Zoom and Place: Video Conferencing and Virtual Geography
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SOUTH AUSTRALIAN GEOGRAPHICAL JOURNAL
Article | DOI: 10.21307/sagj-2020-003 Issue 1 | Vol. 116 (2020)
Zoom and Place: Video Conferencing and Virtual Geography
Iain Hay*
Matthew Flinders Distinguished Emeritus Professor,
College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences,
Flinders University, Adelaide, SA, 5001, Australia.
This paper was edited by Melissa Nursey-Bray.
Received for publication July 9, 2020.
In the first half of 2020, Zoom – a form of video 2020), and its prospective value in the provision of
conferencing – has surged to global popular atten medical care (Fisher et al., 2020; Moyle et al., 2020).
tion. As the COVID-19 pandemic has taken hold This brief commentary takes up the video
around the planet, and more and more people have conferencing lacuna in geography, offering a few
been confined to home in semi-voluntary isolation or preliminary and tentative observations on the re
forced quarantine, so Zoom has flourished. Zoom lationship between Zoom and place, perhaps geo
provides an easy-to-use and inexpensive means graphy’s most fundamental concept.
of communicating simultaneously with colleagues, Zoom, or more properly Zoom Video Commu
classmates, students, employees, family, and friends nications, Inc., is a California-based video-commu
next door, in the next state, or in another country. nications company offering a free (for a basic
While video conferencing software has been package), easy to use, and recordable means of
available for some time (e.g. Skype since 2003; Apple video conferencing for groups numbering up to
FaceTime since 2010; Microsoft Teams since 2017), 100 people (under the software’s default settings)
its capture of the geographical imagination has surely United States Securities and Exchange Commission
been awaiting the kind of juncture that the pandemic (US SEC, 2020). During the COVID-19 pandemic,
and Zoom have afforded. Given its implications for Zoom grew dramatically. In December 2019, prior
space, place, environment, and interconnection, to the pandemic, there were 10 million daily users in
the four fundamental concepts that Alaric Maude Zoom meetings. After the World Health Organisation
(2020) identified as making geography geographical declared COVID-19 a pandemic on 11 March
in his June 2020 Royal Geographical Society of 2020 (Cucinotta and Vanelli, 2020) Zoom’s daily
Queensland Thomson Oration, it seems self-evident use figure that month reached 200 million. In April,
that video conferencing has clear and tremendous it had climbed to 300 million. Where Zoom was
geographical significance. Yet geographers have initially intended for business purposes (Yuan cited
given little attention to it. There are some exceptions in Warren, 2020) during the pandemic it has come
– such as Hracs and Pinch’s (2020) work considering to be used to support family gatherings, weekly
the role of video conferencing in the nourishment drink sessions, weddings and funerals, school and
and extension of knowledge communities; Adams- university classes, gym sessions, yoga, karaoke
Hutcheson and Longhurst’s (2017) work in Skype- and ‘live’ music performances, public meetings, and
based interviewing in geography, and Hynes et al.’s religious worship.
(2020) paper which includes discussion of the While there is no doubt that Zoom has some
significance of virtual court hearings – but overall, very interesting implications for key geographical
the discipline seems surprisingly, even stunningly, concepts, namely space (e.g. Zoom’s roles in time-
quiet on the subject. And outside geography’s focus space compression), environment (e.g. Zoom’s
research appears to concentrate on just a few areas, potential to reduce the need for polluting travel to
in particular the technical aspects of teleconferencing attend face-to-face meetings across the city or
(Clegg et al., 2017), its significance as an educational across the planet), and interconnection (e.g. Zoom’s
and research resource (Floyd et al., 2016; Gray et al., significance in reconfiguring social and business
© 2020 AUTHOR. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution- 7
NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-
nc-nd/4.0/)
Zoom and Place: Video Conferencing and Virtual Geography
affiliations along time zones rather than political ‘Grass’, depicting a few blades in a meadow; and
jurisdictions), I think its relationships to place are ‘Earth’, which is a view of our planet from outer space.
initially less obvious but worth serious consideration There are also two video backdrops: ‘Beach’ featuring
by geographers. Let me elaborate. a palm-fringed tropical coast and ‘Northern Lights’.
