Free Floating

Abstract

It’s the depths of winter in Graz. And to get to Ulla Pirttijärvi at this time of year is not quite so simple for those of us who have learned to be Europeans. The question is: How does one contact someone who doesn’t really have a permanent abode, whose winter action radius extends to a thousand or so miles of ice, and who since time immemorial has shown little respect for geographical borders? First one puts some thought into finding a place for a face-to-face meeting. The flight from Graz would be routed via Frankfurt, Stockholm, and at least two smaller airports with ice-runways, airports of which we here in Austria have never heard. Establishing initial contact by telephone doesn’t work either. Because up there, nothing works but satellite phones; and satellite phones are, in consequence, correspondingly scarce. The solution to the communication problem turns out to be as surprising as it is simple: E-mail.

in Conversation with Mathis Huber