thoughts on digital communication.

Studio this semester is definitely a surreal experience. While it's been "easier" to communicate than I had initially expected, I still am having a hard time acclimating myself to the changes. On Wednesday, the chat went well for me at first, but as the chat grew in length, the harder it became to pay attention to the computer screen. It bothered me a little bit that we were all sitting next to each other in studio, but only talking through our skype chat. While this is a bit exaggerated as we were talking amongst ourselves, I feel like some of the studio dynamic has been lost. I feel like our first contact in the library conference room has been the most successful interaction between students and professor because all of us were able to see each other's facial expressions and also Ron's facial expressions - I have a hard time reading people's thoughts through typing alone. I did enjoy the critiques on Wednesday through the chat, however, because everyone had an archive of information regarding studio critiques and comments available to them immediately. Overall, I'm having mixed feelings about the studio - on the one hand, it's exciting to learn about the different methods of communication, and I've enjoyed the blogging process. On the other hand, I sometimes feel like I'm confined to the chair in front of the computer screen. I'm looking forward to seeing how the studio will evolve with time, and I'm still very excited to see what this semester has in store for all of us.