I'm posting relevant portions of our emails to date, in the interests of documenting the collaboration. These have been edited slightly since they weren't originally written for public consumption (Everything's subject to further editing). Here are our February emails, and I will post March separately.

Kristin, 2/4/2004:

Laurence has invited me to work on a collaborative project through Fluent~Collaborative and this generally means pairing up with a writer. You can find out more through the website. Google 'fluent collaboration'. If you are interested in working collaboratively together (it is very open, can even be virtual - all up to us), get back to me when you've had a chance to think it over.

The collaboration idea sounds interesting--I'll see you Saturday, and I look forward to discussing it.

Kristin, 2/11/2004:

Laurence asked me if we had talked and I said we had a lot of ideas - that you were interested. if you have reconsidered, please let me know. Laurence would like to meet with me soon to discuss this collaboration further and probably suggest possible dates. i'm planning to set up my computer in my office - it will arrive next week and then i'll have hi speed access.

Yes, definitely count me in. Have you seen the show at Freshup Club in Austin? Cory Arcangel has a video in it. While looking for online references to Fluent Collaborative, I found someone who gripes about Cory twice on his page ( http://www.cinquehicks.com/blog/ ) as the embodiment of all evil in the art world. I'm curious why Cory's video set him off. One idea I've had for Testsite: a chill out room or lounge type space where we can spin records, show video, and post on the Internet. Not terribly original-sounding, I know, but depends on what we do with it. I forget, is Laurence living there? He might object to the sound. I can probably come down for a couple of weeks.

Hey, Kristin, Re: my earlier suggestion about Laurence's space: In doing my post on the Killer Instinct show I was reminded that you'd done a "lounge"-based show recently, so you might not be ready to revisit that. I'll be curious to hear what comes out of your subsequent discussions with Laurence. Best, Tom

Kristin, 2/16/2004:

Laurence has been out of town but I'll likely have lunch with him soon. I like the idea of a lounge. You could curate some music for the lounge and i could go out and find the records with the honorarium (simultaneously building a record collection for Laurence(!)). or you could mix some music and forward it. I could burn an mp3, aif, or wav to disc. Any other format would do too, I have access to a lab at school.

Beyond the audio, I could imagine responding to the music with imagery for playback on DVD (option to synchronize)- there are many possibilities. If you make mp3s, they could be accessed by an audience outside of Austin through our page.

Foremost - the orgins of the project must stem from the experience of access to Laurences home. I am looking forward to the lived day-to-day experience of this project.

None of my forementioned ideas are set in stone. I think it's good to start with some ideas and see where the experience leads. I am hoping that the collaboration can contribute something performative during its development - no ideas yet.

I could adapt your writing/entries into ((some abstraction)). Even if it's based on entrys and correspondence. I would contribute to the page with updates on what I am up to at Laurence's place and you could feed off that. You could translate what I write in any number of ways.

Forgive me. I have no identifiable structure to my practice other than to dive into the abyss until a structure forms naturally in the making. I know that you have more structure to your practice. Forcing ourselves to the edge of our known comfortable limits in art practice may produce the most interesting results for this collaboration - even though it will surely present challenges. --Kristin

Kristin, 2/19/2004:

Hi Tom, These are the potential dates for the collaboration. Do these dates work for you?

Installation week:
3 - 7 May(Monday - Friday)
7 May, Friday Opening Gathering
Sunday 9 May - Sunday 13 June testsite is open from 1 -5 pm and during the week by appointment.

I have to ask for certain, but I believe that our exchange would occur mostly over the installation period. I hope we have some extra time before that too. I've also inquired about the budget. Let me know about the dates asap. Thanks, Kristin

Those dates are great. Plenty of time for me to give notice at work, and I'll have lots of leeway on either side of that week depending on what we end up doing. I got your last email and I'm glad you like the idea of some kind of sound-based, lounge-based thing. Absence of structure isn't a problem at this point. I don't know what I'm thinking of yet, really, but I like that you referred to dj'ing as curating. Best, Tom

Kristin, 2/20/2004:

Coolio. I'm glad the dates work for both of us. Actually it will be a weird time for me because my final crits are that week! it'll all work out though.

