Mobile Misuse

The Next Step

2012-01-16T14:24:00.001-05:00

The Mobile Drawings and Electric Finger have been the seed that sprouted into a new garden of research and practice. This new body of work is being documented at Drawing | Thinking.

Electric Finger

2011-01-02T15:21:00.002-05:00

Electric Finger: an experiment in touch surface drawing

Our fingers are electric. They emit electromagnetic frequencies that allow us to interact with touch screen technologies. It’s called “finger capacitance” and it’s this conductive property of our fingers that makes capacitive touch sensing possible. Mobile devices, such as my iPod Touch, are designed to respond to the taps and caresses of my fingertips, providing access to necessary but mundane information or allowing for moments of unique creative exploration. For decades, it has been possible to draw with a computer using a mouse or stylus, but now we can carry electronic sketchbooks in our pockets with the tools for mark making at the ends of our arms.

TRACEY: Drawing and Visual Research, Loughborough University School of Art & Design, Loughborough, Leicestershire, UK

Urban Speaker

2010-10-10T11:03:00.001-04:00

Urban Speaker: broadcast cell phone calls in public space

The Urban Speaker is an art installation that transforms public space into an instant stage for mass communication. This portable urban furniture allows people to broadcast their voice in public by calling a telephone number from their mobile phones.

The Urban Speaker resembles construction signage and blends in with its urban surroundings. It consists of a tripod with an amplified loudspeaker, smartphone, battery and a traffic sign. The signage instructs passersby to dial a phone number to speak in public. Users who place the call get an automatic answer and can speak their mind for sixty seconds after which the call is terminated. A QR (Quick Response) barcode on the sign allows some mobile phones to instantly access the urbanspeaker.mobi website for location, event and other details as well as quick dialing of the installation's phone.

Callspace / Redux

2010-09-27T13:59:00.001-04:00

Callspace / Redux 09/30/10 – Machines With Magnets

Callspace is a digital arts installation that utilizes cell phone technology to network ambient sound from unpopulated, site-specific locations throughout a given area. Six cell phones are modified to run on solar power and answer automatically when an incoming call is received. The modified cellphones are then placed in their locations throughout the city, and connections are made between the cell phones and cellular telephones located in the exhibition space. The output of each telephone is wired directly to a dedicated loudspeaker housed in a monolithic speaker enclosure.

More Art In Your Pocket

2010-08-04T11:19:00.001-04:00

Rhizome | Art In Your Pocket: iPhone and iPod Touch App Art

As the niche genre of software art expands beyond the web and into mobile devices, media artists are finding ways to integrate their work into a new form of business model. Instead of giving away your work for free on the web, Apple's iPhone and iTouch devices provide an ample platform for distribution (through the Apple App Store) and hardware support for novel ways to experience screen-based work. Since the App Store was unveiled last year, the over 30,000 available applications have taken the form of everything from mock cigarette lighters (Zippo's App) to mobile flutes (Ocarina) to utilitarian apps such as Urban Spoon (Restaurant finder) to social networking in physical spaces (Loopt). Noticing this trend, media artists who once found their free and limitless distribution platform through a desktop computer browser are now turning their attention and creative efforts toward the mobile space of the iPhone.

Art in Your Pocket

2010-06-08T14:51:00.000-04:00

Rhizome | Art in Your Pocket 2: Media Art for the iPhone and iPod Touch Graduates To The Next Level

As the iPhone and iPod Touch become more saturated into a population of people who never would have used their phones for anything other than making calls, it seems as if the chance for artists to create new work for the devices is becoming more commonplace and accepted. Even commenters in the AppStore have good things to say about art showing up in this context. One person said this of Snibbe's Antograph, "These apps are amazing and point the direction for the future of art, science, and technology. Soon these "ants" will be making music, operating on people, and stopping oil well leaks. What a great time to be alive." Another commenter hinted at the seemingly non-purpose of the Vanitas app, but how the design was still compelling enough for multiple visits, "Make no mistake, Vanitas is not a game even though it's made by a "game" company. There is no goal, no discernible narrative so - what is it? It's interactive entertainment. I found it terribly addicting." Maybe these forms of contemplative apps made by artists is exactly what is needed to change the driving force of the App Store and the ways in which mobile apps are marketed in the first place. Despite the rhetoric of Apple controlling access to its store and the apps featured there, overall, the mobile platform of the iPhone has begun to enable artists to get inspired to both revisit their old screen-based work and discover new forms of interactivity that these new platforms now enable.

By Jonah Brucker-Cohen

Ben Millen: iPhone Deconstruction

2010-05-15T13:31:00.002-04:00

iPhone Deconstruction

In researching the iPhone as a part of Critical Wayfinding, the analysis of the device, the corporation, the vast network of shareholders, technology and the distribution infrastructure that surrounds it yielded an overwhelming amount of information. In an attempt to organize this information into a format that is engaging and reflective of the wayfinding foundations of the project, two large conceptual diagrams in the style of Harry Beck’s London Underground diagram were produced.

These are not maps in any conventional sense, but rather diagramatic representations of the interconnected space of technology, capital, instrumental value, exchange value, social and environmental impact that surround the device. The first diagram focuses primarily on the physical device, and the existence of the device as an object in our world. The second examines the placement of the device with respect to the individual and society.

http://www.benmillen.com/portfolio/projects/iphoneDeconstruction/map1.html

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

2010-04-16T14:56:00.000-04:00

jörg piringer - abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

Create and control tiny sound-creatures in the shape of letters that react to gravity or each other and generate rhythms and soundscapes. Dive into a micro world of sounds, movement and touch. But beware! Using this app might change your daily reading and talking experience.

The Sabbath Manifesto

2010-03-18T16:26:00.003-04:00

Now, here’s a project that I can relate to:

Unplugging on the Sabbath - NYTimes.com

THE Fourth Commandment doesn’t specifically mention TweetDeck or Facebook. Observing the Sabbath 3,000 years ago was more about rest and going easy on one’s family — servants and oxen included.

Sabbath Manifesto

The Sabbath Manifesto is a creative project designed to slow down lives in an increasingly hectic world.

We’ve created 10 core principles completely open for your unique interpretation. We welcome you to join us as we carve a weekly timeout into our lives.

Popular Science on Electro-hypersensitivity

2010-03-11T08:51:00.001-05:00

The Man Who Was Allergic to Radio Waves

Your cellphone does not in itself cause cancer. But in the daily sea of radiation we all travel, there may be subtler dangers at work, and science is only just beginning to understand how they can come to affect people like Per Segerbäck so intensely

Full Signal: Documentary on Cellular Health Effects

2010-03-11T08:46:00.001-05:00

Full Signal

Since 1997 and the onset of GSM telephony, more and more cellular antennas have been popping up in neighborhoods all around the world to support an ever-growing number of cell phone users.

