A photograph of the interior of a turn-of-the-century Parisian apartment by Eugene Atget (Atget does relate to this blog post, can’t really say why though, but he does, trust me)

On this particular Thursday, I probably felt the most comfortable and ‘part-of-the-team’ out of all the Thursdays I’ve been coming to the Polygon. I usually sit at the side of the office along a long table where no one in particular sits, strewn with a mix of stuff. As I’ve said, the office environment is friendly for sure. Though it has been hard to engage in the on-and-off again conversations the other staff have, based on a combination of my social ineptitude, relative unfamiliarity with everyone, and physical distance. I know I am not just being thrown to the sides, but it feels like that sometimes. Coming in on this Thursday, I realized that I made a fo-pah (my words): I forgot to bring my laptop. Drat. I asked my supervisor if there was a computer around for me to use. He said I could use one of the curator’s computer’s (the one who was supposed to be my supervisor, but who hasn’t been around, at least when I’ve come into the office), since she wasn’t here. We had to get the password though so my supervisor needed to contact the curator. Fortunately we did get the password and I was on the computer. This was already a big move from the sidelines; it was nice to be ‘in line’ with everyone else, literally and figuratively. I certainly felt like I was more a part of the office–“You’re moving up already” another staff member joked to me. From usually being quiet and left alone at my side desk, I was able to interact with people better, including with my supervisor, which doesn’t usually happen unless I have a question. Everyone in the office is definitely friendly and conversant with each other, but they always seem really busy or stressed out (there’s a somewhat present stressed-out atmosphere throughout the office, I feel like at least, since opening up a new space with an exhibition that includes over 20 artists is a pretty big thing), so I don’t feel like disturbing them too much (or really know what to say exactly). But through this new, temporary setup, I was able to, again, interact with my supervisor a lot more than usual, mostly about my project of course, but other more casual things as well. Our bits of conversation about the exhibition, the artworks and researching the artists and the trials and tribulations involved also elicited another humorous comment: “It’s funny to hear you to talk, you’re the only people talking about art here!” “I thought I was working in an art gallery,” I replied. “C’mon, no one actually talks about art in an art gallery,” someone else said. “Haven’t you been hearing about all the store stuff going on?” my supervisor said (they had started to set up the computers for the gallery’s new gift shop, a running conversation topic throughout the day). This was the first steady conversation I had been a part of in the office; it’s a small thing, but it was nice that it happened. In the end, I felt pretty good about working in the office and felt like I wasn’t just some student worker, all because I forgot my laptop.