Before I immerse myself in a TV show (Sherlock) and eventually fade away, I want to write a bit about immersion. Since Thursday I’ve been at Comic Fest. While the event is a shade of what it was for the pass few years, it still is quite epic. It is also very different when you are staying right there in the thick of it.
To begin, there is something interesting about being a traveller and staying in the artificially manufactured world of hotels. I don’t ever think to make the space mine. I instead live in this space–often out of a suitcase–and inhabit it and whatever conference world I am suddenly a part of as though this is my new reality. Because it is my new reality the rules and situations are different. I operate on a different calendar. Gone is the steady metronome of school and sports schedules. Days themselves cease to matter as I fall into the rhythm of the conference schedule. My orbit is constructed around such things, and since I never actually return home, there is no break in the schedule to even think about what that ‘real world’ and its routines look like.
This year we chose to stay at a local hotel, just steps away from the con. As it is an official conference hotel the people there were largely people who are at the con as well. Together we formed our own small civilization. It wasn’t until I was driving home tonight that I recognized how different the experience was for me actually staying there than it was visiting. Full immersion.
When the rest of your reality disappears as if in VR, you are left to focus on the con and all of the intricacies of that. I personally stayed at the convention later in the day–long enough to settle in and start to get a feel for the different types of groups and people. I expect I’ll do it again and I will have more of a nuanced experience in the future. Maybe I’ll stay two days… maybe more.
Some Thoughts:
- Lebron. You dope, man.