AFK.6
ij onsite:
Sunny Sunday afternoon at the beach in Ventura, California.
People strolling up and down the promenade stop to watch the waves roll in while I build my message MOTD : GAFIA [Message Of The Day: Get Away From It All].
Likewise, the online visitor's swerving gaze captures the development of the message, lazy beachlife, a mysterious ring of stones -is it an "O"? They control the webcam high up on the Hilton that sends out still images in different zoomlevels and pans over the bay.
I call misha to check if everything is going okay. Her excited voice coming in from Canada: she can see me on the webcam while talking to her on the mobile phone! Odd sensation to communicate with these different realtime media across this big continent -makes us aware of it's size, the distance between us, the different temperatures and landcapes that we span!
misha online:
I bring up the website a little early and pass the time cruising around the beach before the action starts. I spend some time watching the swimmers in the pool. You can get close enough to see facial expressions. I wonder if they know they are being watched? Part of the instruction asks the web audience to send us any images that they create using the camera.
A emails me a image of an "O" made out of rocks and assumes that it has been made by ij. It turns out to be the creation of another beach goer. Kindred spirits.
The performance starts. The rules of the game have extended. We first have to find ij who is somewhere on the beach and also negotiate with each other over the use of the camera. I am enjoying this indirect intimacy of having multiple virtual/physical hands on the camera control. Every once in awhile a message appears "The camera is very busy at the moment. Here is a picture taken by somebody else". I pan around for awhile wondering if I will be able to find her. Suddenly I see a small orange figure. I zoom in and confirmthat it is her. She is already into the first two letters of her message which she is constructing out of rocks. I am enjoying moving around her, zooming in and out, as she continues her work. I watch her pull out a phone from her pocket and dial a number. My telephone rings. It's her.
