Subject: Meanwhile in another part of the Forest from VB

"Everything can happen, everything is possible and probable.  Time and 
place do not exist; on an insignificant basis of reality the imagination 
spins, weaving new patterns; a mixture of memories, experiences, free 
fancies, incongruities and improvisations.  The characters split, 
double, multiply, evaporate, condense, disperse, assemble.  But one 
conciousness rules them all, that of the dreamer..." August Strindberg 
Author's note to the Dream Play.
Now that you are on an island I have geography for you but in my mind, 
in my dream I have a view, a topography for an island facing West.

Date: Fri, 5 Apr 1996 05:11:20 +0100
From: (alkemist)

...Who will be the curator of the online museum where works like yours are
stored for eternity. Who will catalogue them and preserve them to prevent
their loss to future generations. I wonder what historians will have to say
about your art or will the technology get in the way....... "Poignant but
limited by the 2 dimensional access medium"? 

Do you not worry about the transience of your medium, Had you done this 10
years ago on a spectrum, no-one could now see your work? 

Dont mind me, it's 5am I'm finishing off my E'mail and I worry about stupid
things like that.

nina> Gordon - I'm sorry to be thick but I don't now what the hell this
nina> is/ what to do with it !

It is PostScript...  a fratcal leaf for the tree on you WWW page?

nina> ps - I want to link to you from the IRC diary mention - what URL
nina> shall I use ?

 http://pobox.com/~gjoly/  would be nice.


nina> gnome plank?

      Gone blank?

From: user 
Subject: diary etc
X-URL: http://194.130.144.195/hypertext/journal/feedback/emailus.html

Hi

its cool its groovey its fabulous

I think you've done exactly the right think in dropping the diary and 
emphasising the individual art pieces. Partly because it was a bit too 
linear - and to be honest a bit too much like the traditional 
travelogue that you are intending to creatively critique. It's hard to 
break out of the 'we went here, we went there' letter home type style. 
Also because the two different versions of the same days events was 
becoming too dominant a comparison; too much of the hers & hers . I 
think if yours and Karen's observations are integrated and provided in 
a more random way it makes it more in the spirit of the thing. Besides 
which, your styles are SO different that there is no danger of having 
your individual personalities merged into one!

However, one good thing about the time/diary structure is that it 
gives us a sense of your journeying, and it's easier to instantly 
check up on. Could you possibly do a webpage for each day or couple of 
days as you did last weekend? Nothing complex: it might contain a 
paragraph of text, it might contain a link to a sound file, it might 
contain a snatch of transcribed dialogue or an email received. It 
would give us down here a greater sense of the options from which you 
are choosing when you are creating your 'documentation'.

Alternatively, you could just re-use the flashing text you have been 
placing at the top of the home page as a list of 'headings'; that 
would do the trick and give us a sense of your progression. In fact it 
might be better: after all the day by day (literal) time spent is not 
what is important, it is where & how you have chosen to go that 
defines the journey.

This is just me making suggestions in an overly curatorial kind of way 
and you are welcome to tell me to fuck off in seventeenth century 
gaelic.

But here's a request. You know what I would love to see most of all? 
It might not be possible but I love the sky at night in Scotland, and 
it would warm my urban heart to see it. Or sunrise/ sunset. Any 
chance?

have fun
keep well,  peter

Subject: Strathpeffer

I am just new to using the internet, but your articles on the 
the north of Scotland interest me very much. The reason being is
that I married a girl that was born in Dingwall, she still has
many relatives in the Strath and at Dingwall. We intend on visit
ing soon likely 1998. 

Keep up the good work.

X-URL: http://www.bbcnc.org.uk/radio/radio4/womans_hour/index.html

Nina,
I've just spent half an hour browsing through your Hypertext journal 
and just wanted to say how much I enjoyed it. Can't easily download 
your audio files - have you got some good material? If so, we could do 
a really nice feature looking back over the trip on your return for 
Woman's Hour, if you want to.  Love the pictures - fantastic tartan 
skirts...! Were they warm? Tracey Logan

Date: Sat, 6 Apr 1996 15:27:29
Nice hypertext journal....though accessing from my greyscale powerbook at
home I'm not getting the full benefit of your interesting looking graphics.
Good to see that you had a clear view of the lunar eclipse it was
spectatcular here in Cornwall...apparently all the car parks on Dartmoor
were full after midnight on Wednesday...though it was easy to view from our
window (it was too cold to stay outside for long)
How are you finding rural comms?  Are there many facilities for community
access to the net on route?

name=&email=eraf@chel-lg.demon.co.uk&comments=
Do+you+have+a+lot+of+Kendal+Mintcake%3F%3F%3F%3F+We+would+also+
like+to+know+how+you+get+those+photos+across+to+us.


>Richard - are you really trying to send us a message? if so it's getting
>garbelled by the mail to form which I'm going to take off!
>
>nina (& karen)
>
>

>
yes i was. iv'e sent you two messages in the last week, one from jo and i,
where we hacked in to the preferences at chris lane's show 'on mouseup' and
sent you one via the mail to page. the other via the 'are you scottish', 'do
you mind your comments appearing' page, when i commented on what i felt was
possibly over academic tone of the piece. hope that makes things clearer.

i hope it's going well, i wish you all the best, you are in my prayers etc.



Hope that you are both well and warm. It's  been very exciting but the pictures take so long to load that we've only seen the top few lines! If you need any supplies sending let us know on this addres
Take in a deep breath of fresh air for us and make a loud noise when you let it out! Drive carefully, we'll be in touch again.

