Virtual Residency Day Forty-Four, Ticking Clocks

I have been enjoying a visit here from Elinor Gadon of Brandeis, cultural critic and author of "Once and Future Goddess". Elinor is also a friend of Navjot Altof, the Indian artist who introduced me to the people at Khoj International in Delhi. Elinor has been working with Indian artists for many years. We have been discussing the water problems in Delhi, how they relate to the larger global problem of water and what recourse I have in this Virtual Residency to address the issues they face there.

After the last Virtual Concert, August 12, I had written to Khoj with a list of questions. The questions had arisen while I was live during the concert and I posed and explored them rhetorically then. I was trying to make sense of the research I had been reviewing. That research was about the lowering water table, exploding population and measures to address the gap between available resources and demand. I had composed the letter and sent it but have not yet had a reply.

Elinor read thru the questions and told me the language would pose a cultural problem. She is going to help me write a second query.

What struck me was all the ways people can misinterpret, mis-hear, not recognize the language or the means of communication (as, all those who don't access the net as a means of connection), long before we get to identifying and implementing the correct action to address the key problem. This is as true within the same culture as it can be across cultural zones.

I am always aware, as I consider this kind of problem, that we have a global clock ticking on global warming. In the short term, being in site and effecting an event in situ cannot be under-estimated. The question I have, is if we cannot do the same thing with Virtual reality that we can do with physical prescence, what can we (I) do with virtual reality that we/I cannot do with our/my feet on the ground? Is it just a question saving jet fuel and stamina or am I missing something?