Today I travelled from Peckham to Rome. I am on the sequel to Pun Pilgrimage; Rome Alone(?). Pun is a place in France. ‘Pun’ is the English umbrella term for word play. I am obsessed with puns. ‘Pun’ in French is ‘le calembour’. Le Calembour is a restaurant in Rome. I found Le Calembour restaurant. I visited it. Alone. I thought about the week’s potential whilst eating. I was overwhelmed by the sense of having brought an idea, and image, into my reality – I have visited the restaurant many times on Google Street View. I had become familiar with it as an image.
I was underwhelmed by the sign – the text is not in my mother tongue – I could not appreciate it’s meaning in the same way I did with the Pun sign in Pun.
I befriended the staff and explained my intentions; to eat lunch there every day with a different multi-lingual to discuss the potential significance of language, action and geographical location. The team at Le Calembour responded positively.
I spent the evening interacting with some of the many devices I have brought here with me; MacBook, iPhone and iPodtouch. I activated Tinder and ‘met’ Lorenzo (amongst others). He speaks French Italian, English and Russian. We will meet tomorrow at Le Calembour.
I am hyper-aware of the impossibility of being ‘alone’. Though I have have not been in anyone’s physical presence whilst in Rome, I have been almost constantly in touch with people. I also realised that I had a date with this computer – it was opposite me whilst I ate. It’s viewpoint resulted in the above video. There is something sad about the banality of it.
I look forward to up-dating tomorrow.
