Roboexotica 2006: Vienna
An almost dreamlike plane ride and I am in Vienna. There is nothing like waking up at 3 AM to shock the body into a sleepwalking state. Picked up at 4:15 AM and transported to Heathrow in a surreal haze of London backwash at night. Evelyn circa monochrom picked me up and we headed into MQ21 to see whether a set of keys to one of the guest studios had actually been left to my name. Success we grabbed the keys, I dropped my belongings and we made our way to the inner ring for some conveyor belt sushi, some talk, some coffee, some H&M consumer elation, and more talk. Touching base with Evelyn is as easy as it was when I first got here almost exactly a year ago. She is super direct and there are no questions as to where her mind lingers.
A few hours later I went to meet David Plasser. David is happily but busily working (he asked me to note the new apparition of wrinkles when I coaxed him into a photo) with a smaller firm. We talked about his work, the lady in his life, and billable hours - one of my favorite topics as it seems to be such an outdated mode of charging clients. It was nice to see David. He was just as intelligent as when we parted ways a year ago, and it was nice to see someone still swimming in the flow of Vienna.
I naturally then made my way to Roboexotica 2006 where Johannnes in his trucker hat was directing fan traffic. As usual there was no shortage of robot stunts. I walked between a scultpural catapult cocktail maker, a machine that simulated drunken driving with a camera hitched on it and projecting swerving images tinted in the colour of the bottle you had inserted into its mouth. Han was peddling his robo-cocktail dorkbot t-shirts and I vowed to go back for more today. I finally found my white-gloved friend Peter Asaro and we went to catch up over a second dinner at the U restaurant in the Museum Quartier. Peter is now living in Chicago and debating his next project. A post-doctorate isn't out of the question, neither is an artistic residency, and we laughed reliving some of our fonder memories from last year.
While in the last few weeks it has been a busy and crazy time in my work life and life all around, I am glad I came back to beautiful Vienna where the gold winks at you and pushes you along her well-proportioned streets encouraging you to let go.