In fact they have become so prolific in some parts of the world that they disappear into the landscape with the same subtlety as cars on the street. And those that don't 'disappear' are cleverly disguised as chimneys, flagpoles, or water towers.

Full Signal talks to scientists around the world who are researching the health effects related to cellular technology; to activists who are fighting to regulate the placement of antennas; and to lawyers and law makers who represent the people wanting those antennas regulated.

Filmed in Ten countries and Six US states, Full Signal examines the contradiction between health and finance, one of the many ironies of the fight to regulate antenna placement.

ElectroSmog International Festival for Sustainable Immobility

2010-03-03T12:40:00.001-05:00

ElectroSmog

International Festival for Sustainable Immobility

March 18 – 20, 2010

The ElectroSmog festival is a critique of the worldwide explosion of mobility, and an exploration of the new forms of connectedness with others offered to us by network and communication technologies.

Our question is if these new forms of connectedness can help us to develop a viable new lifestyle less determined by speed and constant mobility, which is both ecologically and socially more sustainable.

iProcessing

2010-02-11T10:45:00.001-05:00

iProcessing

iProcessing is an open programming framework to help people develop native iPhone applications using the Processing language. It is an integration of the Processing.js library and a Javascript application framework for iPhone. The iProcessing download consists of a set of example XCode projects that demonstrate many of the Basic Examples from the Processing web site (originally written by Casey Reas and Ben Fry unless otherwise stated) as well a number that demonstrate the use of various iPhone features such as multitouch, accelerometer, orientation, location, sound play/record, app state saving and so on. It is in development and is currently used by Luckybite and other designers and students for prototyping. You are welcome to use it and if you have any comments feel free to email us here. It is unknown as to whether apps created using the framework will be approved if submitted to the App Store. The software is provided "as is" and without warranty of any kind. iProcessing was created by Tom Hulbert at Luckybite in 2009.

The Children of Cyberspace

2010-01-11T10:14:00.000-05:00

The Children of Cyberspace: Old Fogies by Their 20s - NYTimes.com

One obvious result is that younger generations are going to have some very peculiar and unique expectations about the world. My friend’s 3-year-old, for example, has become so accustomed to her father’s multitouch iPhone screen that she approaches laptops by swiping her fingers across the screen, expecting a reaction.

Oppression by Technology

2010-01-03T10:50:00.001-05:00

Free yourself from oppression by technology - opinion - 27 December 2009 - New Scientist

Are we being served by these technological wonders or have we become enslaved by them? I study the psychology of technology, and it seems to me that we are sleepwalking into a world where technology is severely affecting our well-being. Technology can be hugely useful in the fast lane of modern living, but we need to stop it from taking over.

TREEHOUSE: A Found e-mail Romance for iPhone

2009-12-22T12:19:00.001-05:00

Networked_Performance — TREEHOUSE: A Found e-mail Romance for iPhone

TREEHOUSE: A Found e-mail Romance designed for the iPhone in four Appisodes™:

GET THE SCOOP (NY) - New media producers First Fifteen [F15] are releasing the provocative, true e-mails of a love affair carried out 14-years ago during the advent of the Internet (to be enjoyed in the privacy of your own phone).

The Technium

2009-12-15T09:17:00.001-05:00

Kevin Kelly on The Technium: Penny Thoughts on the Technium

I‘m interested in how people personally decide to refuse a technology. I’m interested in that process, because I think that will happen more and more as the number of technologies keep increasing. The only way we can sort our identity is by not using technology. We’re used to be that you define yourself by what you use now. You define yourself by what you don’t use. So I’m interested in that process.

Cellphone Timeline

2009-12-10T08:50:00.000-05:00

Timeline: The Selling of the Cellphone -- and Warnings Unheeded - Interactive - NYTimes.com

Since 1984, when car phones came into fashion, they were quickly marketed to drivers as a means to mobile freedom. Studies would soon show that using a phone while driving could be a distraction for motorists. Still, the industry resisted legislative action to ban handsets in cars, as warnings about distracted driving went unheeded.

Build Your iPhone App

2009-12-10T08:48:00.001-05:00

Red Foundry iPhone Apps

Now anyone can build a killer iPhone App! A quality iPhone app can cost as much as $50,000 to develop, but thanks to Red Foundry now you can do-it-yourself for just a few dollars per month. Give it a try for FREE NOW!

Anyone can use Red Foundry, and you don’t need to know anything about programming. If you have a web browser and fingers to click a mouse, then you already have everything you’ll need to build an iPhone app with Red Foundry.

Immobile on the Phone

2009-11-05T10:13:00.001-05:00

Complaint Box | Immobile on the Phone - City Room Blog - NYTimes.com

This is a city of people who are constantly on the move. But lately I have noticed many who are completely immobile. Their favorite places to stand are on the subway stairs, either at the top, bottom or halfway up; at times, they camp smack-dab in the middle of the sidewalk. Regardless of where these people choose to stop, they are all engaged in the same activity: talking on their cellphones. And while they chatter away, like statues newly bestowed with the gift of speech, the rest of us are obliged to perform something akin to interpretive dance to make our way around them.

ElectroSmog: Sustainable Immobility

2009-11-05T10:10:00.001-05:00

ElectroSmog International Design Competition – ElectroBlog: News about the ElectroSmog Festival:

Today we issued the call for the international design competition for sustainable immobility. We invite young designers, artists and other interested professionals and advanced students in design and art disciplines to submit proposals for designs for ’sustainable immobility’.

ElectroSmog is a new festival that revolves around the concept Sustainable Immobility. The festival will introduce and explore this concept in theory and practice. With Sustainable Immobility we refer to a critique of current systems of hyper mobility of people and products in travel and transport, and their ecological unsustainability.

The exploration of Sustainable Immobility is a quest for a more sustainable life style, which is less determined by speed and constant mobility. A lifestyle that celebrates stronger links to local cultures, while at the same time deepening our connections to others across any geographical divide, using new communication technologies instead of physical travel.

Mobile Interaction Course Design

2009-11-05T10:02:00.002-05:00

I’m working on the design for two different mobile interaction courses to be offered next year. One is a Flash/Actionscript class that will be taught next semester. The second is one that I started designing last summer that will be offered online next summer. It is a mobile interaction design course that is heavier on the theoretical and sociological considerations in mobile application use and creation. When I have the structures and content in place, I may post the syllabi.

Flash-built apps heading for the iPhone

2009-10-12T09:34:00.001-04:00

Flash-built apps heading for the iPhone | Macworld

This will make it much easier for me to incorporate app development into my Mobile Interaction Design courses:

New features in the upcoming Flash CS5 Professional will allow developers to write applications and compile the code to run on the iPhone and iPod touch. Applications can target the iPhone OS 3.0 and later.

