"'Zooming In and Out to Examine the 'Virus'" with Professors Jodie McVernon and Sean Cubitt

Join Professors Jodie McVernon and Sean Cubitt as they give the final webinar in the "Redefining Digital Keywords: From Digital Archaisms to (Post)Pandemic Neologisms" seminar series presented by the Digital Studio.

zoom virus

The pandemic outbreak has challenged and reconfigured human experience across physical, social and digital realities, and hence urges us to revisit our digital keywords vocabulary. This global webinar series will bring together leading digital humanities scholars to reflect upon their original contributions to the Digital Keywords. Each webinar will focus on two digital phenomena and their corresponding keywords to explore how their meanings are changing in the face of disruptions caused by lockdowns or social distancing, and what new cultural practices, social challenges and political implications emerge around the new digital vocabulary.

What new meanings of words such as zoom and virus did the Convid-19 outbreak instigate? How did we move from ‘Google it’ to ‘Let’s Zoom’, and what are the economic and political implications of platform-imperialism in the time of the 24/7 digital communication? What are the real and potential powers of online and biological viruses to disrupt, challenge, improve or destroy human life? The final webinar will facilitate a cross-disciplinary conversation between researchers at the University of Melbourne to share insights on the role of digital technologies in the current pandemic with its consequences for moral, social and physical being.

To watch a recording of this lecture, please visit the Digital Studio's site. More information...