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2022-05-27
A Quiet Workplace
This is to describe the sensory changes I experienced when I visited my employer's main office during the lockdown. -
2021-02-05
One year later - Erie Quiet
This is a picture near Lattie F. Coor Hall at Arizona State University. Normally this area would bustling with students, but now, a year after the start of the pandemic, it remains empty and quiet. -
2020-04-13
School Bells and Silence
In late March, families in Portland, OR were told to prepare themselves for children to finish their school year from home. While my husband and I don’t have kids, we live across the street from an elementary school and enjoy hearing the children play as we go about our life at home. I loved hearing their laughter and giggles as they lined up outside of their classroom doors or the screeches that filled the air as they tore out of the doors for some much needed recess time on the playground. Then, on April 13, 2020, the laughter, the hollering, the clangs of playground equipment stopped. Up until that point, I could set my personal schedule by the sounds of that playground and now those sounds were gone. The quietness that remained behind was made even more eerie by the daily bells that rang from the school’s outdoor intercom system to signify the start of the day, end of recess, etc.. The tones that were barely audible on a normal day due to all of the commotion on the playground were suddenly a very loud, and real reminder that the world was different. It took the school nearly two months to turn off those alarms and every single day for those two months, at 8:25, 11:45, 12:15, and 2:25, those bells echoed throughout the neighborhood reminding everyone how much our world had truly changed. The alarm bells are now off and have been for nearly 6 months. It’s very quiet at the school. While we’ve all gotten used to the silence, every so often a family will head to the playground and, for a minute as the sounds of a child’s laughter drifts through the windows of my house, I remember what it was like before COVID and am suddenly slammed back into the reality of what our day to day lives have become. I can’t wait to hear those happy voices again - it will mean our lives are back to whatever new normal is on the other side of this pandemic. -
2021-01-06
Covid Christmas
Christmas was a bit different this year because of Covid. This year was the first year of Christmas split because my parents had gotten divorced this year. On Christmas Eve I went to my dad's house and we opened up gifts, but because of Covid it was just my main family and we didn't have much company come over. The next day I went to my mom's after getting a breakfast sandwich from Starbucks and we opened presents at my mom's. The same thing we opened up gifts and that was about it, and the rest of the day was pretty normal and we had tacos for dinner. Christmas was on a Friday and on Saturday and Sunday my cousins came over and we went to the outlet malls and hung out at home and had a good weekend. So it was pretty quiet comparatively to other years but despite the virus we were able to have a good few days and a good Christmas. -
2020-05-18T16:30
Ghost town in Fisherman's Wharf
When I was walking through Fishermen's Wharf, the location of tourists was completely dead to the point that it looked like an apocalypse, no boats were sailing through the ocean, no store's were open, not even a place to grab a cup of water; the area looked dead. The reason this photo/story is important to me is because in the beginning of Covid-19 it has shown how obedient people are when there is a deadly disease spreading throughout states. -
2020-02-28
Abandoned Playground
In this photo caution tape was put up around the playground to prevent any kids from going onto it as well as a sign that said that the playground was closed due to the corona virus. Generally during that time of the year (the spring) the playground is always inhabited with children and families. Usually in the afternoon, kids from the school behind it always played on it. The shutting down of schools and effort to prevent the spread of germs caused this playground to be also be shut down. It felt weird to me when I walked past the playground and the basketball court that was next to it, to see nobody there and it reminded my family of a ghost town. We walk past that playground almost every day and to see in empty was a weird and eerie sight. -
2020-08-20
Sensory history and the pandemic
I've been thinking about sensory history and how often it's left out of historical records. We often don't stop to comment on observations we make every day like noise of a busy street corner or the smell of muffins baking in the kitchen. I'm teaching HST643 Global history during Fall B with a module on sensory history. I'd like to ask students to add a perspective on the sensory history of the pandemic. I posted this thought in the JOTPY Slack workspace and Shanna replied with a really interesting observation about sound: “…there is an odd tension of noise inside my home and silence the second I step outside. I find myself needing a quiet space when I’m in my house. Yet the second I walk outside, it’s way too quiet that I start to feel uncomfortably lonely and in need of human connection.” -
2020-05-09
Crabtree Mall Reopening
The Crabtree Valley Mall was starting to reopen after over a month of being closed due to COVID-19.