Bewilderment, hope & despair

The pandemic has brought the world into a state of despair. Not since the Second World War have so many people experienced trauma simultaneously (Beddoes, 2020). We are in a double situation - on one hand in despair, seeking compassion and empathy for our struggles, and on the other hand we are guided by desires seeking to overcome or confront the conforming refrains and restrictions of isolation. Affective states seem to govern both sides of the situation. As isolation breeds dreaming, restlessness, loneliness, haziness or meditation, our surroundings become generative; morphing, leaking, transforming. The pre-pandemic places of attention now seem abandoned and quiet, while new landscapes take form.