‘Isolated Together’: Floor Signage in the Times of Pandemic and Partitioning of Our Common Spaces

Abstract

The current pandemic has seen the need to adorn public spaces with varied signage, sometimes almost spontaneous or, on the contrary, very elaborate, inviting us to respect distances and spaces specific to each person: what might seem obvious to us, however, refers to a long history of the notation of movement, on the ground or on the page. By comparing a few elements of current signage with a corpus of fencing and dance manuals, or even military treatises, the aim is to grasp the stakes of the visualization of this grid, intermediate and mediator of our relations, which isolates us together in a progressive process of incorporation of images and signs.