There are several levels of disorientation that occur in telematic performance projects -- spatial and temporal as well as conceptual. The first first disorientation was spatial -- looking at the other video stream from the other space coming in at an 8 second lag and trying to determine which direction in that space others were facing. The media space (as manifest in the projected video image) is also fundmentally distorted (with its expanding perspective).

One strategy for dealing with these issues was to place white gaffer tape on the floor related to north, south, east and west and in a precise and constant orientation to a fixed camera. This spatial disorientation was quite quickly overcome. The conceptual disorientation was of a compositional nature -- as expressed by one of the choreographers, Jennifer Tsukayama, who referred to it once as similar to trying to play 3-D Tic-Tac-Toe. She has also written a bit about this under compositional strategies.

Question #12: discuss a bit the varying degrees of 'disorientation' you have felt this week.

Answer #1: I found the time lag more disorientating than the spaces. As a dancer, I am used to working with a beat or a visual or internal cue. With the time lag, we had to remember to start our material 8 seconds early or 8 seconds late and this I found more confusing. (Kenneth Balint - dancer)

It is well worth mentioning the physical disorientation I have experienced in moving my physical body/location from Europe to the US - Britain to Arizona to be more precise.

Time difference - the 5 of us that did this long journey spent 11-12 hours in the air under this strange air compression that after such long flights seems to totally change your body sending your outsides in and your insides into minuteness. On arrival we needed to turn our clocks back 8 hours - gaining half a day. A good thought to gain time but what a bizzare disorientation this creates.

Temperature - moving from 16C in Europe when we left to 102 - 114F ( need to get consistency of temp here ) here in the Arizona desert also has a major effect physically - dehydration from the flight doubles as soon as you land , you seemingly never sweat while losing water at all times.

The first 4 days for me were extreme - waking at mad hours - hungry in the wrong places in the day - a light head that was fuzzy and floating (quite a nice feeling - like having taken a weak Ecstacy tablet - but not great when 1) you have to work full on and 2) you know it is because your body is still drying out from the out to the inside)

Signage, currency, hugeness, palm trees, misters, online 24 hours a day, petrol/food so so cheap, many many things suggesting to your body non memory that you are now in a very different world - not reality in terms of ones 'normal' reality, not virtuality ( although you do wonder at times! ) - maybe more of a ' hyper reality ' where one is over aware, over sensing and perceptions are on over load.

During those few days I was reading the inputs to Digi Bodies - a Canadian/Hungarian mailing list being moderated by Sara Diamond - www.ping.ca - a fascinating experience reading others talking what I was experiencing. (Ghislaine Boddington)