Fastforward to February

Since Barcelona, I’ve kinda felt I hit the ground running, which probably explains why I haven’t really updated online for a while. For a week, I was floating in this middle ground where I was home but still at a disadvantage. Strange enough, I felt a lot like my first couple weeks here, so it was rather easy to manage, but for a while, I was on limited cash flow and cell phone access. My emergency passport I have to send to the U.S. Embassy in Stockholm for them to send it to the States and get a new 10-year one printed. Compensation issues at the lab needed to be negotiated, and I was reassigned to a new laboratory and new post-doc with another project (all good things). I had to move in to my new apartment (blog post to follow). Oh, and I had to write a 3500-word essay on the social work of museums. So yeah…been busy.

Meanwhile, while I was in Spain, I got an email from the Kinetica Museum in the UK. Each year, this museum holds a major art fair in downtown London at the end of January that features kinetic, electronic, and technological art. It’s one of the only venues that offer not only collectors, but the public, opportunities to interact and experience new media art and this growing field. 

Here is a clip from last year’s fair.

Having seen that they were recruiting for volunteers, I had written them about joining for the duration of the fair. Unlike many of the students in my program, my CV lacks actual museum experience, and the Kinetica Art Fair provided a unique opportunity to study within a space that merges science with art (starting quick with that thesis idea of mine).

Anyway, the email said yes, and it was that simple: I booked my tickets for my first trip to London that morning. Didn’t imagine I’d be traveling that quickly again, but sometimes life hits you in the face. Next blog post: pictures and updates.