The residents have all arrived this afternoon and evening to Koumaria.  Stalwart Medea Electonique members have already been here for days—bringing truck-loads a equipment and food here (with some memorable results, including getting stuck in the olive groves!), and cooking for two days.  Many of the residents are in Greece for the first time, and everyone is, as always, taken by the beauty of the place.  We were met by a table full of small sounding-robots, and the cases, cables and speakers that, by late tonight, or tomorrow morning, will be transformed into our multi-media laboratory.  Over our typically generous dinner, with much local wine, we started to discuss what we are all here for.  A spirited discussion about what machine-human interactivity meant to each of us artistically took place.  The discussion roamed widely—from what counts as a machine, through the notion of nostolgia for earlier generations of machines, the speed with which computer-based machines are “catching up” to humans, and the idea of machine personality.  We decided to have assorted residents lead informal workshops, to help us all learn more about each others artistic practices and sensibilites, and to serve as a breeding-ground for possible collaborative projects. Under a richly glowing milky-way, residents converged on the deck to  chat, smoke, eat sweets, empty bottles of wine, and come to learn about each other as artists and persons.  We think this is going to be a successful residency!  Tomorrow, our annual group walk to the village, where we will meet the cafe regulars who have become, often literally, a part of our annual artistic creations.