Since arriving at Jaaga I have been refamiliarising with simple electronics along with Agnese. Today we set up a simple circuit to drive a DC motor back and forth. We googled and found an online guide from a physical computing course at New York University, which was really helpful, and you should definitely check it out if you want to build this circuit.

I'm one full week in to my residency at Jaaga, so what have I been doing?

First off, introductions! I gave a short informal presentation of my work to the Jaaga crew, and began preparing and editing video for a public presentation in week 2.

I did my first day of the Jaaga residency today!

And at about 7pm I gave a short, hastily-prepared informal presentation of my work and background until now. It's something all resident artists have to do when they start. Its not really something I've done much before, and I wasn't 100% on how to do it.

The people watching were mainly other participants at Jaaga so I asked for feedback immediately afterwards - knowing I may have to give the same presentation again soon, and more publicly this time. I'm glad I asked now as the feedback was very useful.

I'll be starting my Jaaga fellowship soon, and as I sit here soaking up the sumptuous rays of the Porto Alegre (Brazil) cityscape visible from my hotel balcony, I can't help but think how little I know of what I'm going to be doing there. I know the guys I'll be working with (some of them), and I know what kind of community awaits me, and that's all I need to know. They are a nice bunch, and I'll be with friends, and the rest isn't so important. Until we start doing it!

I often lament the lack of career role models in my life that I really look up to. It's broadly due to a historical pig-headed lonership and lack of communal immersion, and also sparse and bias-driven field research which I am currently regretting and rectifying.

This is a really great diagram that I first saw at the vvvv node10 event in Frankfurt. It was made to represent the hype around new technologies, but I think it might be applicable more broadly. In any case it's a useful reference point:

Walking in Frankfurt a couple of days ago I conceived an idea for a new installation. It consisted of projecting video over a collection of large box-like surfaces arranged in a darkened room. I was happy with the general design of the space in my head, and when I got back to my hotel I wanted to sketch the image onto paper.

I drew a few lines, but then I was stuck. I can sketch just fine, but something was missing, from the image in my mind. I realised that my brain had performed a common trick - to conceive an object in terms of it's salient features, and to obscure or avoid the 'less important' ones. Ofcourse, for an artist, this is not good.