By: Alek Malone

In a world shutdown by the Coronavirus pandemic, quarantine has isolated us from our normal daily lives allowing boredom and despair to seep in, intent on taking away most or all of our mental energy. As these feelings start to enter our psyches, we seemingly start to slow down – our brains become lethargic. In suburban settings, there are few cars on the roads which are usually clogged with commuters; in urban settings the greenspaces packed with those seeking to leave the bustle of everyday life have become empty due to mayoral dictations and restrictions. These constructed boundaries have only confined our bodies but that has not stopped us from feeling as though our minds have been confined as well (Davis, 2020). Despite most of us feeling as though we are trapped in comparison to our lives before, there are some creative-minded people that have chosen to continue acting upon their creativity. Looking at these minds, I started to wonder if and how they would be able to bring others’ minds out of their cages and potentially cause them to become creative in quarantine as well. Those that seem to be in this category of creativity during the quarantine range across genres of artistic capability including dance, music, and photography.

During quarantine, musicians have used their talent in multiple ways. Up-and-coming singer Alec Benjamin released a song titled Six Feet Apart to let those listening know that they aren’t alone (Tracy, 2020). By releasing a song written, recorded, and produced in quarantine, Benjamin is able to show that musical production is still possible within the current confinements. This creates the opportunity for others to create music, making themselves feel less alone by reconnecting their voices with their friends. One such example of this would be a college freshman from Colorado, who spent hours singing to her friends and had been unable to sing to anyone since quarantine began. After hearing the song that Benjamin had just released, she knew that she needed to sing to her friends over social media, in order to make the distance feel smaller and for herself to feel less alone.

A more satirical/comical approach to quarantine music is the delightful piece called Stay the F*ck at Home by Robert Kelly. Though this song is not as pained in regards to why it was created, it captures the emotions of the same group of people. This short profane song aids those stuck in quarantine by capturing their anger (and the anger of the writer and performer) and transforming it into something humorous that lightens the mood and disarms the listener. In addition to disarming the listeners, it inspires them to vent their own anger in a similar satirical fashion rather than out as unneeded aggression towards others.

Separate from the musical quarantine creativity is the visual creativity of dance and photography. The creativity in these two mediums during quarantine has been shown to those around the world through social media primarily Instagram.* 

Before quarantine, the average amateur fan of dance would watch it on television through shows such as Dancing with the Stars and World of Dance. With social distancing restrictions under effect, dance in the mainstream media is unable to take shape in the same way that it once has, and those that may have only been fans at a surface level have been forced to delve more deeply into social media to find the dancing that they want. One dancer that has put in much effort to create fun and exciting dance is World of Dance judge and former Dancing with the Stars dancer, Derek Hough. Along with his girlfriend and sister, he has been self-producing short films of them dancing within their homes to various Disney musical numbers (Hough, 2020). My own mother used these videos as a reason to start dancing every morning to make herself feel freer from the confinement of home as a bonus to just being active. Since she started doing this she has been nagging her friends and I to start doing the same. In addition, she has recently started to give a longtime friend updates on the music she has danced to each day, trying to convince her to join in.

On a day to day basis, people around the world interact and share stories of what has been going on in their lives by sharing images across social media platforms. Though during quarantine these posts have started to decrease as the content that these pictures are made up of continues to be off-limits to us all. The lack of this content leaves us unattached to the world we used to see around us. One way that companies are trying to increase the ways to photograph in this restricted state is to create “at-home” photography competitions. One such company is DJI. This company’s focus is to create products that allow its users to capture moments in their lives in high-quality images and videos through the use of drones, hand-held gimbals to capture life on the move from every angle. In contrast to their typical promotion of the outdoors and continued movement, their effort has been redirected into creating an environment that rewards and encourages their followers to “Stay Home & Stay Creative” (DJI, 2020).  By fostering this environment of isolated creativity, those involved in the competition, whether or not they win, are receiving a reward of creative thought to keep their mind busy during isolation.

In this time of isolation, many of us have confined our minds into the same locked-down states that our bodies are forced to exist in.  The common course of action is to numb our brains with the internet – confining our existence to spectating rather than thinking (Davis, 2020). If we instead follow the lead of some others and attempt to stay creative during quarantine we will keep our minds active and out of boredom and it will urge those we are connected online to do the same – making each of us and those we know to feel a bit less caged and less anxious. This is not a new concept, the positive actions of one inspiring others to do the same. Marianne Williamson in her poem, Our Deepest Fear, speaks on how “… as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people the permission to do the same.” This is the mindset we must have with our creativity while in isolation.

*For a more in-depth ethnography into dance during quarantine check out Hannah’s piece.

References Cited

Davis, Jeffrey. 2020, April 23. Creativity in Quarantine. Retrieved May 15, 2020, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/tracking-wonder/202004/creativity-in-quarantine

Hough, Derek. 2020. Disney Sing Along. Instagram. Retrieved from https://www.instagram.com/p/CAD0VvfAekx/

Kelly, Robert. 2020. A Covid-19 Admonition ***Explicit. YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0-2XxgHIXk

Tracy, Brianne. 2020, April 9. Alec Benjamin Releases New Song ‘Six Feet Apart’ About Social Distancing Amid Coronavirus Crisis. Retrieved May 15, 2020, from https://people.com/music/alec-benjamin-new-song-six-feet-apart-social-distancing-coronavirus/