30th June 2020
Alex Parry
The shift to working online with video communications happened virtually overnight. The busy public sphere IRL, rushing to multiple places throughout the day was reduced to the laptop where location is web address or Meeting ID number. Without much choice educators and artists have had to adapt. I was lucky that most of my paid work at the time of lockdown was in education, and all of the materials for these classes were online, which meant that it was easy to transition and I could just focus on dynamics and interaction, rather than also having to create or transfer new materials.
I remember the nerves of teaching online before my first class. My main question was whether my internet connection would be stable as I live on a boat and tether from my phone connection. But I also thought about where I live - seeing it through the eyes of many people. Thinking critically about the wooden tongue and groove walls making my room appear a bit shed like. Thinking about how tidy it isn’t. Suddenly I’m noticing stains and cobwebs (there are a lot of spiders on boats). I look at my calendar - a multi-coloured riot of things to do, exclamation marks and times. I take this down. I try to give nothing away apart from the tongue and groove. The spot I choose to sit at, is next to the drying rack and hanging chopping boards. I take all these down. Ok ready. I have my first zoom work call at home. Unfortunately at the time we are talking my connection is very low . Their face becomes like a painting rather than digital streaming. Broad brush strokes of features, they become unrecognisable and I don’t say anything to them about it. Just coping and praying the sound doesn’t also get painterly. After the call I realise my boyfriend is tethering to my phone as well. AGH! The other thing I realise in this moment is that I can’t concentrate if there are two video calls happening at the same time. Whilst I am talking my partner has called someone in New York - laughter drifts from the back and am irritated. I don’t want to break the call, but I also really want him to be quiet. The line between my personal and professional life is starting to dissolve.
Around this time i start exploring different writers thinking about Zoom. I enjoy reading the article ‘Notes on Zoom The Art, Pride and Prejudice of Virtual Conversations’ on Arts of the Working Class which has testimonies from people writing about their own experiences of working on Zoom and social dynamics in this space. It's all so new and its hard to make sense of things, so I think subjective experiences become particularly important and powerful in this moment.
I also start reading articles critiquing the aesthetics of Zoom on The Guardian and Frieze. I think about how the Zoom frame constructs the social group in these landscape portraits. We all opt for the head and shoulders portrait. Although at this time I also discover the Liverpool football teams zoom calls and training session that they edit and publish on youtube. Even though its context specific as their session is related to physical training I enjoy seeing the players sitting or lying down relaxed. A different portrait from the passport photo like constructions that most people go for.
At the end of April I was invited to run a workshop with the Social Practice Group at the Royal College of Art - an across discipline group run by Sadie Edginton and Hannah Coulson. I decide the most important and pressing thing that I can run a workshop about is about using video comms platforms as social spaces for education and socially engaged art projects. I decide to create a workshop giving people an opportunity to describe and reflect on their experiences on zoom and some of the limitations, as well as a chance to push back against the rules that are written for us in the space, bringing awareness to the medium and our agency as artists and educators.
So it continues.