The COVID-19 pandemic has reorganized existing methods of exchange, turning comparatively marginal technologies into the new normal. Multipoint videoconferencing in particular has become a favored means for web-based forms of remote communication and collaboration without physical copresence. Taking the recent mainstreaming of videoconferencing as its point of departure, this anthology examines the complex mediality of this new form of social interaction. Connecting theoretical reflection with material case studies, the contributors question practices, politics and aesthetics of videoconferencing and the specific meanings it acquires in different historical, cultural and social contexts.
videoconferencing has become a favored means for web-based forms of remote communication and collaboration without physical copresence. Connecting theoretical reflection with material case studies, the contributors question practices, politics and aesthetics of videoconferencing and the specific meanings it acquires in different contexts.
Frontmatter 1
Contents 5
Video Conferencing: Infrastructures, Practices, Aesthetics 9
A Study Abroad during Covid-19 45
Teaching Into the Void 69
Presence in Video Conferencing in Teaching Contexts as a Means for Positioning Subjects 89
The Anatomy of Zoom Fatigue 109
The Need for Intentionally Equitable Hospitality in Video Conferencing 127
Laws of Zoom 135
Video Conferencing as Programmatic Relations 149
Techniques of the Face 169
Sociospatiality between Agency and Fixation 189
Eye Contact with the Machine 209
Performing Video Conferencing and VR for a "Real Virtual Life" 233
"In Eight and a Half Seconds the World Has Changed" 259
Things in the Background 275
People Who Stare at Screens 293
Video Conferencing and Performance Magic 325
Dis/Abling Video Conferences 343
Authors 365
Axel Volmar (Dr. phil.) ist Medienwissenschaftler und arbeitet zurzeit als wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter im Sonderforschungsbereich »Medien der Kooperation« an der Universität Siegen. Er erforscht die Geschichte kooperativer Praktiken, der auditiven Kultur, des Designs und medialer Zeitlichkeit.
Olga Moskatova, Prof. Dr., ist Pofessorin für Medientheorie an der Hochschule für Gestaltung Offenbach am Main.
Jan Distelmeyer (Prof. Dr.) lehrt Mediengeschichte und -theorie im Kooperationsstudiengang Europäische Medienwissenschaft der FH und Universität Potsdam.