I'm meeting Laurence tomorrow to go over more of the structure, details.

I'll get back to you after that. Joe just called from the airport. His first trip to Austin. We're going to see Penny Arcade perform tomorrow and then roller derby on Saturday. Kristin

Kristin, 2/25/2004:

Hi Tom, Here's the lowdown on testsite. Would it be possible for you to work on the collaboration the following week. I guess the renovation schedule is behind and Laurence hopes that works for us. Actually I would be out of school altogether that week so it would work well for me. I'd return to New York just after that. You mentioned that you were able to be flexible about dates still, but please let me know. You would need to fly down here - You would stay at testsite.

The honorarium is [...] [I]f you need turntables we could find them. We're not far from a record shop called 33 degrees and we are within walking distance of a bike shop with rentals, a Thai restaurant and Austin's food co-op with a great deli. I'm going to bring my mixer down over spring break. mabye we could do a performance. Laurence is into the idea of webcasting. i've not done this before and am not 100% what it entails, but there is time for some research. I would like to put media up on a server and have it stream from your blog. We can discuss further whether you want this as part of you blog or if we set up a separate page.

As a writer you would be responsible for writing a statement/press release about our collaborative. That can develop as our ideas do over correspondence. I'll find out from Liz how early they will need the text - also they would need for us to settle on an image before the residency (???).

Laurence would like us to exploit the internet as much as we can since none of the previous artists have and we both work with it in our practice. We have hi-speed access and he has a wireless hub. I can bring my Mac over to work with and we can rent you a computer if that makes sense for you. We so far have 100MB server space to work with but that can be increased.

And as we talk more about our collaboration, Laurence was hoping he could retain a copy of the emails for his records to note how the collaboration evolves. He's just started doing this with another collaboration. We would have to agree to this. Or suggest that we excerpt from emails, more relevant info. Any thoughts?

Laurence would like Liz to send you a packet with floorplans and other materials. Please send me your address and I will forward to Liz.

Time to take off to school. I'm trying to set my computer up for hi-speed access there and will soon spend most of my time there. Kind of depressing to be in a room with no windows but i am also looking forward to it. Soon, Kristin

Hi, Kristin,
Quick answers to some of your questions: May 10-14 as the "install week" sounds fine. My address for sending floorplans, etc is PO Box 1666 New York, NY 10101-1666

Longer answer: It would be easy to set up a blog page which we could use instead of (or in addition to) email to discuss the collaboration, with the page just continuing through the end of the project. It would be on the DMTree server but could link to anything voluminous (mixes, media) on Laurence's server. But Laurence would probably prefer to have the documentation on his server. Unfortunately, Jim Bassett says the blog scripts aren't really portable. [W]e could discuss getting his help with: (1) getting blog content onto Laurence's server (2) streaming, webcasting, uploading issues. I'm a bit leery of webcasting for a temporary project, though. It seems like something that requires a lot of trial and error and finetuning (and bandwidth), which is fine if you're a radio station doing it year round but maybe not for us (I know people at WFMU and hear they went through a lot of agony over "the streams." Also I've been trying to stream audio from someone's home server and it's been a bit of a hassle). I hate to promote anything that people can't easily access. I guess what I was thinking was that I would keep doing mixes in mp3 form that could be downloaded in Austin and further mixed "live," with a turntable component, videos, and whatever else, in the space. During the performance (I'm envisioning sort of a marathon, but not an endurance contest because I'm a wimp) the blog would be used to post set lists, pictures, links to mp3s and video, with a talkback feature in the comments. That way the internet is used not so much for the vaunted "media convergence" of the late 90s but keeping it as lo-fi and accessible as possible. This is just me rambling so please let me know what you think.
Best, Tom

Hey, Kristin, Based on your idea of a screen grab, I just did the attached. What do you think--something like this? Don't know if there are size limits, if they're reducing it, or what, but it might be a way to get both of us in, and the music connection. -Tom