Karin actually wanted to interview me and then mentioned it would be nice to combine it with a walk the day of the opening. She works in Visby, Gotland for an agency that used to promote traveling exhibitions throughout Sweden and is currently working to promote development and collaboration in the exhibition area. We met at Mangkulturellt centrum at 2pm. I was about 10 minutes late and Karin had to call me on my phone while I was walking over to the center from my flat. This time I apologized professionally. We left our bags in the locker downstairs. Since I couldn't find a 5 crown coin, we decided to share the same locker. We walked towards the lake across the field with the many ducks and geese. It was sunny with a nice wind. I forgot what we talked about in that first section of the walk. I probably told her a little bit about the walks and how therapeutic they had been for me. Karin let me know that she was married and had a small daughter. Having a child had brought a big change into her life. She had had a good, well-paid job for many years and told me how her life had been quite predictable and sort of dull before her daughter came into her life. She explained it a bit like this: Before the baby everything was up to her. She could choose what to do and what not to do. When the baby came into her life everything was unexpected and new. And it wasn't up to her anymore. For some reason we got to talking about facebook and I said I wasn't on facebook anymore and she asked me why. I replied that it had gotten too invading for me and that it had taken up too much of my time. She asked me if I was referring to my own facebook behavior or to the behavior of my facebook friends. I said both. I also said that I preferred to nurture more sustainable and intimate real-time friendships than to stay connected with countless virtual friends on a more superficial level. I had to think of this interview with Sherry Turkle I had read in a recent issue of Das Magazin, a Swiss lifestyle journal. Sherry Turkle studies how technology is shaping our modern relationships: with others, with ourselves, with it. Here's a TED talk she gave in March 2012: http://www.ted.com/talks/
Karin told me how she used to go horseback riding as a child. I told her I had the same hobby when I was a teenager. She asked me if I missed it. And I had to think for a while to give her an honest answer. I said that I had liked the time spent with my friend and with the horses in nature. But that I never felt quite comfortable with the idea of having to be the master of the horse. I had never enjoyed dominating the horse. I felt too weak and lenient to establish a clear relationship with the horse. To be completely honest, I had always been a bit afraid of the horse. Karin commented that she had known many people who got a kick out of this feeling of dominating the horse and that many of these people weren't doing so good with their human relationships. Karin also told me that in Sweden it's a big no, no to talk to strangers at the bus stop. Especially people of the same age will never talk to each other. I wondered why that is and she replied that it's a class or status thing. She went on to say that in the US strangers are much more likely to get into conversation with each other. For her interview she asked me why the 'intimate walks' needed to be outdoors . . . or if it would also be possible to do them inside of a museum for example. Again I had to think for a while: I think nature is more conducive (at least for me) of an intimate connection with oneself and one's surroundings. Even within a city I feel my thoughts can flow more naturally outdoors than indoors. The open space makes it easier to find a balance between following one's curiosity and engaging with the other. Inside a room I could easily feel trapped and setting up an intimate walk or encounter might feel more forced. The whole set-up of the 'intimate walk' is already artificial and ambiguous in itself. I would say it lies in a grey zone between a real desire for an intimate connection and a performative aspect which makes both parties more aware and possibly self-conscious of what is happening. Doing this inside of a museum might bring out the artificiality even more, so much so that it would be out of balance.
Karin told me how she used to go horseback riding as a child. I told her I had the same hobby when I was a teenager. She asked me if I missed it. And I had to think for a while to give her an honest answer. I said that I had liked the time spent with my friend and with the horses in nature. But that I never felt quite comfortable with the idea of having to be the master of the horse. I had never enjoyed dominating the horse. I felt too weak and lenient to establish a clear relationship with the horse. To be completely honest, I had always been a bit afraid of the horse. Karin commented that she had known many people who got a kick out of this feeling of dominating the horse and that many of these people weren't doing so good with their human relationships. Karin also told me that in Sweden it's a big no, no to talk to strangers at the bus stop. Especially people of the same age will never talk to each other. I wondered why that is and she replied that it's a class or status thing. She went on to say that in the US strangers are much more likely to get into conversation with each other. For her interview she asked me why the 'intimate walks' needed to be outdoors . . . or if it would also be possible to do them inside of a museum for example. Again I had to think for a while: I think nature is more conducive (at least for me) of an intimate connection with oneself and one's surroundings. Even within a city I feel my thoughts can flow more naturally outdoors than indoors. The open space makes it easier to find a balance between following one's curiosity and engaging with the other. Inside a room I could easily feel trapped and setting up an intimate walk or encounter might feel more forced. The whole set-up of the 'intimate walk' is already artificial and ambiguous in itself. I would say it lies in a grey zone between a real desire for an intimate connection and a performative aspect which makes both parties more aware and possibly self-conscious of what is happening. Doing this inside of a museum might bring out the artificiality even more, so much so that it would be out of balance.
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