New Mobile Misuse Flickr Collection

2009-10-05T19:39:00.003-04:00

Collection: Mobile Misuse

I am slowly getting the past, present and future projects organized so that I can get some new pieces made (besides the iPod drawings - which are addictive to make).

More iPod Drawings in Process

2009-09-30T08:49:00.001-04:00

QR Code Sand Castle

2009-08-06T19:32:00.002-04:00

Trends in Japan - CScout Japan Blog: QR Code Sand Castle, by Sinap

Can a mobile phone read a QR code created not digitally, but out of sand? This is a question that arose while communication “architects” Sinap Co. Ltd. were brainstorming new strategies for reaching customers in a world suffering increasingly from information overload. A QR code created by a natural substance, and one as fragile as sand, would make an impact, they thought. The question remained, would it actually be usable?

Software Art for the iPhone

2009-07-08T19:40:00.001-04:00

iPhoneArt | Software Art for the iPhone

Noticing this shifting dynamic toward the mobile space, early pioneering web and software artist Lia began the website, iPhoneart.org, which aims to aggregate several artist-created applications that use the touch-screen and accelerometer functions of the devices in new and imaginative ways.

Jonah Brucker-Cohen

Rhizome article

Robert Whitman: local report

2009-06-30T20:36:00.001-04:00

local report

Local Report is the latest in a series of communication media works that Robert Whitman has produced since 1972.

The basic structure of these works was for 30 people assigned to different parts of the city or calling area to call at five minute intervals and describe something they saw at the moment; these reports were then broadcast live. Whitman put the incoming calls directly on the air as they came in, his only intervention being to end the call when, as he puts it, “The caller has produced a coherent image.” Ninety calls over a thirty minute period produced the final work. The news reports capture the nature of a specific place and time, revealing it to audience and participants alike.

Mind Your Manners

2009-06-22T09:12:00.000-04:00

Mind Your BlackBerry or Mind Your Manners - NYTimes.com

For the first half-hour of the meeting, it was hardly surprising to see a potential client fiddling with his iPhone, said Rowland Hobbs, the chief executive of a marketing firm in Manhattan.

At an hour, it seemed a bit much. And after an hour and a half, Mr. Hobbs and his colleagues wondered what the man could possibly be doing with his phone for the length of a summer blockbuster.

Someone peeked over his shoulder. “He was playing a racing game,” Mr. Hobbs said. “He did ask questions, though, peering occasionally over his iPhone.”

But, Mr. Hobbs added, “we didn’t say anything. We still wanted the business.”

iPhone Art Pool on Flickr

2009-06-09T18:12:00.003-04:00

Lily Pads
Originally uploaded by suziq54241

Flickr: The Brushes Gallery – iPhone Art Pool

Great examples of what is possible with the Brushes app. It would be interesting to know how many of these paintings are actually done on top of photos. Some are obviously not.

The Hybrid Book

2009-06-09T09:32:00.001-04:00

Pattie Belle Hastings: The Hybrid Book

I just returned from Philadelphia’s University of the Arts where I spoke at the Hybrid Book Conference. My panel was called “The Reciprocity of Books and Digital Media.” I spoke about “Mobile Misuse: the artistic subversion of mobile technologies in the creation of book-like experiences.”

Cell phone distractions impair recall

2009-05-29T11:49:00.000-04:00

Cell phone ringtones can pose major distraction, impair recall

The study includes an experiment in which Shelton poses as a student seated in the middle of a crowded undergraduate psychology lecture and allows a cell phone in her handbag to continue ringing loudly for about 30 seconds.
Students exposed to a briefly ringing cell phone scored 25 percent worse on a test of material presented before the distraction.

Students tested later scored about 25 percent worse for recall of course content presented during the distraction, even though the same information was covered by the professor just prior to the phone ring and projected as text in a slide show shown throughout the distraction. Students scored even worse when Shelton added to the disturbance by frantically searching her handbag as if attempting to find and silence her ringing phone.

Texting May Be Taking a Toll on Teenagers

2009-05-26T07:54:00.000-04:00

Texting May Be Taking a Toll on Teenagers - NYTimes.com

The rise in texting is too recent to have produced any conclusive data on health effects. But Sherry Turkle, a psychologist who is director of the Initiative on Technology and Self at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and who has studied texting among teenagers in the Boston area for three years, said it might be causing a shift in the way adolescents develop.

“Among the jobs of adolescence are to separate from your parents, and to find the peace and quiet to become the person you decide you want to be,” she said. “Texting hits directly at both those jobs.”

Vodafone | Receiver | Mobile creation – the Japanese way

2009-05-18T17:28:00.001-04:00

Mobile creation – the Japanese way

Both psychologically and physically, young Japanese are never too far from their handsets and the connections to the world that come with the devices. For them, a mobile device is a constant companion, time-killer, game machine, television, organizer, wallet, music player and communicator. In short, it's not terribly necessary to own a PC to be connected digitally, so when the creative urge strikes, the mobile generation uses the tool most comfortable to them: their handsets.

The sneaky moves of anti-social smartphone users...

2009-04-14T11:46:00.001-04:00

In this funny (and actually poignant) 3-minute talk, social strategist Renny Gleeson breaks down our always-on social world -- where the experience we're having right now is less interesting than what we'll tweet about it later.

Storytelling Pictures

2009-03-22T05:07:00.003-04:00

I have uploaded photos of the Tactical Nomadic Storytelling Demo to Flickr.

Mobile Advocacy Resource

2009-03-16T04:48:00.001-04:00

Mobiles in-a-Box

Welcome to Mobiles in-a-box: Tools and tactics for mobile advocacy

Mobiles in-a-box from the Tactical Technology Collective is a collection of tools, tactics, how-to guides and case studies designed to help advocacy and activist organisations use mobile technology in their work.

Mobiles in-a-box is designed to inspire you, to present possibilities for the use of mobile telephony in your work and to introduce you to some tools which may help you. After reading the material in this toolkit you can expect to be able to design and implement a mobile advocacy strategy for your organisation.

Tactical Nomadic Storytelling

2009-03-09T10:03:00.009-04:00

Tactical Nomadic Storytelling
Pattie Belle Hastings

World Storytelling Day, March 20, 2009 (spring equinox)
Tactical Nomadic Storytelling will start at 6:30 pm (sunset)
at the Kunstnernes Hus and then depart for wanderings
and tellings around the city of Oslo.

