virtual impressions of the other one -short story

Aleksandar started to follow me at Twitter. I always check profile and recent page of tweets before I add someone, and this guy definitely drew my attention by different, provocative movie-line short tweets, sometimes philosophical thoughts, sometimes they are rebel imperatives.
Then we exchanged few messages, he is reading my blog and stalking me on Twitter, me - likes his art work, visual identity and concept of his art-creations (including his T-Shirts). We moved to Facebook and then to emailing, and ended on Skype (so far). From our written and oral communication I can say that Aleksandar is very witty, talented, full of ideas, very visually driven - you can also conclude this from his web site. He is very into ex-Yugoslavian art and culture scene, mentioning many times some Yu-nostalgia moments that I can vaguely recall from my childhood.
I can absorb him and understand his modus vivandi as entity because he was going through same 90's political turbulences as I did, as well as nomadic life and lot of travels: coincidence or not - he lives in DC and NYC and I used to live there as well. He maybe looks intimidated and feisty at the same time at the first glance, but I think in his true nature he is very professional and funny person who jokes about life in his own sarcastic way.
He believes in horoscopes and tarot, this part of esoterica is unknown to me. He seems to be very into tarot as another form of visual replicability of symbols into real life. Also, he has full admiration and fear of women, which I can also understand ::smile:: , to correct myself, fear of strong women, so many times I have to be cautious and not too feisty [he may not appear again till the end of this project ::grin:: ] , but i can feel that he is afraid somewhere (maybe) of my energy which can be overflowing.
We have common educational sequence in our work and lives: he used to be a teacher of interactive design, and I am instructor, trainer, lecturer since my mid 20's. This part I really liked: his curiosity to discover new things, his ability to use and transfer all available web applications and medium per se for art-works and installations. I really dig his art. One should know the background not only of his personality, but what is more important of the country we used to live in 80's and 90's that influenced on each of us in different ways.
I'm glad we met [thanks to his friend who referred me to him] via social networking sites and I hope to meet soon in analogue world.

Virtual ID/Entity

Before I reply to your post, a thought, a reflection that i'll develop how do you and you manage your online identity vs identity in the physical world? How many of you keep in this context, of social web and virtual communities, self-awareness and identity management?
Further reading at Digital Serendipities, where I've been writing about representation in virtual world as well as digital management impression issues.

Impressions of the Other one

It started with an email from my friend Marko Jobst. He found Danica on Twitter.

Sun, Mar 9, 2008 at 12:34 PM
ko je zena da li mozda znas? (Do you know who's the lady?)
www.danicar.org
na twitteru: danicar

I checked it out and found it quite interesting. Especially her blog http://danicar.wordpress.com.
Web/net phenomenons, social issues and stuff. When I started to track her on Twitter she sent me a message first. So we kinda started corresponding. And it died out soon.

She sent me a message about my T-shirts in July 08 and we started FB correspondence in kinda very honest manner (private issues and stuff). She's apparently very young and honest lady. Very clever and ambitious. Traveled the world.

I saw only one photo of her. She reminded me of Mira Furlan, Croatian actress (Babylon 5 and Lost). Kinda very pretty. Although I'm into blond girls... but, wait, I'm not into girls at all. Just for the record.

I've never heard her voice (although we agreed upon Skyping sometime) or saw her in person.

She seems a bit pushy, which freaks me out a bit... especially with women (another issue of mine: slight fear of women). She's online all the time just like me. She likes Marissa Nadler just like I do. She has some Russian blood in her, just like I do.
If I were straight, I'd probably ask her for a date.

She's Aquarius (Virgo rising, just like me), which is kinda interesting. I'm Leo. Total opposite. Her open, honest and direct approach.

Anyway, after a while I invited her to do a lecture with me for the B-link festival on Virtual identities. So here we are.