packyourBAK

A week-long telegram chat accessible from Wednesday 28 September 2022 at 11.30 hrs to Tuesday 4 October 2022 at 17.30 hrs, by Dika+Lija.

Accessible through the QR code or link.

In this initiative, collective duo Dika+Lija activates collaborative, casual online note-taking, taking form as a Telegram group chat. The chat layers over the happenings of the real-world domain, roguishly archiving their stay and the instances of convivialities in Utrecht. They seek to archive a glimpse of the friendship that they have built over the 2021/2022 BAK Fellowship for Situated Practice, with a medium that pays homage to the 10-month long program which was mostly held online.  

During many of the Fellowship cohort sessions, collective note-taking and shared reference pools were organically activated in the chat log, all while the video call was happening. Camaraderie was built through mutually failing and then succeeding to understand the seminar materials. As the verbal and video discussions remained professional, expressions of confusion and support happened through the private chat—a separate set of type-based civilities and type-based mannerisms, following a chatroom’s unique (a)temporal and (a)spatial properties, as well as its interactive features such as “reply” or “starred message.” References are thrown one after another without queuing; several different branches of conversation can split and happen parallelly without disturbing one another. In the same vein, the scrollable and replayable chat log traces over the very linear temporality of the video call. We hope that the group chat we activate during the fellows’ trip to Utrecht (29 September–3 October 2022) can complement, build upon, and fill in the convivialities that are not available offline, but have been natural to them online.

By using an open group chat format, we share the experience of their own online collectivism, complete with its unique temporal rhythm. The QR code to access the group chat is disseminated throughout the BAK physical and social compound, which is the actual space and the network of BAK workers and fellows. It requires curiosity and proactiveness for one to join or access the archive, because it is unlike a physical and sensorial spectacle where one can be entranced just by chancing upon it. The group chat initiative also provides an opportunity for friends and families of the Fellowship to be situated in the trip. 

Just like how language influences one’s thinking process, our projects have been steeped and stained by this online spatiality and temporality, through the inside jokes, gaits, and idiosyncratic typing behaviors that they have developed overtime. They are welcoming guests to take a glimpse of their collectivism—be it in their everyday practice, friendship, or previous and future projects—as well as to share in the once-private reference pool of the Fellowship for Situated Practice. 

—Dika+Lija