Ma-kin sense: Social distancing
Ma-kin sense of the keyword: Social Distancing
Definition of social distancing: The practice of maintaining a greater than usual physical distance from other people or of avoiding direct contact with people or objects in public places during the outbreak of a contagious disease in order to minimise exposure and reduce the transmission of infection.
The group of reflectors: Hannah Alexander-Wright, Lorna Dallas-Conte, John O’Reilly, Catherine Smith and Katherine SimpsonAs the world practices social distancing we notice that we do not have language for what we are experiencing. It is hard to express because it doesn’t exist – yet. What is new and different we have always muddled through and make it up as we go along. Our boundaries become blurred and the fences between our neighbours become mediators for conversations that in any other setting would not take place.
Our rights of passage such as funerals, birthdays and for some weddings are taken away from us and causing us to distance ourselves from our social, yet we are finding new ways to mark the social. The new social is physical with our bodies, our touch. Clapping on mass to support the NHS key workers, moving in unison, but the element of surprise when we get eye-contact with an unknown person on our street becomes bodily – the release of tension from everyone hibernating is liberating.
The social is now queues, lines and networks – self-choreographed movements in single file, couples and families on mass moving in strange ways to limited spaces; supermarkets, parks and medical centres. Taking Paul Klee’s concept of “Taking a line for a walk” to mobile ourselves, mobilise others to navigate where this line is taking us. Now might be the opportunity to draw the line differently, with a new medium away from a past trajectory – taking back control.
Distancing in its self is passive, possibly reactive we suggest social s-p-a-c-i-n-g would be more open as it affords finding new ways to use space. Space to connect and disconnect, move like a dance or pause. This might be a moment for many to indulge in solitude yet we are addicted to the social, the media and its general connectedness. As we move from overground to underground but not wombling free, the tension mounts between rebellious ideas to switch off and dive deeper into digital social connection. Letting go is troublesome for most as our addiction to digital connectedness increases but as the servers are put under pressure we start to feel the pressure on ourselves.
The pressure on our lines and networks and as our families, friends and colleagues merge– becoming layered on top of our own nervous systems. Reactions to fight or flight become a choice of how to breathe. Mourning the loss of our previous social contact we realise that this death is actually life affirming.
What are ‘ma-kin sense’ articles?
Purpose
• Discuss as a group for 27 mins to reflect on a keyword that is prevalent or emerging in society. The conversation is written up as an article with doodles and notes accompanied.
Format
• Each person shares their observations on the key word and riff off each other.
So what
• The conversation is for self-reflection and collective transfer of knowledge – nothing more, nothing less.
• It is an opportunity to be in the moment, experimental and experiential to poke and prod as a collection of voices to excavate and test the edges of our boundaries.