Atelier Nord
Wergelandsveien 17, N-0167 Oslo Norway

TNS (for short) is an art project that combines live storytelling and props with mobile digital media (visual and audio). Pattie Belle Hastings is currently in residence at Atelier Nord creating a mobile storytelling projection unit and a series of short stories that combine video/animation, audio, mobile devices and live performance. These digital live art experiences are designed to be performed strategically and spontaneously at tram stops, T-Bane stations, corners, alleys, bathrooms - virtually any spot on the street or any unexpected place around Oslo.

Keeping Household Electronics Out of the Landfill

2009-03-07T04:47:00.001-05:00

The Green Home - Keeping Household Electronics Out of the Landfill - NYTimes.com

AMERICANS discarded 2.25 million tons of computers, printers, cellphones and other electronics in 2007. About 82 percent ended up in landfills. The Green Home called up Jason Linnell, the executive director of the National Center for Electronics Recycling, a nonprofit group based in West Virginia, to find out how we can recycle our old gadgets instead.

Silence = Productive Elation

2009-03-05T05:06:00.006-05:00

Busy working at Atelier Nord on one of my Mobile Misuse components. Pictured: My Mobile Projection Unit... more info to come...

140 Characters in Search of Some Meaning - NYTimes.com

2009-03-05T05:05:00.001-05:00

Letter - 140 Characters in Search of Some Meaning - NYTimes.com

What are the implications of my feeling a sense of connection with someone I don’t really know (a TV celebrity) through his sharing with me that he is done with rehearsal and about to have a bagel before the show? What’s missing in our more immediate day-to-day lives that this would draw us in?

Mobile Drawings = Drawing on the Mobile

2009-02-22T11:35:00.004-05:00

I have started an experiment of making drawings with free applications for my iPod Touch. This ties into a larger “Return to Drawing”* experiment as the mobile component. The plan is to draw a few pictures on the Touch every week and document the process/progress on Flickr.

My iPod drawings on Flickr

*I’ll post more about starting to draw again on performing the art...

QRcode Art

2009-02-18T07:31:00.002-05:00

Sensitive Rose, mobile/net artwork by Martha Gabriel

SENSITIVE ROSE is an interactive compass rose formed by mobile tags (QRcodes) that map people’s desires. The interactions happen via cell phones or mobile devices and the results can be seen in a large screen projection (or in computer screens at www.sensitiverose.com/rose.php).

The work intention is to ‘navigate’ in the desires of the people, in a secret way, through a ciphered poetics of tags, which cannot be deciphered with naked eyes.

The interaction happens via mobile devices by scanning the QRcode on the right or accessing the URL http://www.sensitiverose.com/m/. The interactor must choose what he/she wants from life. After interacting, the effect can be seen in the Sensitive Rose (www.sensitiverose.com/rose.php). The desire is mapped as a colored dot on the screen next to the tag related to it. The tag (QR code) is re-generate with the name of the interactor and his/her desire, codifying a text like: 'Joe wants Love'. Each desire is mapped in a different color, like red for love, white for peace, yellow for money, and so on. The tags are generated after each interaction and when the relevance of desires changes, the whole compass rose changes as well to represent it.

The Mobile Misuse Manifesto (early draft outline)

2009-02-16T07:12:00.007-05:00

(a work in process on the design and development of interactive technologies)

"We drive into the future using only our rear view mirror."
- Marshall McLuhan, 1967

Manifesto Section 1

Choosing to be “lost” or “disconnected” is an option.
Time is finite, whatever is implemented must be worth the value of the time invested. (development & use)
The planet is finite, whatever we develop or buy reduces it.
Whatever device we say “Yes” to means “No” to something else in our lives.
Disappointment is intrinsic in our experience of new technologies.
The malfunction and arrogance of constantly changing technologies must not be overlooked.
Technology may be inevitable, but our use of it is not.
Refusal is an option.
Failure as an option.

Subset A

If you build it, they might not come.
If you build it, they might come and then leave.
If you build it, they might all come and overwhelm the system.
If you build it, it will be obsolete in a matter of months, weeks, days, or minutes.
If you build it, you will have to build it again and again and again.
If you build it, someone else may have already done it (and better).

(feedback appreciated)

Preliminary Mobile Projector Play

2009-02-06T05:13:00.003-05:00

Wii Project(or) from Rolf S. on Vimeo.

This is Rolf Steier, one of my Fulbright colleagues, demonstrating the possibilities of a mini-projector connected to a Nintendo Wii using the Wiimote Whiteboard capabilities. Rolf is researching the incorporation of mobile devices into children’s learning experiences - particularly museums. This is tangentially related to the project I am working on using mobile projectors, so I need to keep this in mind for possible future iterations... although I wouldn’t want to have to lug around a laptop for street performances, though...

more info and links on Rolf’s blog

Telephone Trottoire

2009-02-02T04:49:00.002-05:00

I mentioned the Tantalum Memorial art installation in a previous post and now there is an interesting interview with one of the artists, Graham Harwood on Rhizome: Rhizome | Interview with Graham Harwood

The installation is on view at transmediale in Berlin this week and it’s one of eight projects to win the transmediale 2009 Award.

Life Locative

2009-01-25T07:50:00.001-05:00

From Wired: I Am Here: One Man's Experiment With the Location-Aware Lifestyle

Top Kitchen Toy?

2009-01-23T06:47:00.001-05:00

Top Kitchen Toy? The Cellphone - NYTimes.com

One high-tech cooking tool, however, has transformed the kitchen lives of many Americans: the cellphone.

It has become the kitchen tool of choice for chefs and home cooks. They use it to keep grocery lists, find recipes, photograph their handiwork, look up the names of French cheeses, set timers for steak and soft-boiled eggs, and convert European or English measurements to American ones.

Volda Mobile Media Workshop

2009-01-18T11:28:00.009-05:00

Smart Mobs and Mobile Media Workshop
A 3 Day Mobile Social Networks ThinkTank and Prototyping Workshop

The first thing we want to do is get to know ourselves better:
Click Here to take survey

Smart Mob Web Tour

Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution by Howard Rheingold
A Website and Weblog about Topics and Issues discussed in the book

Wikipedia on Smart Mobs

Improv Everywhere Urban Prankster

Zombie Walk

Wikipedia on Zombies

Google Pics of Zombies

Zombies on Flickr

mobileactive.org: A resource for activists using mobile technology worldwide

Smart Phones for Smart Mobs

Mobile Applications: The Next Big Thing In Mobile Marketing?

iPhone App Store

Locative Media

Wikipedia on Location Based Media

Wikipedia on Locative Media

Location-based mobile phone games

Tools for Actions: What You Can Do With the City
presents 99 actions that instigate positive change in contemporary cities around the world

Text + Ferry =

2009-01-17T05:53:00.002-05:00

Nesodden Ferry, the 5:32 pm from Aker Brygge to Nesodden, 13/02/09

Text messages and phone calls add psychological aspect to warfare in Gaza | World news | guardian.co.uk

2009-01-06T03:48:00.001-05:00

Text messages and phone calls add psychological aspect to warfare in Gaza | World news | guardian.co.uk

"Hamas fires threatening text messages at Israeli mobile phones while Israel bombards Palestinians with menacing phone calls"

Gaza + SMS

My Notes from Data Forensics [in the landscape]

2008-12-21T03:44:00.006-05:00

Discovery Through Experiments

We are surrounded by electromagnetic phenomena. We cannot (for the most part) see it, feel it, hear it, or touch it. How can we experience the unseen directly? How do we even talk about the invisible? What is the phenomenological experience of electromagnetic phenomena? Can there be one?

