hand, writing

Julia Solomonoff’s hand, writing investigates how the pandemic accelerates transformations in the role digital technology plays in our daily lives. Commissioned for The Shed’s “Up Close” digital commissioning program, the film elaborates on how paper-based objects, like our personal notebooks, physical calendars, doodles, and handwritings, have become artefacts from the pre-pandemic past. Taking advantage of the resources she had available to her during the shutdown in 2020, Solomonoff shot the film on Zoom, iPhone, and a handheld camcorder, recording the voice-over in a walk-in closet. The film subsequently unfolds in a simple film-essay format, weaving voiceover, observational footage of a lockdown New York, and family vignettes together. It takes stock of how our lives changed in lockdown, as well as what we might lose as handwriting fades away as an outdated technology—“In just a year, the notebooks have become obsolete” (01:44–01:48), as Solomonoff laments about the total replacement of handwritten practice with digital documents and prolonged screentime during lockdown. The content of the film essay also alternates between the nostalgia of Solomonoff’s personal reflections, the experience of losing her father during the pandemic, and the playful humor of her daughter Nina’s performance as a future scholar of notebooks.

In hand, writing, the COVID-19 pandemic is presented here not simply as a health emergency but as a cultural accelerator, one that magnified existing trends toward virtualization. Classes, dinners, birthdays, and even funerals were held through screens. The sensory deprivation that accompanied these shifts raises existential concerns: What kind of memory is created when life is stuck during lockdowns and becomes static and frictionless? “Movement brings new ideas,” Solomonoff states, “how static and locked are the thoughts of someone who no longer moves around?” (11:51–11:58). The pandemic challenges people to consider what is being erased, not just by a virus, but also by our increasing comfort with immateriality.