During her stay no one comes in and Norine never goes outside. Her only contact with other people is through technology.  In that regard, Norine says she is not that different from anyone else.  "We think we are being social on these gadgets," she said. "And it can be a really great thing when people live in different states, but when you are at dinner or you are trying to have a conversation and you are being distracted by these other things. Or maybe you are just not going out as much because you are staying home and are online."  Usually a TV and photography production manager based in Los Angeles, California, Norine ended up in her own personal fishbowl in Portland after a chance meeting with Josh Elliott.  Elliott worked in photography in Oregon and the two realized they shared a similar curiosity about the effects that the barrage of new technologies are having on people.  Elliott knew about the available storefront and almost overnight, Norine moved in.  The Public Isolation Project was born.  As she literally X's off the 30 days she is spending cut off from the world, Norine chronicles her experience through her blog http://www.publicisolationproject.com/.  On the other side of the glass, Elliott is filming a documentary on their collaboration.  They are not anti-technology, Elliott says, just hoping to inspire more conversation about how everything from the internet to iPads are shaping people's lives.  "We are accessible 24/7," Elliott says. "Having a cell phone in your pocket you can be called or texted or video chatted at any point. With Facebook you are updating all time. You have friends on Facebook that you have never met, and they know more about what's going on in your life than your mother does who is not on Facebook."
People walking by the floor-to-ceiling glass windows surrounding Cristin Norine could be excused for thinking that she is working in an office alone or lives in a ground-level apartment in dire need