Spectrum -- Frequency -- Wave

Electromagnetic waves are hitting your body -- entering your body -- impacting your body -- but you cannot see them or make sense of them. What are the biological effects of these unseen electromagnetic waves?

>ionizing radiation -- Chernobyl
>non-ionizing radiation -- ubiquitous -- the realm of information

How do/can you make sense of the data/information landscape?

How do you look at the world through electromagnetic phenomena?

>information leaks
>detective work
>forensics

Translating electromagnetic waves to light waves or sound waves through modulations and demodulations.

Groping in the Dark -- Feeling Around

The Steps:

>detection and collection of signals
>analysis
>interpretation
>visualization/reconstruction

All of these things reveal some sort of story that can be pieced together -- a complex ecology of electromagnetic emissions -- devices and clusters of devices -- layers of data from the seen to the unseen -- models of a abstraction and encapsulation. Observing, revealing, and pinpointing the moment of abstraction.

>amplitude versus frequency modulation
>field of influence
>signal -- protocol -- packet

Sensing equipment:

>high-tech = WiFi
>low-tech = dousing rods

Even our thoughts emit electromagnetic waves these are visualized with CAT scans, PET scans and MRIs, etc.

>cryptography -- encryption -- fugitive information -- strategic ambiguity

How can we create/design stimulating electromagnetic events? What can we learn by exploring the invisible terrain of data/electromagnetic waves? Can network traffic be presented as a recording of a performance?

>network typologies -- network topography

Ghosts in the Machine

Can electromagnetic events be built as bridges to other worlds?

>spirits
>telepathic
>dimensions

The experience of ghostly phenomena is often registered as an electromagnetic disturbance.

“Ghost in the Machine” Exhibition at the Kunstnernes Hus

Data forensics [in the landscape] at Atelier Nord

George Brecht, Fluxus Artist, Dies at 82

2008-12-16T06:09:00.000-05:00

George Brecht, Fluxus Artist-Provocateur, Dies at 82 - Obituary (Obit) - NYTimes.com

Mr. Brecht came of age as an artist in the late 1950s, when Abstract Expressionism and the cult of the heroic creative genius were ascendant. Inspired by the Conceptual art of Marcel Duchamp and the experimental music of John Cage, he began to imagine a more modest, slyly provocative kind of art that would focus attention on the perceptual and cognitive experience of the viewer.

American, European and Asian artists who were thinking along similar lines included Dick Higgins, Alison Knowles, Ben Vautier, Nam June Paik and George Maciunas, who in 1962 came up with the name Fluxus for this confederation of like-minded Conceptualists.

Ulsteinseminaret, 8-9 December 2008

2008-12-08T05:55:00.016-05:00

Informasjonsutdanninga ved Avdeling for Mediefag, Høgskulen i Volda

Link List for My Presentation

Interactive Design Education: The precarious balance between theory and practice

Design Background - IceHouse Design

Yale University Graduate School
Egyptology
Vermont College of Fine Arts

Teaching

Quinnipiac University
Interactive Digital Design
Student Work

Keys to the Curriculum

Writing Across the Curriculum
Matt Blog
Chris Blog
Mercedes Blog

Foundation: Design Research and Methods
Capstone: Senior Seminar and Portfolio

Social Media

Blogging for students
Facebook

Data Body & Analytics & Surveys

Student Work

Matt
Chris
Eric

My Research (links in sidebar)

Intermedia at UiO

Isolation from Cell Phones

2008-11-26T03:53:00.002-05:00

My Phone Must die 01
Originally uploaded by letsmakeart

Here is a list of posts on textually.org for the tag “isolation from cell phone ideas,” which date back to 2005. Emily Turrettini of Geneva, Switzerland keeps three different blogs on aspects of mobile phones and mobile content. You can see that this is a recurring idea in creative works. There is a pervasive ambivalence about these devices that intrigues me - directly related to my own ambivalence, of course. It is the aspect my mind returns to again and again...

textually.org: Isolation from Cell Phones ideas

Idea Lab - Becoming Screen Literate

2008-11-24T06:17:00.001-05:00

From the New York Times: Becoming Screen Literate

Now invention is again overthrowing the dominant media. A new distribution-and-display technology is nudging the book aside and catapulting images, and especially moving images, to the center of the culture. We are becoming people of the screen. The fluid and fleeting symbols on a screen pull us away from the classical notions of monumental authors and authority. On the screen, the subjective again trumps the objective. The past is a rush of data streams cut and rearranged into a new mashup, while truth is something you assemble yourself on your own screen as you jump from link to link. We are now in the middle of a second Gutenberg shift — from book fluency to screen fluency, from literacy to visuality.

ReBlogging from my own blog...

2008-11-24T05:35:00.001-05:00

Is there a name for that?

Pilgrim at Bottle Creek

...The Tinker Creek kind of detailed concentration and focus of observation is impossible when the cell phone is ringing. Perhaps it is even impossible simply with the device in your pocket – a sliver of consciousness and concentration always diverted.

Lost in Text Flickr Pool

2008-11-15T02:23:00.002-05:00

Flickr: Lost in Text

Lost in Text 1
Originally uploaded by apolaine

Spectral Ecology

2008-11-13T05:18:00.002-05:00

I am working on a long post about the Data Forensics workshop I attended last week, but my pictures are trapped on my camera for the moment (lost cable.) In the meantime, I just had to post this picture of me with the WiFi antenna I built from a juice box. The process was quite a bit more persnickety than I had imagined it to be.

Siv has uploaded a lovely gallery of photos she took at the workshop.

Cellphone Rebellion

2008-11-07T14:49:00.001-05:00

Wife/Mother/Worker/Spy - Trying to Live a Cellphone-Free Life - NYTimes.com

Our culture has reached a point where giving up a cellphone is perceived as aggressively rebellious in the modern age.

Data Forensics [in the landscape]

2008-11-05T04:18:00.003-05:00

For the next three days I will be here:

Data forensics [in the landscape]

A practical workshop with Martin Howse and Julian Oliver.

