On working while traveling
and temporary desks

(scroll down for news and events!)

Dear reader,

This letter was initially supposed to go out on the last day of April, but meeting the self-imposed deadline once again proved to be challenging.

The past month was an eventful one for XP: a lunch date with .zip, a gardening day, a Projecting Life session lead by Gijs en Elliott and two of Emma’s Theme-work events, all within basically one week. Many of us traveled in and out of the country throughout the rest of it. In fact we all ended the month out of office studio; 5/6 of the group spent the week in Fontainebleau and 1/6 (me, Kirsten) in Genova and Rome.

While the others were hanging off rocks, I’ve been hanging around cafes finishing my taxes, bashing out deliverables for a commission and writing this newsletter. Working while traveling, like climbing, can be fun yet tricky — a balancing act of sorts. Although there’s no risk of physical injury, there are the risks of either not getting your work done or not enjoying your trip if you lose your balance by focusing too much on one or the other (or the absolute worst: nothing gets done or is enjoyed). I guess you could replace “trip” by “life” and the issue is the same whether you are traveling or at home, and seems to be one I keep returning to.

There are roughly two reasons why you would decide to work on a trip: either you are traveling for the purpose of work (working on-site, doing a residency) or you are traveling while there is work to do (out of desire or obligation). Sometimes these two blur a bit in my mind, whenever I get tempted by the idea that the unsteadiness of a trip can potentially help me stumble upon new insights or force me to tread more nimbly within that window of time at my temporary desk.

Since, as I mentioned, many of us have had the privilege of going on trips either for or despite work recently, or alternatively seem to also appreciate leaving the steady XP desk for a change of scene/mode, I have given my studio-mates and myself the task to reflect upon our temporary workstations and see if they offered any insight into our desk needs:

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Ben

The first temporary desk that came to mind was one that Kirsten and I shared whilst visiting our friends at Robida for some Coding In Situ. We worked almost everyday in Vida and Aljaž’s kitchen at their lovely round table. From there, we watched the sky outside change from blue to grey to white to grey and back to blue. It rained a lot. So on the final day, when the sun finally emerged, I sat out on the red bench on their balcony and listened to the sounds of the valley whilst I coded. Whilst I sat there, Blaso gave me a glass of wine before our final lunch together before leaving. This “desk” felt like exactly where I needed to be at that moment.

I have a tendency to embed myself in routine: having a set spot that I can reliably return to again and again to get stuff done. But this temp-desk got me thinking about what I need and when I need it and that, perhaps, my desk shouldn’t always be about getting things done. Maybe my desk should be more about reminding me of all that exists outside of the desk/work, rather than isolating me within it.

Ben on a red bench with a glass of red wine

***

Jack

During the installation of the exhibition “Your Ghosts are Mine” at the Venice biennale a couple of weeks ago we set up a temporary desk tucked in a dark corner of one of the exhibition rooms. These temporary workspaces within exhibition spaces caught my attention a while ago arriving on the site of an exhibition I had designed back in 2016. The builders themselves are pros at this. I arrived surprised to find a desk and a mini workshop set up on-site. They had laid claim to this space but over the next few days they would be working to transform it into something else. They were their own parasite changing their host until they were no longer welcome. You can also catch a glimpse of this in the back of a well organised van (a workshop on wheels) or the cabins parked on the site of the road (mainly in the Netherlands which function as mobile lunch rooms for the builders). Back in Venice we had a grey plastic foldable table and chairs which became our base. The chairs were too low and at some point the looping sounds of the films drove us crazy like a whirring ventilator that you don’t realise has infiltrated your brain until suddenly you are overwhelmed. But this doesn’t matter. These set ups are about location location location. You are now a tiny designer sitting inside the 3D model that you had been digitally immersed in for the past months. When the exhibition finally opened and the desk was tidied away into the storage room and the guests were arriving, that spot was no longer ours. I didn’t even feel like I could use the toilet space which I knew was behind the storage doors, it was no longer a workspace it was an exhibition. It’s fascinating that just these two pieces of furniture can give you a sense of belonging to a place.

Jack’s palazzo studio

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Emma

This desk emerged on the balcony of the house in Spain me and my family stayed at. They went for a walk while I stayed behind to get some work done. It was sunny, but also extremely windy, so I sat down as low as possible. My mum added the sunhat and the blanket and I felt like a child on the beach, too focused on my sandcastle/screen to notice her putting sunscreen on my face. Guess my essential (desk) needs are feeling warm and safe and loved 👩🏻‍🍼🌞

Emma tucked in behind her iPad

***

Gijs

I haven’t been abroad much recently, but there is a temp desk situation I know quite well. Even at my xp desk I must admit I’m sometimes looking forward to it. It may be all busy and chaotic here, but in a few moments I’ll be in the peace and quiet of a lovely train.

It’s indeed a bit strange that it feels like that. There are definitely more people around me. The seat isn’t perfect, the sun is in my face or on the screen, but I know it’s going to be a moment of focus. On some work thing, a book, messages I want to reply.

Noise-cancelling earphones help. And actually the armrests and trays of the Rotterdam-Eindhoven intercity are the perfect height and size to work on my laptop. (The old intercity that is, the fold-out desks of the new one are too small and far awaaay) There’s also something about time. At some point the train arrives and then I want to be done. Like an immersive pomodoro timer with the sporadic forgiveness of the occasional train delay. And not least, any time I need a think I can rest my eyes on sunlit sceneries passing the windows.

