I am writing to understand and remember

Tuseday- talk talk talk

The hole day was used for talking about my project (and fellow students ones of course), and where I am heading next. I have felt the need for changing experiment for some time now, the first one has proven some things to me;

1. Strangers want to have conversations with strangers (several has expressed the relief of not dating- the positive surprise of “meeting someone I would never talk to in another setting”).

2. When meeting they have no problem having a conversation (no one have expressed awkward silence, uneasy feelings in the situation).

3. Everyone has been pleased that they themselves could decide for how long they would talk (and had no problem closing the conversation when they felt it was about time)

4. The conversations has mostly been about 2-3 hours (a couple 1 hours)- which indicate that they have a good conversation.

5. Everyone (except one) has been very happy about having the conversation, positively surprised, or positively confirmed- and have expressed they would do it again (even the one not having a very good conversation).

So in general, I have seen that this works. Now, what I started realizing, that I was very happy that I manged to arrange these conversations- and that I got so much positive feedback. But I wanted to be part of their experience as well! The last two conversations I have asked them to record it (again, which I also wanted to earlier, but then again went away from since I saw the conversation itself, the experience, as the most important part), and I will listen to them and see what I get out of listening to other peoples conversations. The next experiment is to involve two friends of mine to listen to the conversation I had with Tomas Tengby, and discuss parts of it- seeing what they get out of the conversation that to me was defently a “good conversation”.

Then, even though I really want to arrange the rest of the conversations, with all the participants that have been sending me information about them, and really wants a conversation with a stranger- I have (my supervisor was very very strict here- “there is no other way”) to tell the rest of my participants from Oslo that I can not arrange conversations with them. I hate involving people, and then dismiss them. And if it wouldn’t be that time consuming I would have done both, but arranging conversations takes A LOT of time (I was totally surprised how much I have to be on the phone- and how much time it takes to get a hold of people) - and I have to move on.

So the next experiment I am planning is to make conversations with an audience. This is an approach to see if I can spread the conversation to more people than the one having it. I do not want two people sitting on a scene, “being important”, while the rest listen as sheep’s, but more of a “storyteller setting”- where I imaginge two peple having a conversation while the rest is lying on the floor relaxing, and listening. So I will ask everyone who was interested in an arranged conversation in Malmö to participate in this.

I am starting to see that I do not only have to make design decisions based on that I am trying to reach a “good conversation” (that I have defined for myself, hopefully a movie is coming in near future), and the decisions if it is physical presence or not, one or more people active- but that there are several options, or small details that makes quite a big difference. And much of that is linked to the expectations. If you have the expectation to be able to speak totally free because you are talking to a stranger you will never meet again- or if you just want to learn a new perspective from a stranger. One of my participants said she believed she “stopped” herself, got conscious of the recording when they started to get very personal, because she knew I was going to listen to it. And we are friends. I believe a conversation needs space for being able to be open- but that doesn’t mean that one needs to be very revealing of ones private life. One needs to dear to have opinions, and to be honest- but not to stand “naked”. There is a difference; and am working on figuring out the differences in detail. I think it has a lot to do with the “place” you are at as a human when you have the conversation- how close, or difficult the conversation theme is to you. I mean, I can have a conversation about feminism- and I can (and partly needs to be) personal- I need to link it to my life- but it doesn’t mean I would be saying things I could not say in a recorded conversation. Hmm…while I am writing this new thoughts arise, and I realize these things makes huge difference. It is not easy to formulate, I can barley hold it in my thoughts without mixing it together.

10.00 - 13.00: Feedback session with classmates

13.00 - 14.50: Session with supervisor

18.40 - 19.50: Preparing interview + interview with participant

21.30 - 22.30: Interview with participant

In total: 7 intense hours