With an emphasis on the active construction of hardware and software apparatus, the Data forensics workshop will apply practical tools, techniques and theory to analyse [un]intentional data emissions within the city of Oslo.

Projects are brewing...

2008-11-04T03:59:00.006-05:00

Some projects are rising to the surface from the sea of thoughts and ideas. It is still too early to start writing about details, but there is now a page at Intermedia for the project:

Mobile Misuse

PB’s Intermedia Page

AHO Blogging Workshop

2008-11-03T03:18:00.024-05:00

Workshop taught by Andrew, Pattie Belle and Jørn

Books and articles:

Uses of Blogs, Edited by Axel Bruns and Joanne Jacobs

We've Got Blog: How Weblogs Are Changing Our Culture, Rebecca Blood

Mortensen, Torill & Walker, Jill. (2002).‘Blogging thoughts: personal publication as an online research tool’. In Morrison, Andrew. (Ed.). Researching ICTs in Context. InterMedia/UniPub: Oslo. 249-279. See SESSION 6:
http://imweb.uio.no/konferanser/skikt-02/skikt-research-conferance.html

researchers/PhD students that blog:
Torill Mortensen: http://torillsin.blogspot.com/
Anne Galloway: http://purselipsquarejaw.org/blog_archive.html
Malene Charlotte Larsen: http://malenel.wordpress.com/
danah boyd: http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/
Akshay Java: http://socialmedia.typepad.com/
Michiel de Lange: http://www.bijt.org/wordpress/
Cati Vaucelle: http://www.architectradure.com/

video/motion graphics
http://motiondesign.wordpress.com/
http://motionographer.com/

style, attitude, critique
http://blogs.uct.ac.za/blog/carnivorous-cow
http://blogs.uct.ac.za/blog/carnivorous-cow/2008/06/30/cover-blown

that get attached to wider sites
http://www.joshuadavis.com

that experiment with space
http://www.polarfront.org

academic yet chatty tone
http://jilltxt.net/

graphic design/communication design
http://www.davidairey.com/top-50-graphic-design-blogs/
http://www.beadesigngroup.com/
http://www.designobserver.com/

collaborative research blog
http://grandtextauto.org/
http://tiltfactor.org/?page_id=3D17

choreography
http://imweb.uio.no/wp-docudance/

Pattie Belle’s Blogs & Blog Info
http://mywebspace.quinnipiac.edu/PHastings/bac.html
http://cyborgmommy.blogspot.com/
http://pattiebelle.blogspot.com/
http://mobilemisuse.blogspot.com/
http://quidd.blogspot.com/

From the class discussion:
http://www.doorsofperception.com/
http://squattercity.blogspot.com/

Jørn’s presentation:
http://speedbird.wordpress.com
http://liftlab.com/think/nova
http://www.nearfield.org/
http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/

blogging applications
http://wordpress.com
http://blogger.com

Earth calling all mobiles...

2008-10-28T07:30:00.008-04:00

This report by Forum for the Future is from 2006, but I doubt much has changed in two years, in terms of the environmental costs of mobile devices.

“The scope of the paper is the whole mobile phone sector, including networks, offices and retail. The first section of the paper provides an introduction and overview; the second section looks at the four processes most responsible for the sector's environmental impact (extracting raw materials used in phones and networks, manufacturing phone components, running networks, and managing equipment at end-of-life); the third section reviews a number of other important processes; and finally, in the fourth section, we look at what the future might hold.”

There is not a lot of cheery news in this report, but they try to end on a positive note:

“Using mobile phones may reduce an individual’s personal environmental impact, for example through transport substitution or effective energy management, but the research to support this idea is currently lacking. There is significant opportunity to further understand the potentially positive impacts associated with the behavioural impacts of mobile use through a detailed research programme. In addition, there are opportunities for the mobile industry to develop products and services that support and encourage better environmental behaviour.”

Cell Phone Recycling

(be sure to read the comments on this video at YouTube)

Recycling is a start, but clearly not the entire solution. The following is from an MSNBC article posted in January, 2008.

“But charity watchdogs caution that there are potential downsides: Most of the money ends up in the hands of middlemen who resell the devices. And these for-profit companies — including EcoPhones, Phoneraiser, FundingFactory, CollectiveGood, Think Recycle, ReCellular, Cellular Funds and Project KOPEG (Keep Our Planet Earth Green) — are rapidly proliferating, perhaps at the expense of similar nonprofits.

What’s more, U.S. “recycling” programs may end up exporting hazardous waste problems to developing nations ill equipped to deal with them, they say.”

Cell Phone Recycling Links

The EPA has an informational site for cell phone recycling.

Apple and others have teamed with “Rethink”

Google on “cell phone recycling”

Norwegian Commuters

2008-10-21T03:10:00.004-04:00

Thursday, October 16, 2008
8:20 am - 9:00 am

1. On the Ferry (breakfast & the news for the 20 minute ride)
2. Waiting for the T-Bane (subway)
3. On the T-Bane

Note on Italians and Cell Phones

2008-10-13T08:10:00.007-04:00

The guards in the Uffizi were constantly talking and texting on their mobiles (Prego! Prego! Prego! Ciao! Ciao! Ciao!) and it did not appear to be work related. People on the buses (all ages) were having loud conversations or texting constantly. Our first night in a family restaurant, a girl - about 10-12 years old was texting while her large family enjoyed a multi-course dinner.

Phones were ringing loudly everywhere, and no two ring tones were alike – no one seems to care or be disturbed by these constant intrusions into public space. Loud indicators of text messages being received punctuated the street noises. We even saw someone texting while biking…

Mobile Self-Help Service

2008-09-23T08:07:00.003-04:00

My Mobile Guru

Welcome to the 'My Mobile Guru', a unique mobile phone service which offers immediate help discreetly and conveniently by way of voice recordings downloaded straight to your mobile/PC/landline.

This unique site provides each visitor guidance with regards to problems in the many areas of life that we all experience, such as relationships, health and work.

Top ten Mobile Guru therapy recordings

A convergence of thought streams...

2008-09-19T06:59:00.007-04:00

Jan Chipchase - Future Perfect Little Switch / Big Switch

I check into Jan Chipchase’s excellent blog on a regular basis and this week he had a post on two themes I have been thinking & blogging about. The first being mentions of the phone as watch:

Every new feature that is added changes patterns of use which in turn changes what it means to be a ‘phone’. Is there a natural limit to convergence? And, staring out from the back seat of a fast moving consumer goods vehicle, are we there yet? Some of you are old enough to remember the humble wrist watch as your primary tool through which to know what time it is but today knowledge of the current time is a commodity - there are so many free and readily available alternative sources of this information. (Yes, wrist watches are still relevant but mostly as lifestyle statements).As with the wrist watch there was an era before the mobile phone as we know it and will be an era after.

