The workplace, as commonly found in Indonesia, is a space where people gather. As the cluster
of the spread of this virus before, public places increased awareness, protocols, and new ways of
working were implemented. Some offices have a shift system for their employees, to ensure the
quota of people who interact within a space is within safe limits. The rest can still work from home,
commonly known as Work From Home (WFH), by utilizing a video conference platform.
The habit of working at home is changing human habits in addressing their space, and various
adjustments were made. It starts from setting up the room at home as a workplace, so that makes
it feasible when displayed on the screen, likewise with interaction patterns that must be adapted to
digital “novelty” in this pandemic era. The phenomenon in this WFH condition is that the boundary
between the home and office is blurred, so is the boundary between virtual and real spaces, where
the need for human interaction through the internet is becoming more intense.
3.2 A real presence in virtual space
A few days after the PSBB was carried out, almost simultaneously, various agencies, both public and
private, moved their offices into a virtual space. In principle, this virtual space mimics face-to-face
interaction in the meeting room in daily practice, where there are people gathered in the same room.
The way they communicate can be adjusted by users, using sound, video, both, and deactivating one
or all of them. Users can also display photos or names, whether original or disguised as an identity
marker that they are present in the room. This phenomenon is known as an avatar, a representation
of humans in a virtual world (Boelstorff et al. 2012). The processes of “imagining yourself ” in an
unknown space (Malinowski 2014), and the embodiment of characters in a virtual world adapted
from the Sanskrit language, meaning the embodiment of “God on Earth” (Kerschbaumer 2016).
At the beginning of the use of digital platforms as an alternative to this real space, users are
still trying to get used to it. Some of them forget to turn off their microphones when other people
are talking, or family members in the background can be seen. The sounds that are considered as
interference are often heard. The rest seemed accustomed to turning off the microphone, while their
faces seemed to move on the screen, indicating their real presence in the virtual space. Only a few
do not turn on the camera and microphone, but there are names as an indicator of their presence.
These events color everyday interactions that are slowly trying to be normalized and accustomed,
which is how social interaction should be during a pandemic.
The following days, the use of video conferencing platforms became more frequent and intense.
Some subjects in this study tell that, often, have to attend this virtual meeting at the same time
and with the same priority scale. Usually, they will use more than one gadget to fulfill its role in
different spaces. Not infrequently, the meeting lasts into the evening, until finally impacting on
the physical fatigue felt by some subjects in real, although this interaction is done virtually. Once
at a meeting, a virtual meeting member said, “If someone asks to have a meeting, (using a video
conference platform) just serve. What is the difficulty in just turning on the computer and sitting
to attend the meeting?”
In practice, working virtually through video conferencing earlier has more or less the same
impact felt by some people. Seen in some of the ’mandatory’ tasks given by the institutions where
they are active, some of them began to outsmart their presence in the virtual space. Seen in the
virtual space, some of them began to put photos of their faces in impressive poses, through body
language, as if they were in the room. Others use the gif (Graphical Interchange Format) feature
to make their presence more visible, with repetitive patterned movements. Similar to the avatar
phenomenon described earlier, presence in the virtual realm is only a representation of the presence
itself, which manifests in the form of sound, static, and moving images.
3.3 Intertwined power relations in real and virtual space
The presence and obligations in the virtual space do not necessarily eliminate the role in the real
space, in this case, a house that doubles as a workspace, where individuals also have specific and
diverse obligations and roles. In some instances, the writer is faced with the conditions of having
122
of the spread of this virus before, public places increased awareness, protocols, and new ways of
working were implemented. Some offices have a shift system for their employees, to ensure the
quota of people who interact within a space is within safe limits. The rest can still work from home,
commonly known as Work From Home (WFH), by utilizing a video conference platform.
The habit of working at home is changing human habits in addressing their space, and various
adjustments were made. It starts from setting up the room at home as a workplace, so that makes
it feasible when displayed on the screen, likewise with interaction patterns that must be adapted to
digital “novelty” in this pandemic era. The phenomenon in this WFH condition is that the boundary
between the home and office is blurred, so is the boundary between virtual and real spaces, where
the need for human interaction through the internet is becoming more intense.
3.2 A real presence in virtual space
A few days after the PSBB was carried out, almost simultaneously, various agencies, both public and
private, moved their offices into a virtual space. In principle, this virtual space mimics face-to-face
interaction in the meeting room in daily practice, where there are people gathered in the same room.
The way they communicate can be adjusted by users, using sound, video, both, and deactivating one
or all of them. Users can also display photos or names, whether original or disguised as an identity
marker that they are present in the room. This phenomenon is known as an avatar, a representation
of humans in a virtual world (Boelstorff et al. 2012). The processes of “imagining yourself ” in an
unknown space (Malinowski 2014), and the embodiment of characters in a virtual world adapted
from the Sanskrit language, meaning the embodiment of “God on Earth” (Kerschbaumer 2016).
At the beginning of the use of digital platforms as an alternative to this real space, users are
still trying to get used to it. Some of them forget to turn off their microphones when other people
are talking, or family members in the background can be seen. The sounds that are considered as
interference are often heard. The rest seemed accustomed to turning off the microphone, while their
faces seemed to move on the screen, indicating their real presence in the virtual space. Only a few
do not turn on the camera and microphone, but there are names as an indicator of their presence.
These events color everyday interactions that are slowly trying to be normalized and accustomed,
which is how social interaction should be during a pandemic.
The following days, the use of video conferencing platforms became more frequent and intense.
Some subjects in this study tell that, often, have to attend this virtual meeting at the same time
and with the same priority scale. Usually, they will use more than one gadget to fulfill its role in
different spaces. Not infrequently, the meeting lasts into the evening, until finally impacting on
the physical fatigue felt by some subjects in real, although this interaction is done virtually. Once
at a meeting, a virtual meeting member said, “If someone asks to have a meeting, (using a video
conference platform) just serve. What is the difficulty in just turning on the computer and sitting
to attend the meeting?”
In practice, working virtually through video conferencing earlier has more or less the same
impact felt by some people. Seen in some of the ’mandatory’ tasks given by the institutions where
they are active, some of them began to outsmart their presence in the virtual space. Seen in the
virtual space, some of them began to put photos of their faces in impressive poses, through body
language, as if they were in the room. Others use the gif (Graphical Interchange Format) feature
to make their presence more visible, with repetitive patterned movements. Similar to the avatar
phenomenon described earlier, presence in the virtual realm is only a representation of the presence
itself, which manifests in the form of sound, static, and moving images.
3.3 Intertwined power relations in real and virtual space
The presence and obligations in the virtual space do not necessarily eliminate the role in the real
space, in this case, a house that doubles as a workspace, where individuals also have specific and
diverse obligations and roles. In some instances, the writer is faced with the conditions of having
122