The Work-rhythme against the Nomads melody?

WED 9 June 2010:
Wednesday, it was already halfway the workweek. The last weekend is still in your memory but you also think about the next already. Although the last couple of months since I do not work on the office anymore my life got a lot more differentiated. I can plan my free time whenever I like. This results in the fact that I spent evenings and sometimes weekends behind my laptop but also quiet gym classes around noon. And while sitting in a nice cafe with a beautiful view on a canal I can state that I like my new life.
This morning for example I used my new freedom on a way that never would have been possible a few months ago. I visited a good friend of me, still living in Amsterdam and played a game of squash with him. His technic had improved a lot since university. I stopped playing afterwards but he continued playing. I had no chance he was dancing on the court and i couldn’t even find a rhythm. Of course we hang out for lunch in a lunchcafe along the Prinsengracht (an Amsterdam Canal) and memories floated in front of my eyes. My appointments followed up in a continues movement. Sometimes changing direction a bit but always based on the basic rhythm of the day and night cycle and the cycle of the workweek. Because although I can schedule my own week from day to day without thinking of the difference about work and weekend days the largest percentage of working people have a sacred weekend. Weekends are therefor the best days to travel. You don't loose valuable time in which you could had have a very important conversation with somebody. But my freedom has enormously enlarged. After a hasty run to make it in time for my appointment this afternoon and a very heavy discussion with one of the artist about his sudden decision not to participate in the project, I was not capable to crawl behind my computer any more. Instead I decided to go to a Dutch new movie with an old friend. It became a late night in which I forgot my worries of the daylight.
The unbreakable rhythmic day of the working man that even can’t be fixed with a cup a soup against the melodious travel of a nomadic worker changes all depending on your mood.

Is the DigiNomad Homeless?

MON 7 June 2010

On Monday the penetrating sound of my alarm clock pulled me back into the real physical world. Where am I is a question you always ask yourself on the moment you open your eyes or maybe even a split second before that. Usually you know the answer before you asked the question, it’s at home. But sometimes, the day after that beautiful holiday to a warm and inspiring country you get confused. Today it took me al least a few seconds to figure out it was my own cosy bed I woke up in. It was the sound of the Saint Micheals (cathedral in Brussels) that tele-ported me back to Brussels.
So now I was back in place again it was time to get up. With a rather smooth movement swung my body in an upright position and touched the floor with my feet for the first time this day. This earthly contact and my self reflecting, not so charming, image in the mirror made my place in the world seem irrelevant. But in the afternoon I had a meeting at the headquarters about some sponsorship for a huge exhibition in New York next year. So I put on my clothes and slipped into my shoes suddenly remembering the running exercise of yesterday represented by a growing blister. I looked around the room, the only room my and my girlfriends place had. After adopting our nomadic lifestyle we decided to move to a smaller apartment while we didn’t need to live in the space that much. But while we loved the city centre of Brussels because it held so many shared memories we looked for a place right in the heart of the city. I moved here 6 years ago after growing up and studying in Amsterdam to work for the EU. I met my girlfriend and moved in with here after one year. So I can tell I feel at home in this city, although my heimat still is Amsterdam. Because of the little space we have I like to start my days in a quiet café. Something I do everywhere also when I am traveling. This morning I ended up in my favorite café ‘Het warm water’ specialized in day welcoming breakfasts. And always some fresh new papers and not unimportant a WIFI connection.
While walking to the EU quarter I saw a homeless man hiding under a big three trying to create some shelter for himself. I wondered if he despite the lacking of a physical home still felt at home in the same city I felt at home. When I was thinking this and therefore watched in his eyes he spit right next to my leather shoes, I had recently polished, saying: ‘How dare you walking through ‘my city’ with those absurdly expensive shoes made of harmless cows’. I smiled and thought, yes he feels at home, but kept my change from breakfast in my pocket.

One week of a DigiNomad

While I have a presentation this week I won't be able to post that much on my blog, instead I will tell a story of Niels Omad every day and include it with one question.

See next post for the first day

Niels Omad

Let me introduce to you Niels Omad. Niels has been invented last year to personify the DigiNomad. What was he like, what did he do and what were the problems and possibilities of his new lifestyle. In the mean time I am busy finding respondents to tell me about their experiences. This way Niels will not only represent my brainwaves but also a group of real-life people

Well this is Niels, or al least these are his personalia

N. OMAD

Surname: Omad

Given Names: Niels

Date of Birth: 29 JUN 1980

Place of Birth: Amsterdam

Residence: Bruxelles

Personal no.: 131725932

Sex: Male

Height: 1,80m

In my thesis there is one whole week of his diary used as leading structure to all the facets of his life. For now I will only tell you the story, how he became a nomad

5 January 2010:

Today was one of those days that kept resonating for a long time inside my head. Not because something very special happened that day but because something happened that gave the opportunity to let special things happen in the future. My girlfriend went to the globe today. Not just for a vacation or a short meeting with some clients over there. No she went there for about 4 months. She had started her own architecture firm 5 years ago and without special effort she got projects all over the world. She already left Bruxelles quite often to discuss with her clients, but always came back after a few days. Now she entered the city she was designing for, the Global City. I couldn’t help it but I was jealous........

28 January 2010:

'I want to live in the same city as my girlfriend'. That's what I told my supervisor this morning hanging over my instant made machine coffee served in a paper cup decorated with 12 stars and the motto " In varietate concordia" (united in diversity). Yes I worked for the EU. ‘But your girlfriend is traveling at the moment, isn’t she’? Two big eyes stared at me. ‘No, she is living in the Global City’ was my response. I already suspected this question and prepared this sentences of course. My task by the EU was to initiate cultural projects. Projects exposing everything that was produced in the habitat of European cultures. For now this were mostly small localized projects about localized artists, organized in localized buildings. My proposal was to make these things mobile, changeable per location and get them outside Europe too. The idea was received with a lot of enthusiasm. I became a Global Citizen today, my Nomadic way of life had started!!!

The DigiNomad HEARTBEAT

Every Nomad has a different travel calendar and almost every Nomad still has a base somewhere. Sometimes it's only an emotional base but most of the time it is a physically represented office or home. If we map the time an individual DigiNomad is staying on different places than the negative space underneath the x-ax could represent the time spend in this base space. The positive side is all the time spend away from the base in other spaces. This graph represents the personal heartbeat of an individual DigiNomad

new poll, NOMADIC PASSPORT?

There is a new weekly poll on my blog. Would you be prepared to change your 'normal' nationality bounded passport for a NOMADIC PASSPORT (global passport)? This would gain you instant acces to every country but you have to give away the symbol of your cultural Identity.

And for those who didn't see the movie yet of my wednesday 24th oct post, look at it it's amazing.

These are the results of last week:

Hotel (global)	2 (4%)
Hotel (local)	6 (14%)
Camping	7 (17%)
Local people	6 (14%)
Hostel	9 (21%)
Rented Appartment	11 (26%)

Thesis

For some time now I have been writing my thesis.
For my P3 (intermediate graduation presentation) on the 6th of november. I try to have a final structure that is mostly filled in. And is finalized afterwards only by some finetuning and little additions.

But for now an in between product: The Office and Home(l)essentials

It still excists of a combination of little parts in Dutch and in English so don't enjoy reading yet