His essay is an exploration of the deeper implications of the iPhone’s Airplane Mode and what it means to be disconnected. He goes on to explain in four paragraphs, four major trends that will affect the ability and choice to disconnect. Here are the entries (please read the entire essay for clarity on these ideas):

four trends will ensure the practice and willingness to disconnect evolves.

(1) The first is that there will be an increased willingness to carry secondary, tertiary, quaternary and even quinary+ communication focused devices.

(2) never equate ownership of a connected device with use of its primary function particularly when use of the primary function costs money.

(3) Advances in miniaturisation, materials and manufacturing techniques will enable radically new and highly focused form factors.

(4) Lastly, our understanding of what is required to make stuff more social will have matured to the point where it is, by most people’s perspective, reasonably social.

In time the design, language and social norms for connecting, dis-connecting and re-connecting will have reached the point where switch becomes the primary interface to our digital selves.

So, now I have logged the choice to disconnect as potentially non-conformist, as priviledge, as device driven, as miniaturization influenced, and as a future social norm. I think these ideas about disconnecting are of keen interest to me. I would be grateful for reference to other sources that discuss “disconnecting” from the mobile.

Disconnecting as priviledge rather than non-conformist?

2008-09-13T07:57:00.003-04:00

Rachel Hinman has been pondering similar thoughts on the role of disconnecting from the cellular/wifi grid. She makes an excellent point:

I think the future will be about choosing level of connectedness - and controlling personal data and information. Status won’t be about connecting. Privileged and status will be shown through the ability to disconnect completely from communication channels. What a strange inversion.

90 Mobiles in 90 Days - Blog Archive - The Luxury of Disconnecting…

First Mobile Misuse?

2008-09-12T04:06:00.007-04:00

Another quote from Constant Touch points toward SMS as being the first major misuse of the mobile phone:

Text messaging was an accident. No one expected it. When the first text message was sent, in 1993 by new Nokia engineering student Riku Pihkonen, the telecommunications companies thought it was not important. SMS – Short Message Service – was not considered a major part of GSM. Like most technologies, the power of text – indeed the power of the phone – was discovered by users. In the case of text messaging, the users were the young are poor in the West and East.

Excuse me, Your Pocket Watch is Ringing..

2008-09-10T04:35:00.007-04:00

In Constant Touch: a global history of the mobile phone, Jon Agar makes the case for the similarities between the development of the pocket watch and fixed international time zones with the development of cell phones and the ability to roam.

While it might have felt like liberation from tradition, the owner was caught anew in a more modern rationality, for, despite the fact that the pocket watch gave the owner personal access to exact time, accuracy depended on being-part of a system. If the owner was unwilling personally to make regular astronomical observations, the pocket watch would still have to be reset every ‘now‘ and then from the town clock.

In this quote he points out that taking on this new device (the watch) brought with it duties, responsibilities, and tasks that you didn’t have before. One of the aspects of technology that really interests me is the lack of awareness of repercussions we have when we take on these devices. I have met many people in my lifetime (both before and after the cell phone) that consciously chose not to wear a wrist watch because of the demands it put on their psyche. The conscious denial of time, unloading the burden of knowing the exact time, casting off the shackles of the clock - it all signified to me that the person was a free thinker, a non-conformist, someone who refused to take on all the orderly requirements of a schedule. Now you really don’t need to wear a wrist watch because the cell phone has become our new pocket watch. Will we be told by our non-conformist friends, that they don’t carry a cell phone because of the pressure it puts on their freedom?

Projector Phone

2008-09-04T09:26:00.002-04:00

Projector Phone - Tri-Band GSM/GPRS Touchscreen Cell Phone - From China

What makes the CVSL-112 even more unique is the projector feature. Simply switch on the external display option and project your movies or data on a wall. Perfect for fun or for meetings.

Endgadget Article

Tantalum

2008-09-03T05:56:00.003-04:00

While reading Jon Agar’s Constant Touch this summer, I was struck by the following passage on page 13:

Tantalum, in the form of columbite-tantalite (‘Coltan’ for short), can also be found in the anarchic north-east regions of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where more than 10,000 civilians have died and 200,000 have been displaced since June 1999 in a civil war, fought partly over strategic mineral rights, between supporters of the deceased despot Laurent. Kabila and Ugandan and Rwandan rebels. As the price of tantalum increased, the civil war intensified, funded by the profits of coltan export. However, the mobile phone manufacturers are distanced from the conflict. Firms such as Nokia, and Motorola buy capacitors from separate manufacturers, which in turn, buy raw material from intermediaries. On each exchange, the source of tantalum becomes more deniable.*

It seemed to me that this must be a lesser known fact amongst the majority of mobile phone users (even though there was a “No blood on my cell phone” campaign in Europe for a time) and thought this might be an area ripe for creative exploration (not by me, but by someone.) As I was researching the art history of the cell phone, I came across this recent piece that was shown at Manifesta 7:

Tantalum Memorial – Residue , 2008, Graham Harwood, Richard Wright, and Matsuko Yokokoji

Tantalum Memorial - Residue, by England-based Graham Harwood, Richard Wright, and Matsuko Yokokoji, is a telephony-based memorial to the people who have died as a result of the tantalum wars in the Congo. The installation is constructed out of an old electro-mechanical 1938 Strowger telephone exchange, discovered amongst the remains of the Alumix factory. The switches are reanimated by tracking the phone calls from Telephone Trottoire - a social telephony network designed by the artists in collaboration with the Congolese radio program Nostalgie Ya Mboka in London. The TT network calls Congolese listeners, plays them a phone message and invites them to record a comment and pass it on to a friend by entering their phone number. This builds on the traditional Congolese practice of “radio trottoire” or “pavement radio”, the passing around of news and gossip on street corners in order to avoid state censorship.

It appears to be a clever incorporation of old technology and new technology. The guts of the old telephone switchers are a strong visual counterpoint to the microchip, electrical and cellular signal. How can vapor be made flesh? It’s hard to tell (from what information I can find on the project) what level of success the work is having in terms of the social networking and political aspects of the piece, but if blog coverage is any measure, it has struck a chord with viewers in the art & technology world. This will be an interesting body of work to follow.

More on the Tantalum Wars

SnapNow

2008-08-21T12:54:00.002-04:00

SnapNow

SnapNow is a mobile visual search service, which lets you search for mobile web content based on images you capture with your camera phone.

