ISEA2009: starting with good intentions

as predicted, it's raining in belfast for the opening of ISEA2009, but i don't mind because i've got an umbrella : ) & anyway we're inside today. yesterday was a lovely day & i wandered belfast's central streets, orienting myself & finding some of the venues. i'm here to present a paper (friday afternoon at 3.30pm) & also as a volunteer intern, which means i get to invigilate - this involves controlling the doors for a couple of sessions & making sure i know where the fire exits are. apparently we inviligators get to have walkie-talkies, which i'm looking forward to : )

the programme for the conference is, as expected, incredibly full. there are about 8 or 10 other sessions happening at the same time as mine, & trying to decide what to go to is fairly random, as paper titles alone or session themes don't always give a clear idea of what to expect. but there are a few things i'm defintely going to attend - such as the pure:dyne workshop tomorrow, & the performances in the evenings.

i've started the conference with the best of intentions, yet my first intention (to be here at 8.30am) has already been foiled, by an early morning explosion of emails to do with the impending 090909 UpStage Festival - scheduling 13 online performances over an 18 hour period along with ten physical nodes around the world is quite a mission! so i had to answer quite a lot of queries before i could leave the house, & arrived here after the first keynote had begun. the foyer of belfast's waterfront complex is beginning to fill with delegates wandering around vaguely with their enormous white ISEA bags & i'm starting to run into people i know, such as other interns & fellow kiwi ian clothier who is here with his project "Making History". morning tea has just been announced so i've collected my coffee & biscuit before the diligent delegates emerge from the keynote, found a powerpoint for my laptop & logged on to the free wifi provided by anycast (thanks!) to send this post.

i do promise to maintain good blogging intentions, but if reality continues at its usual place i can't be held responsible for any breakdown in communications ...