catapult magazine Kept objects

Vol 7, Num 7 :: 2008.04.04 — 2008.04.18

Kept objects

I keep ways of remaining tethered in a cloud.

Most of the items that travel with me are transient. For several years now there's been a mobile phone, and a laptop, but the exact laptop and the exact phone have changed many times. These days the functions of the two are merging, so it may not be long before I'm down to just one device. What's not changed (in a fundamental way) is the window they give me. As dwellings have passed almost as frequently as devices, I can still connect with the same news sources, the same streams of entertainment and the same evolving network of relationships. In tech circles we talk about information increasingly living in "the cloud," meaning it's not tethered to a single physical point and can adapt with need, use and, optimistically, revelations. Between that shifting system and my transient devices I am able to maintain a connection with a few more permanent things.

James Stewart

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