Texting vs. Sleeping

2008-08-19T11:38:00.005-04:00

“Sleep Deprived” from the archives on textually.org

textually.org is the entry point of three weblogs devoted to cell phones and mobile content, focusing on text messaging and cell phone usage around the world, tracking the latest news and social impact of these new technologies.

by Emily Turrettini from Geneva, Switzerland

Silence = Thought

2008-07-14T06:10:00.000-04:00

There are so many books I wish I had with me… now that I really have time to read and reflect. I’m not online much at the moment, so that aspect of my research has slowed and will be slow until August. The digital silence has been productive, though. I am thinking at a level or depth that is rare during the school year and capturing it on paper.

QR Coded Tombstones in Japan

2008-06-07T08:30:00.001-04:00

Hi-tech tombstones in Japan let mourners link to images, videos of deceased - Mainichi Daily News

A gravestone manufacturer here is helping bereaved families remember their loved ones with a touch of technology -- mobile phone QR codes on tombstones that link to photographs and video clips of the deceased.

The tombstones are being sold by stone processing company Ishinokoe. Behind doors on the tombstone that can be locked is a QR code -- a square code read by mobile phones that can link to Web addresses. Grave visitors can use the code to access images and photographs of the person while they were alive.

Cell Services

2008-06-06T15:50:00.000-04:00

State Of the Art - Cell Services Keep It Easy, and Free - NYTimes.com

Mobile Phone Usage Collage

2008-06-06T13:04:00.002-04:00

mobile phone usage collage - data visualization & visual design - information aesthetics

a mobile phone application, freely distributed for Symbian phones, that visualizes personal mobile communication usage patterns. the application sits on the periphery of the machine, monitoring the connectivity through the number & type of calls received, & then subtly displaying those in the form of a generative graphic. "some days will be really colorful & wired, others quieter & more reflective, either way the resulting visuals will always be personal, unrepeatable & unique."

each new contact (phone number) in a cycle is assigned a color throughout a cycle. a color transparency mirrors the level of a call's intensity, measured by how long one takes to attend the call. duration. the size of a call symbol, full circles: incoming calls, open circles: outgoing calls, expresses the duration of the call.

CADA

Samples

Lights. Camera. Cellphone Action

2008-04-24T08:29:00.001-04:00

Lights. Camera. Cellphone Action. - New York Times

Mr. Lee, the director, is teaming up with Nokia, the cellphone maker, to direct a short film comprising YouTube-style videos created by teenagers and adults using their mobile phones.

New Works with Mobile Phones [London]

2008-04-23T11:54:00.004-04:00

Networked_Performance — Live Stage: New Works with Mobile Phones

The Centre for Research in Art, Education and Media (CREAM) invites you to presentations and discussions of new work using mobile phones by Mark Amerika, Chris Fry and Max Schleser.

TXTML

2008-04-14T15:02:00.002-04:00

TXTML

The markup language for Subversive (Mobile) Storytelling.

Together with its interpreter and messaging engine, TXTML (TeXT-message Markup Language) comprises a system for creating interactive text-messaging applications.

TXTML encourages natural and open-ended exchanges that emphasize context over commands, allowing the author to dynamically tailor applications to the current location, time, and history of the user. The language is an elegant, domain-specific XML-variant which calls on an extensible library of functional modules. These include methods for natural language processing, user administration, content management, dynamically generated content via Atom/RSS feeds, and location tracking. The language's nonlinear structure enables complex applications to be simply composed, whether narrative artworks, games, surveys, or interpretive content.

TXTML was not designed to create standard text-message applications such as mailing lists or lookup services. Rather, it is a experimental platform for investigating text-messaging as a narrative medium. It's inspired by INFORM, AIML, and VXML, but with the particular interactive concerns of text-messaging in mind. An outgrowth of Brian House’s design thesis, it powers artwork by Knifeandfork, including a forthcoming piece called The Wrench. Knifeandfork coined the term Subversive (Mobile) Storytelling to describe their recent work -- the use of mobile phones to transform our experience of narrative by intertwining it with daily life.

Denso Wave

2008-04-09T13:04:00.001-04:00

QR Code.com

US QR-code test

2008-04-09T12:49:00.003-04:00

From the NY Times: Bar Code Sales Tool Is Failing Campus Test

In parts of Asia and Europe, marketers have been using bar code technology to help sell things to people on their cellphones. A consumer can point a phone at something intriguing that bears a signature black-and-white square, then get information about a product or service or an offer to purchase it.

In the United States, the spread of this technology has been slow, in part because cellphones here are not equipped with the necessary software. There have been a few small-scale tests, but judging from the experience of one under way at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, the technique is nowhere near ready for widespread use.

Books have arrived...

2008-04-07T13:51:00.002-04:00

I’m starting with this one, because I know Jarice from when she was the Dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University:
24/7: How Cell Phones and the Internet Change the Way We Live, Work, and Play by Jarice Hanson

I plan to post annotations to the bibliography as I read the books. I have ordered some handy research tools to make this easier... more on that later - PB’s Research Toolkit...

QR-Code

2008-03-31T19:09:00.005-04:00

The Kaywa Reader

From Wikipedia:

Although initially used for tracking parts in vehicle manufacturing, QR Codes are now used in a much broader context spanning both commercial tracking applications as well as convenience-oriented applications aimed at mobile phone users. QR Codes storing addresses and URLs may appear in magazines, on signs, buses, business cards or just about any object that a user might need information about. A user having a camera phone equipped with the correct reader software can scan the image of the QR Code causing the phone's browser to launch and redirect to the programmed URL. This act of linking from physical world objects is known as a hardlink or physical world hyperlinks. A user can also generate and print their own QR Code for others to scan and use by visiting one of several free QR Code generating sites.

Books Ordered

2008-03-26T11:51:00.001-04:00

Personal, Portable, Pedestrian: Mobile Phones in Japanese Life
edited by Mizuko Ito, Daisuke Okabe, Misa Matsuda

Cell Phone Culture: Mobile Technology in Everyday Life
by Gerard Goggin

Magic in the Air: Mobile Communication and the Transformation of Social Life
by James Katz

Perpetual Contact: Mobile Communication, Private Talk, Public Performance
edited by James E. Katz, Mark Aakhus

The Cell Phone Reader: Essays in Social Transformation
edited by Anandam P. Kavoori, Noah Arceneaux

The Mobile Connection: The Cell Phone's Impact on Society
by Rich Ling

Constant Touch: A Global History of the Mobile Phone
by Jon Agar

The Cell Phone: An Anthropology of Communication
by Heather Horst, Daniel Miller

24/7: How Cell Phones and the Internet Change the Way We Live, Work, and Play
by Jarice Hanson

Thumb Culture: The Meaning of Mobile Phones for Society
edited by Peter Glotz, Stefan Bertsch

Working bibliography to be posted soon...

Mobile Media

2008-03-25T08:50:00.001-04:00

This is where I will be documenting my work and research on mobile devices for the next year.