What a wonderful couple of days it’s been. With today being the onset of another edition of OFFF, the city has been opening it’s arms to weary travelers seeking creative inspiration and memorable times. I had the privilege of not only participating this year, but of being the opening speaker for the event. Although this equates to being the technical guinea pig going through a live tech check, I tried to think of it as an opportunity to set a tone for the following 3 days.

My talk was entitled Interactive Imagination and the focus was to talk not only about a number of interesting experiments I have been working on recently, but to talk about the important role of happiness in work and play. Taking risks and trusting ourselves. Pushing ourselves past the comfort zone and not getting tripped up with the Law of Familiarity. I feel it’s important to be constantly growing; creatively, spiritually, emotionally, socially. Pushing ourselves into unfamiliar territory.Stranger in a strange land. Packing my bags and heading to a country where I didn’t speak the language has been one of the most rewarding life lessons I’ve had.

Feedback following my talk was wonderful and it was great to have complete strangers thanking you for expressing things they felt or were thinking. good energy. It was nice though to be finished and be able to spend some quality time with friends who came into town. Got a chance to get some face time in with Kenneth Kirschner who I first met two years ago at OFFF:Valencia who was at OFFF this year for a couple of performances. We’ve been working in a series of collaborations working towards a CD release later this year that is completely generative and indeterminate.

As the first day of the festival winded down groups began to splinter off to explore Barcelona by night. We had a group of 20+, and well that’s generally a scene most restaurants here aren’t overly interested in serving - especially when foreigners. We eventually re-splintered and ended up hitting an outside terrace for some traditional tapas.

Had the pleasure of meeting and feasting with the lovely Toca-Me family and friends :Thorsten, Nina, Jonas, Ben and Johan as well as old-time conference pals Rob Chiu, Mr.Davis and Erik (with fabulous fiance Tobie) and newcomer Jonathan Harris.

Good food and conversation was followed by further wanders in the Gothic quarter where we ended up at a great little bar called Shanghai - and proceeded to shut her down.

At around 3:30 I took on role of local guide and escorted everyone to their respective barrios. Sure enough, as Rob and I were walking by Arc de Triomfe,we bumped into Mike Cina and Gretta on their way back from some late night meanderings of their own.

It was a fantastic day full of energy and smiling faces. The start of a memorable OFFF experience.