Contact!
First- you need to coordinate times. Luckily Dunedin and Berlin are exactly 12 hours apart so there was no miscommunication or awkward absences for our first Skype. This was my first fear- bungling the meeting time due to getting the time difference wrong… turning up an hour early, or worse, late.
But all is well- we have contact!
Nonetheless, my Skype inexperience proves real once we are face to face and I am struggling to hear anything. So i’m fiddling about with the mouse trying not to get flustered or waste Gabi’s time.
It does seem ironic, i say, that someone from one of the world’s most isolated countries doesn’t really know how to use Skype. “Really- how do you communicate.” ….. I’m wondering the same thing.
It’s a great conversation though. I’m scribbling madly in a notebook to record names of authors, designers and architects because i’ve failed further by not figuring out how to record our conversation in Skype. Thankfully Gabi does know what she is doing and types names on the inscreen chat. Luckily i have sent Gabi some photos of recent work and stuff in advance, because, once again, I can’t remember how to share my screen with her….
I’ve brought some work with me though so i’m holding it up to the web cam and we’re talking about ways of experiencing space- ideas around sensory perception and viewing devices and its all quite surreal because here we are, sitting on opposite sides of the world, at the same time (but not really- we are 12 hours apart) and we’re talking about experiencing space through technological devices and as we negotiate space itself through these computer screens.
It’s all very META……
But now i have a notebook full of scribbles and a list of names to look into and a hundred ideas in my head and 2 months to make something of them before our next meeting. Hopefully by then I will have mastered the art of Skype…