, feelings of intimacy, ambivalence) to the singing. More than merely reviving vernacular singing traditions, the article argues, this new-found sonic comradery forms not only an affective infrastructure that moves people to tears but also somatic building blocks for national imageries.
AB - This article explores virtual common singing in the time of partial lockdown in Denmark through an auto-ethnographic account. The phenomenon of singing together on Danish public service television gained immense popularity as a response to the pandemic as one-fifth of the population tuned in, in many cases broadcasting themselves while signing. Looking at common singing as an emergent ‘infrastructure for troubling times’, this article takes up questions of digitally mediated intimacy during the COVID-19 lockdown, exploring who sings, what is sung, and the affective responses (tears, feelings of intimacy, ambivalence) to the singing. More than merely reviving vernacular singing traditions, the article argues, this new-found sonic comradery forms not only an affective infrastructure that moves people to tears but also somatic building blocks for national imageries.
KW - COVID-19 pandemic
KW - Denmark
KW - Community singing
KW - Intimacy
KW - Infrastructure
KW - Nationalism
KW - Tears
KW - Virtual common singing
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85097412404&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3167/aia.2020.270213
DO - 10.3167/aia.2020.270213
M3 - Journal article
SN - 0967-201X
VL - 27
SP - 82
EP - 86
JO - Anthropology in Action
JF - Anthropology in Action
IS - 2
ER -