Bernie Goldbach with tactile gear in Tipperary.
A CRUSH OF several priorities is pushing me back into the realm of truly analogue work, starting with the gear in the photo.
Although the Sony digital dictaphone looks non-analogue, it fits the brief because I'm spending the next two weeks rewinding stories around drawn and snapped work. It means face-to-face with relatives in a remote location. I won't be using my laptop during this two week interval and that means my blog publishing will become even more sporadic. I've a work-around for that and might use it since the process I've in mind uses an email client and no web browser.
Back in 2002, I took the same amount of time off and away from a laptop keyboard but back then I had a Nokia Communicator keyboard that kept me in touch. That occasional touchpoint cost me more than EUR 400 on our return to Ireland because of the extortionate data charges due to roaming. I don't feel compelled to sniff around the internet this time, mainly because in my mind I hear the voices of authors I trust telling me they get to their set points by focusing directly on what they have to write. No Twitter. No email. No Facebook. No browsing. I'm off to try the same approach and that means no casual social networking unless I've hit my daily word count of four Moleskine pages.
I'll revisit this blog post around 20 days from its publication to recap what actually happened in the interim.
[Bernie Goldbach teaches immersive practises as part of several modules in a creative multimedia degree programme in the Limerick School of Art & Design.]
