Property gets repurposed all the time, so I declare this domain to be the: “Oh WOW, I’m the artist/sociologist-in-residence for monochrom!” blog. Which is a fine thing for it to be.
I’m thinking really hard about relationships and technology, how people in relationships use different kinds of technology to mediate distance when we’re apart from each other. The class of folks I’m most focused on right now are people in long-distance relationships, since the issues that come up are bigger and more obvious when the distances are longer. I’m finding, though, that there’s a lot that’s fascinating in how we use technology over the course of the day to talk to a sweetie in another building across town.
Here in Vienna I’ll be looking at internet cafes, particularly immigrant internet cafes, to compare experiences across cultures. But I love talking to everyone about this — and so far, everyone has had something wonderful to contribute to my thinking. So I’m also going to talk to the other artists-in-residence, and to folks at metalab, and to my hacker friends and other friends all around the world. More perspectives seem good to me. Having a few weeks to work without any “real world” problems is an incredible gift. Yay!
Vienna is just as beautiful as I remembered from my last visit here. I’m so glad I get to stay longer! I’m over my jetlag, and over the cold/grippe/possible-swine-flu that made me sleep 28 hours, and I’ve found out about the wonderful coffee drink called “melange” (sort of a short latte, or a biggish cappuccino). The Museumsquartier is the best place ever, and my apartment is ginormous, and monochrom-ish mischief is afoot already: Santa vs. Christkindl! My splendid boyfriend is blogging up a storm himself at Testing Range, and posting his zillions of Gigapans of Vienna online at the Gigapan project’s pages. I have the bestest plus-one a girl could ask for!
Hurrah for artists in residence, and for melange! The spice must flow.
When J’s not on IM I get antsy. We send each other links, we text each other shopping lists and child-obtaining arrangements, I call him for no reason at all other than to hear his voice. He has a nice voice.