The Pandemic Emergency in the Documentary Narrative. A research experience in Rome

The visual sociology could be defined as "more visual" sociology, because it mainly uses the observational method and gives importance to the iconic dimension of individual and collective experience. There are phenomena, events and situations that would lose some of their meanings if they were analyzed only verbally or studied with techniques other than observation: these phenomena include interaction and group dynamics, socio-territorial change, subcultures and social marginality, communicative behavior, self-representation. In other words, social micro-systems, the world in its natural organization, in its dynamic aspect, in its being - at the same time - a world of meanings. Visual sociology is measured against an increasingly prevailing iconic culture and the radical transformation of communicative and relational forms. Technological and media advancements have favored the shift from “a world-as-text” to a “world-as-image” and requires specialized skills for the wise use of audio-visual language. This essay presents a visual research carried out during the epidemiological emergency, when the lockdown, governed by institutional decrees, imposed measures to contain the COVID-19 pandemic at the national level. The investigation was conducted through video-photographic exploration of the public places in the city of Rome and through qualitative interviews with privileged witnesses from different fields (institutional, religious, welfare, cultural, educational, commercial, etc.). The field exploration represented a privileged moment of observation and analysis, building on the methods of visual research. The analysis of the visual content was then combined with that of the interviews, making it possible to draw a balance of phase 1 of the lockdown, in its managerial and organizational aspects, in the innovative and creative choices that were inspired by the emergency.