We were hearing, feeling, painting together. A shared experience consolidated in virtual snippets of reality and unexpected abstractions, rather than the physical space of the studio.

Before this article was published, Mandiberg posted the painting from my Zoom screen to Instagram. I only half-recognized at it first, like seeing oneself in an old picture.

A series of neuroscience studies have recently come out painting a more scientific picture of how Zoom and similar tools affect our brains. It’s not pretty. Less connected ...