Something in the air:: the shared space of breath in the pandemic

Roe, Emma, Hurley, Paul, Veal, Charlotte and Wilks, Sandra (2021) Something in the air:: the shared space of breath in the pandemic.

Abstract

Air is often noticeable only in its absence; in the lungs of patients on ventilators in ICUs or in the words “I can’t breathe” of police-murdered Eric Garner and of George Floyd[1]. Yet if we give proper attention to the quality of air, we must engage with what is carried by it. Air is more than a mixture of gases; air is a vector of smells, viruses, bacteria, pollen, dust and fungal spores. We suggest that the pandemic has brought into focus the existence of a threat in what is carried in and out of our bodies through the air that we breathe. The environment that we occupy is one of material sharing, and what is carried in that shared air is formed by those we share it with: trees in blossom sending pollen on the breeze, microparticles from slowly wearing-down car tyres and brake pads, and – most pertinent to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic – the exhalations and inhalations of viral load moving from one body to another.

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Contributors

Author: Emma Roe

Author: Paul Hurley

Author: Sandra Wilks

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