In its default settings, Zoom provides vision of These backdrops permit a user to display an image
each participant in their location/setting (e.g. office, or video as their background during a Zoom meeting.
study, kitchen table) to all other meeting attendees. Over and above the small range of backdrops available
There is an option to switch off the video but for most from Zoom are those now offered by a large number
meetings this is not especially popular. After all, one of other businesses and organisations for download.
of the reasons for video conferencing is to be able to These backdrops have at least two geographically
see one another. A consequence of the use of video related implications.
is that during COVID-19 lockdown and by means of First, the backdrops mean that “Even if you can’t
Zoom, meeting participants are revealing aspects of travel, your Zoom meetings can” (Sachs, 2020). Zoom
their home lives and domestic environment, either backdrops – whether software default and tailor-
voluntarily or somewhat reluctantly, to people who made – transport people from everyday, mundane
might never otherwise have access to those places. home offices and kitchen tables to exotic beaches,
In prospectively problematic disclosures, academics dusk-lit megacities, and even into outer-space. They
and students are revealing parts of their homes to are, as Sachs (2020) also puts it, “your mental ticket
one another. Employees find themselves gazing into to travel.” Users can create their own infinite range of
the home of their boss – and vice versa. Friends and backgrounds but cities (e.g. Adelaide, London, New
acquaintances see aspects of one another’s homes York) and countries have seized the opportunity to
and lives that might otherwise remain hidden. market themselves through Zoom. For example,
For some people there are significant anxieties Tourism Australia (2020) has prepared backdrops
associated with such disclosures of personal and depicting Canberra’s Floriade, Byron Bay, Uluru,
private places (Andrews, 2020) which can be the Great Barrier Reef and the Flinders Ranges
addressed through use of Zoom’s standard ‘virtual encouraging users to “Get inspired to travel across
backgrounds’. The three basic still backdrops available Australia even in this world of virtual catch-ups” and
are ‘San Francisco’, featuring the Golden Gate bridge; “to keep the spirit of travel alive” (Fig. 1).
Figure 1: Downloadable Zoom backdrop image. Surfers Paradise, Gold Coast, Queensland.
Source: Tourism Australia (2020).
8
SOUTH AUSTRALIAN GEOGRAPHICAL JOURNAL
Figure 2: University of Canterbury Arts Centre downloadable Zoom background.
Source: https://www.canterbury.ac.nz/media/images/marketing-team/MARK521_UC_Zoom_
Buildings17.jpg.
And not to be left-out, universities have also the range and type of place-based images available
seized the opportunities to promote themselves with and selected for use could form the basis of a
institutions such as Colorado at Boulder, Monash, fascinating study.
and Canterbury offering staff, students and alumni Second, Zoom backdrops provide opportunities
(or anyone else for that matter) free backgrounds for individuals to ‘re-place’ and therefore ‘re-present’
showing logo-identified tropes featuring high-tech themselves. This is about both hiding an expression of
buildings, beautiful gardens bathed in dappled light, one’s reality and replacing it with a new one – or a range
dreaming spires, and hallowed halls (see Fig. 2). Even of alternatives – depending on one’s audience. Instead
Figure 3: ‘How to take your next conference call from your tent?’ Downloadable Zoom
background from REI.
Source: https://www.rei.com/blog/camp/outdoorsy-zoom-backgrounds (26 June 2020).
