Rehearsal day with all six performers... I keep on thinking that my theory about 'human to human active network synchronization in connected space' is unsound and even overly negative. However, I honestly think that it takes at least two hours to 'settle down' before the real work can start. We start at the Theatrum Anatomicum of Waag Society with a network breakdown. This is not due to electricity, but an unfortunate renovation in the media lab downstairs. A floor sanding intervention has disconnected the internet connection and left us cut off from the rest of the world. At first disoriented, we adapt quickly by grabbing a handful of ethernet cables and rushing over to Sister O's studio at STEIM. We manage set up and make it in time to say hello to our collaborators, who have joined us over fresh danishes and coffee from Dan's apartment in New York. Arjen and I are at STEIM, Isabelle, Dan, Eric, together in New York, Lodewijk is the only one alone, joining from Utrecht.
	We start with a little six person chat. The conversation is scintillating. First 30 minutes is devoted to confirmation that we actually exist. We use IChat. Arjen and I are sitting side by side and communicating through this ridiculous interface. "Hello is Lodewijk there?" "Hello is everybody there?" "Hey where did Eric go?" "Isabelle is here" Next step is to find an internet radio station that we can all listen to and grab 'marker words' from it. About a half an hour passes by until we can agree on one, but eventually a spoken word station from Chicago suffices. Now we are in a synchronized audio space, but still in the ridiculous iChat environment.
		Next stage towards the translocal trance dance: enter into the KeyWorx multi-user environment. Three virtual spaces, two players per space. Thirty minutes of negotiation. "Which software version should we use?" "Which space should we join in". There is a general bumping and joking around as we crash into each other's virtual spaces. Sometimes all six in one. Like children who have consumed too much sugar, we are hyper and unfocused, unwilling to take anything seriously.
	It amazes me how these types of connections can degrade into the absurd. Of course we should be ridiculed. Why should we be taken seriously? While these transactions are going on, the rest of the Anatomic group are sitting on the floor and trying to grasp what is going on. Our backs are to them. Saying something like "we are presently involved in a six person rehearsal between Amsterdam and New York", could be the same as "I'm controlling the wind patterns on a mountain top in Japan with my mouse movements", or "I'm checking my email". To them, we are just a couple of people stationed in front of computers.
	And then suddenly, without warning, all six of us are in sync. It has been 2.5 hours since we first logged in. Now we get to see if we can actually work together. Arjen is connected with Dan, working together for the first time. Eric is with Lodewijk. I continue with Isabelle. The basic test is to see if the sms works for all of us. Shortly we are all in our own worlds, linked together by the endless passage of single words that appear on our screens. Some of the Anatomic start getting into it by sending sms's. I blast several through until my phone card runs out. We all agree that it is successful.