The Digital Pandemic: Imagination in Times of Isolation

Description

A refreshing approach to the dominance of technology in our contemporary lives, The Digital Pandemic, translated from Portuguese, poses fundamental questions about love, fear, connectedness, proximity, imagination and consciousness. Arguing that the pandemic has ushered in a civilizational digital shock, Joao Pedro Cachopo charts new channels of relatedness and communication between people through digital technologies for the foreseeable future. The transformation of human experience that began in 2020 creates a break in our sociality that Cachopo pinpoints through key themes of love, travel, study, community and art. In contrast to the growing philosophical literature on the pandemic, this bold theoretical work does not prophesy the fall of capitalism or the end of personal freedom and relationships. Instead, this book carefully investigates the advanced technology that is increasingly inextricable from our lives, using an alternative approach that avoids pessimism, while remaining alert to the risks and threats of the digital age. It opens up the possibility of fostering global solidarity and consciousness beyond physical borders in the 21st century.

Joao Pedro Cachopo teaches Philosophy of Music at the New University of Lisbon, Portugal. His essays have appeared in journals such as New German Critique and The Opera Quarterly.

A marvellous meditation on the spatial and temporal reorientation brought to light by the pandemic. Covering isolation in the home, and the shock of a new daily existence that produces distinct aesthetic experiences, Cachopo explores the digital pandemic through globalization, inequality, biopolitics, technology and disaster capitalism. * Lydia Goehr, Professor of Philosophy, Columbia University, USA * From Agamben to Zizek, anyone interested in a sober, witty, and productive critique of the ways in which the pandemic has influenced our ways of loving, studying, traveling, coexisting, and creating should read this book. * Ana Ilievska, Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow and Lecturer, Stanford University, USA * Among countless books and articles on the COVID-19 crisis, The Digital Pandemic stands out. It is a compelling meditation on the isolation that we have experienced. Philosophically sophisticated and yet thoroughly readable, the book offers fresh insight into the physical separation and digital proximity of life during this unpredictable pandemic. * Jay David Bolter, Wesley Chair of New Media, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA * Speaking to the urgency of our times, this is a short, incisive book that manages to slow down. Cachopo's analysis moves the critical literature on the pandemic along by highlighting how digital media reshapes the conditions of human imagination. * Peter Szendy, Professor of Humanities and Comparative Literature, Brown University, USA *