9
Zoom and Place: Video Conferencing and Virtual Geography
of living in our own home, Zoom backgrounds invite us folks in touch with, and connected to, the natural
to live in an image of our choosing, where money and world. ‘Lifestyle’ retailer Anthropologie https://
location are no object. Backdrops offer support to efforts www.anthropologie.com/stories-community-zoom-
to re-present ourselves as almost anyone we desire, be backgrounds, where “outdoor style is second nature”,
it an erudite scholar, sunbaked sea-god/goddess, or also offers free downloadable, branded Zoom
intrepid hiker. For example, REI, the high-end recreation backgrounds (see Fig. 4). Its backdrops give users
equipment company, promises the opportunity for opportunity to render themselves tasteful and affluent
‘Zoomers’ “to Take Your Next Conference Call from world citizens, in tune with the latest trends and
Your “Tent” ” (Grothjan, 2020) (Fig. 3). fashions. In doing this, Anthropologie asks customers
REI’s Zoom backgrounds mean that users can the truly fascinating question: “Ever wished you could
portray themselves as ‘glampers’, explorers, or live inside our catalog (sic)?” and offers the means
Figure 4: ‘Ever wished you could live inside our catalog?’ Downloadable Zoom backgrounds
from Anthropologie.
Source: https://www.anthropologie.com/stories-community-zoom-backgrounds (26 June 2020).
10SOUTH AUSTRALIAN GEOGRAPHICAL JOURNAL
to convey that impression. Of course, their invitation psychotherapy requires the extensive use of ostensive
to live inside the image is not to be taken literally, but cues. Counselling Psychology Quarterly, 7 June, doi:
Anthropologie allows users, with the literal flick of a 10.1080/09515070.2020.1777535.
switch, to represent themselves as prosperous, suave, Floyd, K. S., Rigole, N. and Stines, A. 2016. Faculty
and sophisticated – even if the reality masked is one of perceptions of video conferencing technology. Issues
overflowing sinks, leisure-wear, and household chaos. in Information Systems 17(4): 158–66.
Given that context is critical to the shaping of identity Gray, L. M., Wong-Wylie, G., Rempel, G. R. and
(e.g. Anderson, 1988; Weiner, 2016), by using Zoom Cook, K. 2020. Expanding qualitative research
interviewing strategies: Zoom video communications.
backdrops which situate us elsewhere, we are telling
The Qualitative Report 25(5): 1292–301.
place-based stories about our preferred identity: who
Grothjan, S. 2020. How to take your next conference
we would like to be and how we would like to be seen.
call from your “Tent”, 25 March, available at: https://www.
Zoom continues to transform the ways in which we rei.com/blog/camp/outdoorsy-zoom-backgrounds.
communicate throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Hracs, B. and Pinch, S. 2020. “Knowledge
And while it may still be too early to say whether these communities”, in Kobayashi, A. (Ed.), International
changes will endure, it certainly seems likely that Encyclopedia of Human Geography, 2nd ed, Elsevier,
video conferencing will have a much greater role in Amsterdam, 17–22, doi: 10.1016/B978-0-08-102295-
future social, educational and business activity. That 5.10663-8.
geographers have given little to no attention to the Hynes, J., Gill, N. and Tomlinson, J. 2020. In
significance of this communications medium since defence of the hearing? Emerging geographies of
it first came into widespread popular usage over publicness, materiality, access and communication
a decade ago seems remarkable. There certainly in court hearings. Geography Compass, 31 March,
seems to be a rich and fascinating vein of inquiry here available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/gec3.12499.
exploring not just the significance of Zoom and other Maude, A. 2020. What makes geography geo
video conferencing platforms for aspects of place graphical. Royal Geographical Society of Queensland’s
such as those introduced here, but also for other key Thomson Oration, 23 June.
geographical concepts such as space, environment Moyle, W., Jones, C., Murfield, J. and Liu, F. 2020.
and interconnection. ‘For me at 90, it’s going to be difficult’: feasibility of
using iPad video-conferencing with older adults in
long-term aged care. Aging & Mental Health 24(2):
349–52, doi: 10.1080/13607863.2018.1525605.
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