Passport – check ✅
Tickets – check ✅
Sanity – still checking…
I leave tomorrow for Silicon Valley!
I am excited and nervous in equal measure: previous lockdowns and world events have conspired to make me more cautious than usual and even the best things seem to become more effortful. But I have spent the last two weeks excitedly fine-tuning my itinerary, researching where to go, who to see and generally aligning my ducks and now I can’t wait to be on the plane and heading off for a brand new adventure.
The process of booking tickets, sorting my passport and generally proving who I am has made me realise already just how impossible this trip would be without an online presence. Email address, mobile phone number and basic (and not so basic) internet skills are a given, as are the time and patience needed for automated phone lines, chatbots and verification protocols. Is this a good thing? I am about to find out as I will be investigating how artists living in the shadow of the Mountain are responding to the drive towards ever more technology.
But in the meantime, perhaps I should just embrace my inner cyborg and get the chip implant. It would be so much easier. …
.
Thanks so much Arts Council England for my DYCP grant that has made this research trip possible.
#DYCP
#ArtsCouncilEngland
#researchanddevelopment
#travelogue
#artandtechnology
#SiliconValley
#SanJose
#SanFrancisco
#digitalarts
#newmedia
#internetart
@aceagrams
