We
meet as usual and continue with our exploration. It's Sunday. Isabelle is scheduled
to meet up with the Renaissance
Street Singers, who sing every other Sunday somewhere on the streets of
NYC, but that is not until later in the afternoon. When not sitting in front
of the screen, I am wandering through the Amsterdam streets in search of stray
video signals that I catch with my portable receiver. All in all, I'm living
within two or more realities at any given time.
Isabelle is joining me from the basement of Location1.
I send Isabelle an email suggesting that could we think in terms of a performance
system that can also be used by the other four artists (Eric,
Lodewijk, Dan and Arjen). We want use the sms module in KeyWorx
and are thinking about it in terms of bringing in the public and connecting
all three performances together. Since the sms is being sent to the same mobile
phone number, and if all three KeyWorx sessions bring in an sms module, then
the same message should appear simultaneously on everybody's computer screens.
Although it is a featured module, we can't really use it yet. It first requires
some optimization by the module's author and a new sim card for the mobile phone.
Isabelle responds:
i think it is not too out of place to give game instructions.
How you choose to play the game is entirely up to you!! I think it's important
to have some "rules" in place and not to have an open jam. we should
have another megaglobal chat once we figured it all out!
This session flows much better. I'm not sure who starts it, but suddenly, instead
of one word at a time, each of us are typing two. We are forming sentences together,
or at least creating slogans. I'm starting to have a little more fun with it.
I still feel quite emotionally detached from the words and images. I feel that
with the impending attack on Iraq, we are coping with the insanity around us
by composing cheerful and mindless slogans. I'm still trying to establish
the point of it all.
We are both aware of this and decide to dig deeper over the weekend. This has
by now been going on for two weeks. My collegues at Waag
Society where I am doing my residency are starting to get used to my late
night habits, stuck in a corner staring at my computer screen. Because of the
time difference our sessions are starting just as everybody is leaving for their
homes. I've also caught the flu.
