Thad and Sarah Lawrence use Photoshop to create a surreal photo album
documenting their relationship
At the linked site, images are used to tell aspects of the Thad and Sarah story not possible to tell in other pen and paper means. The image to the left is from
fiveprime.org/hivemind. The easy distribution, the quick sharing of information encourages fresh collaboration in the possibility of responding as situations unfold. An enhanced sense of what is occurring in an apparent simultaneity is another possible benefit of rapid sharing.
Now becomes more complex. It is a most peculiar encompassing as each
now is a mutation of
Now;
now is a reference variable to refer to a local experience in a moment that may be defined within limiting factors of usage only in that instance of usage. The
nows are not the same. The experience of time is not the same. And when scale is brought into consideration, any
now may be configured so as to contain an infinite number of
sub-nows referring to incredibly local architectures of experience linked to time and space. So a denial of universals based on one's personal situation is also possible, especially as temporary connections bifurcate further and further (a potential that
chatroulette has a great opportunity to exploit well).
Now does not occur only in the present; in fact, to encounter
now in reading this post, is to encounter a now linked with the past moment in which I
typed type
now and a
now that is tethered to the
now that is the moment of a user's encounter, tethering past and present. Also tethered would be all that those
nows encompass, hierarchically; this post as a temporary center. The images from Thad and Sarah are likewise experienced, for all the rapid sharing, in the complexity of
now that is a quivering bridge of present and past. Daniel Altshuler's paper
Meaning of ‘now’ and other temporal location adverbs provides an analysis of
now
7:33 pm est: Google Trends in a now that's past (time
now7:34:14 pm est):
The
MARTIN EDMAN EN SAMBANDSCENTRAL
blog offers:
Martin Edman en sambandscentral: I want to be somewhere else right now, as the 24 October 2009 entry (an image of that entry appears to the right). This complexity of now, the
now when the 24 October 2009 post was made, the
now of my encounter with the post, the
now of encounters with my post about an encounter with the 24 October 2009 post, each encounter a remixing of
now.
There is also a Facebook group exploring this complex remixing of the moment:
I Would Rather Be Somewhere Else Right Now
A dozen members in the
now of my encounter with the group.
The
17 March 2009 post of the
thisiskeith blog is titled
We're somewhere else right now.
Stacey Schuett's book
Somewhere in the World Right Now offers a dynamic
now that is a range of independent events linked by consideration in a single sweeping moment of consideration. Linking events gives them (temporary) access to each other; the moment of the story allows the events to collaborate, to interact in shared temporary context. You can see inside Schuett's book
here right now. On
Schuett's website, this description of the book is available:
"Somewhere in the world right now, it's deepest night..." Elephants sleep in the African darkness. A London baker bakes bread. In Madagascar, a little girl dreams of tomorrow. 'But somewhere else, tomorrow is already here." A rooster crows in India, while an Australian kangaroo takes a nap. And in Chicago, commuters speed toward home as the day draws to a close. How can all these things happen at once? This book--filled with lush paintings, a gentle text and a multitude of maps--takes the mystery out of time zones, while showing children the varied richness of the world they live in. Reading Rainbow Selection .
Those time zones themselves are featured on a colorful map divided by the spine of the book at the end of the book. Of possibly even greater benefit is the
pen friends suggestion at the end of the book, the social studies and social connection opportunity of seeking information about the
now of other children with whom to correspond. An adaptation of
chat roulette, a filtered adaptation and perhaps primary school edition, for instance, could allow children to meet each other and exchange information in a
now.
Sharing of interest in being somewhere else is the basis of a group at the
experience project. Ten stories have been posted by members of this group, including
Yeah, Pretty Much Anywhere Else! by trixi (
text of trixi's story: Do you know that i havn't gone out by myself (except to the grocery store and town) in over a year? i havn't done anything fun and spontaneous, wreckless or adventurous for sooooooooo long i'm afraid i will lose the capacity. lately, my biggest adventure is travelling to other schools with my son's basketball team. ok, this is fun in a way cuz i get to see new places and meet new people and it makes me feel like i've actually done something for a change. but as i'm driving home, i always say to myself , " i wish i could just keep on driving and never come back" i want to see how far i can get on a tank of gas and then stay whereever i end up until i get bored and then go somewhere else. i have an adventurous spirit, but it's slowly dying cuz i A) have noone to do things with and B) have my kids pretty much 24/7 and have no opportunity to cultivate it. i do have the capacity to find the sublime in the simple and the everyday, and thank goodness for that because otherwise i'd just wither away to nothing. i just wish i could go somewhere.).
This page of the
experience project offers a guide for
how to wanna be somewhere else. Each group has it's own guide. The
I Wanna be Somewhere Else guide is brief:
If you want to know How To Wanna Be Somewhere Else, you can find the help you need here. Our members who share the experience, 'I Wanna Be Somewhere Else' contribute their tips to build a living book of how to information that can provide help, advice, tips, cheats and tricks on this topic. And everyone can vote to help promote the very best how to instructions! Finally, you can find free how to videos and books here as well. The guide page also feature books, movie clips, and user-generated videos related to the group's theme, and of course invitations to join experience project and submit your own stories (as of this moment, 4,083,471 experiences have been shared at —oops, make that 4,083,478 experiences shared at
experience project. To share experiences with more of a gamble, adding ability to tell the story verbally (and webcam-to-webcam) to a stranger anywhere in the internet-connected world, consider
chatroulette. Actually building a where somewhere else and inhabiting that construction in a constructed avatar is part of the lure of
second life where you can remix and reconfigure realities, worlds within worlds that sometimes interact, including the virtual with the 3-dimensional or spatial. Rules and boundaries are also remixed and reconfigured.
The Accidental Traveler blog's
Slavery is not Somewhere Else post returns to a convergence of now and here, a focusing to a point that can be any point, that can be in any location to emphasize a likelihood of human trafficking connecting, on some scale, with any location of human occupancy
—in any time zone; closer inspection can help reveal underworlds (sometimes sweet versions are the worlds under other worlds), under-where's even in Schuett's beautifully crafted drawings and text that when uncompressed can reveal gaps, cracks, moments and places where less-sweet events can emerge from time to time, even flourishing somewhere else sometimes and sometimes here.
