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May. 30th, 2022 10:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seekingferretI considered driving down to Baltimore for Balticon this weekend, but ultimately decided that sounded like too much of a schlep. Instead I participated a bit virtually in both Balticon and Wiscon, which was mostly pretty fun. Both were trying to figure out what it meant to be a hybrid con, with I would say mixed success. It was kinda like being at a virtual con but with less general con energy because the in-person stuff was sucking away some of the activity. That said, I had fun with both.
I liked the vid discussion stuff at Wiscon, the panel discussing the Vid Party's premiere's show had a lot of great commentary on vids both at an analytical level and an emotional level, and it was neat to hear a lot of the vidders talk about their vids as well.
The virtual program at Balticon had a bunch of usual suspects, but it also brought in panelists from around the world. There was a fascinating presentation on Egyptian science fiction and the theme of restoration from Emad el-Din Aysha that I really enjoyed. And perhaps my favorite moment of Balticon was at a panel on space colonization and independence movements where CJ Cherryh and Geoff Landis were arguing about whether the most critical factor in whether spaces colonies would prove seek independence was ease of communication between colony and parent country, or the value of trade to the parent country, and a Chilean writer, Leonardo Benavides interrupted to say that's all well and good, but to my mind the most important question is the extent to which the colonial power decides to treat its colonists as human beings. It was so valuable to bring in those different perspectives, and I felt the contrast in some other panels that I ended up skipping out early of because it was just the same panel I've seen again and again for years.
The nice thing about virtual cons, of course, is that when you're not doing something at the con you're back home. I got to sleep in my own bed, eat my own food, and slip away from the con whenever I felt like it. This afternoon I biked out to the rail trail in Metuchen and rode for a while. The weather has been gorgeous around here, I hope we get more days like yesterday and today going forward.
I liked the vid discussion stuff at Wiscon, the panel discussing the Vid Party's premiere's show had a lot of great commentary on vids both at an analytical level and an emotional level, and it was neat to hear a lot of the vidders talk about their vids as well.
The virtual program at Balticon had a bunch of usual suspects, but it also brought in panelists from around the world. There was a fascinating presentation on Egyptian science fiction and the theme of restoration from Emad el-Din Aysha that I really enjoyed. And perhaps my favorite moment of Balticon was at a panel on space colonization and independence movements where CJ Cherryh and Geoff Landis were arguing about whether the most critical factor in whether spaces colonies would prove seek independence was ease of communication between colony and parent country, or the value of trade to the parent country, and a Chilean writer, Leonardo Benavides interrupted to say that's all well and good, but to my mind the most important question is the extent to which the colonial power decides to treat its colonists as human beings. It was so valuable to bring in those different perspectives, and I felt the contrast in some other panels that I ended up skipping out early of because it was just the same panel I've seen again and again for years.
The nice thing about virtual cons, of course, is that when you're not doing something at the con you're back home. I got to sleep in my own bed, eat my own food, and slip away from the con whenever I felt like it. This afternoon I biked out to the rail trail in Metuchen and rode for a while. The weather has been gorgeous around here, I hope we get more days like yesterday and today going forward.