What can my XP desk learn from those? Mac screensaver sceneries don’t cut it. It’s hard because many aspects seem to conflict with what I want from a workdesk, like a space to hang and lay down work and have an overview of different projects. Those probably contribute more to me not feeling train-focused than whether there are peers around. I think my train seat equivalent at XP is the beach chair in front of the river view window that catches the afternoon sun.

Focus isn’t everything though. The other day I was on a train back from Eindhoven, looking forward to some focused writing, when someone I knew from the past passed by. He invited me to join him and some others I hadn’t seen for a long time, a bit further in the train. I had a great time catching up and not thinking about work. That felt quite XP. (And now back to the sandwich train to make our lunch for in between the rocks of Fontainebleau)

Gijs’ Bliss in transit

***

Elliott

Being a new XPer, I’m still feeling into the ergonomics of XP. Sometimes I sit at my desk (across from Ben), or at the kitchen table, or lounge on the cushions near the window.

1. My xp desk has become a place for work work activities. (E.g. this month… debugging One Minute Park and doing taxes)

2. When I work at the big table I enter guest mode and choreographed performance with lunch hour.

3. The cushions near the window are best for calm window watching. On windy days, a small string attached to a street sign across the street moves up the pole. Occasionally, the string reaches the top and we cheer.

I have a channel full of images of temporary desks I’ve used over the years. A recent image is from working at OBA (the library branch near Amsterdam Centraal), one of my favorite places to work from. I like that OBA has various surfaces to work from: There’s the center of the building, larger communal tables, or the green soft-top drafting tables. I prefer the drafting table since it’s a mix of old and new and makes me feel like I could be working in a different era.

→ https://www.are.na/elliott-cost/workstation-today – A closed channel documenting my temporary workstations over the years.

→ https://www.are.na/elliott-cost/our-workstations – I’ve been running ”Our Workstations,” an open channel for documenting your own workstation.

Elliott’s workstation of the day

***

Kirsten

Not once but twice this past month I found myself in Italy with a to-do list and a slightly too idealistic vision of what my temporary desk situation would be like. When Ben and I visited Topolò for the purpose of coding in situ we were initially hoping to, besides give a workshop, develop some fun new placeful elements for the Robida website, maybe even while being outdoors. Instead we ended up spending many days around Vida and Aljaž’s Alvar Aalto table tackling long-overdue maintenance tasks. Not to say that that wasn’t enjoyable, but at times it had me question, especially since coding brings me into a hyperfocus in which I completely disconnect from my surroundings, whether I was actually immersing myself in the place and what it then means to code in situ.

Also last week I started out optimistic about spending time in Genova and Rome despite having quite a few deadlines lined up. On the first morning I kept my temporary desk set-up lightweight. Had breakfast, wrote a bit and went on the spend the rest of the day strolling along the coast. However, as the days progressed and deadlines approached, I found myself anxiously glued to my laptop whenever I had time on my hands, doubting my reasons for being there when my mind was elsewhere.

In both cases the thing that managed to shake me out of my work-obsessed state and ground me back into the reality of where I was was really simple: food. There always came a moment when the temporary desk needed to be cleared to make space for a plate of pasta. Surely it was also the sharing of meals and stories at Vida and Aljaž’s table that played an fundamental part in coding in situ.

Although it’s no news that food is vital, I keep needing to be reminded of how it brings me back to my senses when I lose my equilibrium and to wholly cherish having access to it. As for being back now: we already are quite good at doing lunch properly at XP, but perhaps I should add a cookbook to my desk.

Kirsten’s idealistic lightweight/lighthearted desk set-up

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🎈Events

SHARING SPACE: THE BIG OPENING OF EXTRA PRACTICE
IN NIEUW CROOSWIJK

01/06/2024 from 15:00 till late

On June 1st we are officially opening our new shared space on Linker Rottekade 5A. Partly as a deadline for ourselves to realize all our spatial design plans and finally stick that vinyl on the window, but mostly as a sweet celebration of this new location, and of the community we are slowly building around it incl you all🌻 Come share food and music and art and vibes by the waterside and in the studio! More details will follow soon on our site and IG and in next newsletter, but we hope you will already save some space in your calendars to come celebrate and share this space with us on the first Saturday of June 🦢🦢🦢

If you would like to contribute to this event in any way, don’t hesitate to reach out to mail@extrapractice.space!

🗞️ News

Our conversation with Tiana and Elliott on conjuring a collective and keeping your friends close for The Creative Independent finally got published two weeks ago, along with stunning photos by our dear friend Dewi Kruijk. Read the article here.

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Your Ghosts Are Mine – Expanded Cinemas, Amplified Voices, the exhibition Jack worked on for the Venice Biennale, opened and is on show till the 24th of November

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While in Topolò, Ben and Kirsten were interviewed by both Vida and Antonio for their radio shows. You can find the episodes here and here in the archive of Radio Robida. 

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For the last few years, Elliott has been taking one minute videos of parks. In the future he would like to make a 24 hour clock/website of all these videos. Towards this goal, he invites you to make a One Minute Park to help fill out all the minutes (parks) in a day.

🌳 Watch → oneminutepark.tv

🌳 Submit → are.na/elliott-cost/one-minute-park

Thank you for reading and hope to see you on the 1st of June!
XOXO XP