Chatrooms: Or, How to Set Up for an Online Room

Video (2020)

We navigate virtual spaces every day. Rooms, meetings, hangouts, groups, stories, posts, email threads, voice notes. A Houseparty. These spaces are being named after physical ones. They are built on an internet connection and maybe a front camera. Flip cameras, apply filters, virtual background, mute, unmute, add other people to the chat.

Moving through these online spaces, a voice that sounds human takes us through the streets, and we surf with it on the internet. As if we are commuting, from home to work. Join meeting. Leave meeting. But I am still sitting in the same room where I sleep. There was a moment in time when we would link up with others online just to pass time. Then, it became a necessity, to make up for our longing for any form of human connection. 

Is something troubling you today?
What do you mean by going back to normal?
You say you miss seeing people?
Do you often feel very conversational?

A lecture-performance in three acts about how we used to interact with others through virtual encounters before, during, and after socially-distant times.