Encapsulating the Quarantine Life

Living in an alternate public space

Back in the days when we (or most of us) were free to roam in public without much health concerns, we are essentially displaying ourselves in the public sphere, for a large amount of time every day. We thus need to mind our public presence for a good portion of the day, and for many, this means putting on proper clothes and maintaining their hygiene routine. However, when COVID-19 strikes, most people are recommended or forced to stay in and quarantine themselves. However, life still has to go on for many, classes needed to continue going, work and etc can’t just be on pause forever. Therefore it became necessary to have an online presence that serves to replace the previous action of public gathering.  Thus, a new kind of public space is created within one’s own private space. This really blurs the line between the “public” and the “private” and made me rethink how I’d go about my day while not leaving the house at all.  

Zoom Class

The lack of motivation to get things done

When you are no longer required to be in a public space (i.e show up for school or for work), it takes aways part of that motivation to “get up” in the morning and get yourself ready for the day. Since pajamas, sweatpants, and an unwashed face work just fine for a class that’s conducted online, when sometimes you have the option to not even turn on your webcam and show your face, I find it hard to even get out of the bed much less trying to get things done. Thus, I realized how important this “get up” in the morning serves fas a signal to really jump-start the day for me. The whole process of beating the face (putting on makeup) and picking out the outfit and shoes to go with the outfit makes me feel this much more ready to focus on a day’s tasks.

Instagram Post

Doing the not-so-pointless routine

After discovering how having a signifying routine can strongly affect one’s mood and energy as well as the motivation to put in the effort and get things done. I started to force myself to stick to at least part of my old routine which is the process of putting on a full face of makeup. Despite it being considered somewhat superficial for some, for me, it is the making up of me as a person and something that will help me feel like I’m ready to fight for the day with my armor on.  

Documenting the process

One of the things that I often hear people say during quarantine is that they don’t even know what day it is anymore, and that got me thinking about how the passing of time is being experienced and how due to the lack of specific events to mark the days, time feels more liquified than usual during the quarantine.

Instagram Post

Therefore having some kind of event marker/ any form of documentation of the days we’re living became quite important so that we can experience the passing of time more solidly. We decided to go with this idea for a class on Performing Memories. Initially, the class was about how to bring in a piece of memory and finding the ways to perform it or bring it to life again. After the classes went online (as do the other classes) we decided to create an Instagram account to document moments of our lives during the quarantine and or post small entertaining moments as well as not so great moments and emotions. We decided to call it the Corona Capsule as it encapsulates the memories we performed during a specific time. After some discussion with some of the other members in our group for the class,  we came up with this idea of documenting the trivial things we do in life and do it every day so that I can have some kind of a collective archive to look back on during this period of time.

Performing Memories Class
We started to record shart moments of our lives such as riding the bike, putting on accessaries, swiping through social media and etc, and put them into a compilation to show the minor difference in repetition in the passing of time.  For me personally, I documented the process of me putting on makeup and put in a bunch of photos I took after the process since I’ve taken on taking selfies as a habit because there not much else new I can document with my phone camera.

Me doing color swatches
As a person who never used to pay too much attention to my own memories or things happening to me in general (I can confirm that I have never even attempted to write in a diary/journal a day of life) this documentation process made me more aware of my own memories, and that’s something I never thought I get from being in quarantine.