Love from

Angus and Jill X



jo and i sent you a message via the form last night (19th). we were really
exited to be there at the begining and i think that the (often posited)
question, 'can one become emotionally involved over the internet', has been
answered as far as we were concerned.

As far as the over academisisation of the site, a number of people i've
spoken to have felt that the content was a bit cold and somewhat daunting.
This however is not the case with the diaries which you posted yesterday. 

by the way the whole site looks great and has a really crafted feel. the
diary pages loaded fastish, with the graphics (my configuration) poping up
nicly just as i'd finished the accompanying text for each.

by for now,


Hello Nina,

I have spent some time checking out the Scotland tour..I've been reading
 about the British Grand Tour, and architectural documents that are linked 
by an itinerary. If they
went to view ruins of antiquity, or collect photographs of views, monuments,
and so on, then your trip collects so much more than images, and especially,
as you say, they become more and more embedded. In fact it was a slow
process to get to so many links on the journal. This totally defies the
archive, if it should be ordered, logical, retrievable and so on. 

....But now you are taking photos directly onto your computer, or online,
 bypassing the print stage. Something very
interesting is happening to the archive, coming from a tradition of
expedition and, I think, demolition especially in cities, and now moving
into these fluid net spaces where they are not just linked together, but
themselves are literally links as we point and click on them.

I think your images are also quite lovely, the tree surprised me, esp
because I could not get the full image on my laptop, but today got it on
Kris's computer. 

Also, the road trip (you linked to Greg in the US) is very much part of the
American imagination.... But I like most of all
that you piggyback your route onto an old exploration tour. This repetition
is very important to me if I want to understand meaning - I like the layers.

But I will keep browsing. I find it has inspired an open end to my paper I
am working on. I was going to call it Grand Tours, Archives and Afterlives. 

more later,
christine

oh, by the way, I didn't get to see any responses from anybody else? Are
these available?


To: n.pope@ucl.ac.uk Subject: (no subject) X-URL: http://194.130.144.195/hypertext/journal
/feedback/index.html Great idea. Read about it in "The Scotsman". 
When are you on the east coast, or am I too late

 Do you feel a bit like Thelma and Louise of the Highlands (without the 
horrid bits)? 

This is an email message from Simon Morse.
 ... Finally I've seen your site and it's been the quickest to download on this 14.4 modem I've yet come across. No, really! 
How are you doing, dear? It's nice to hear from you - and bizarre to hear from you knowing
 that everyone else is hearing from you at the same time (insert sundry internet cliches here). 
This is only the second ever email I've sent. This'll no doubt get to you with some corruption
 fish barnacle price of peas dehydrated textured vegetable protein resend it if you can reach me
 at the address above. Lots & Lots of Love from Simon XXX. PS wrap up warm.

 
dear nina and karen, 
ive just been looking at your site... i was left a bit confused by the project - both from the interview on the radio, and having 
looked round your site. I cant help thinking do you really know what you are 
doing it for, and what it is about. It seems as though you have the facilities,
 the know-how, and the energy and commitment, and needed something to hang it 
all on - and this is where im a bit dubious. 
I wonder if the heart of the idea hasnt been lost in the means - if that makes any sense. you seem to be involving
 all these issues and different areas - like the reality / virtual reality thing,
 art in technology and modern communications thing, and then this journey which 
is retracing their steps, which is updating the travel journal, but which is 
also interactive? 
As well as the various local and personal issues which a 
project of this kind will always throw up.. and so on... so what im saying is 
that im not convinced that the central idea behind this project can support 
the scale of it, and the many requirements that are therefore required of it. 
or to put it another way it seems to me that it might have got a bit out of hand. 

Subject: "Demise of Diary"

Please...say it isn't so, "Demise of Diary".  

Fortunately, or unfortunately, we have no soul-searching questions to ask of
you, except that your journey continue.  We so look forward to coming home
after grueling day's employment in the land of the free and home of the
brave (?), to find your bookmark and search out your day's adventures.  

So, pray continue, and in health!

Chris & Shirley Murray
Coupeville, Washington, USA
Subject: Wish you better

Saturday 30th March 96 8.45am
You poor things the last thing you want is Scotty belly.
I hope it is not too serious that you will be both on the road soon.
I dont know how you manage to keep updating your pages so fast.
Bozzy baby boswell proberbly had similiar experience. He wrote " It is with
great concern that my luncheon today at the Hagi and Crumpkin hostelry  may
have been suspect. The strange round object of which I have consumed may
have contained the virus H.A.G.G.I.S. I fear my bottom may explode hence."
I am off to the ICA to help out with the Artaids stuff.
If you need rescuing give me a ring.
I am off to sunny southport to visit friends on Thursday.
We need you for Virtual Glast. It could be a biggy.
Love and Asprins
Bernie
Sorry to hear you were both unwell, and hope you're now fully 
recovered.  Sorry to about demise of diaries which were v. 
entertaining, but understand reasons.  Will continue to monitor your 
progress.  Watch out for monster in Inverness!

I know you're both v. busy ladies.  Any chance, pse, of a  brief 
e-mail?  Fiona, my 10yr old dtr with me this wkend.  Fascinated by 
www, email, etc.  I'd be v. grateful, and it wd be worth a drink - or 
even two!
Subject: Re: re journal

Karen/Nina - just a note to say it`s a really nice project, when I can manage to
link up..Cynthia enjoyed meeting you, she`s back in Vermont now... keep
touring..Jim