Mobile Media
In her article "From Cyber to Hybrid" de Souza e Silva discusses hybrid space as connective, mobile, and social. In discussing the connective nature she points out that users of phones with constant connections to the internet "do not perceive physical and digital spaces as separate entities and do not have the feeling of "entering" the Internet, or being immersed in digital spaces, as was generally the case when one needed to sit down in front of a computer screen and dial a connection" (de Souza e Silva, 2006, p. 263). This is an interesting point to me especially when thinking about hybrid spaces as places that carry meaning and some type of boundary or demarcation. Also, in the past critics of virtual space experience often used the "go outside, get some daylight" rebuttals to declarations about the capabilities of virtual experiences. However, when considering hybrid spaces there is physical experience in the actual world concurrent with possible virtual world interactions. Therefore, far from offering the isolating possibilities of the virtual world, the concept of hybrid space seems to promise an amplification of the virtual experience by virtue of it taking place in the physical realm, simultaneously with other activities. By association with the physical or actual, the activities of hybrid space seem to garner physical space legitimacy with virtual space potential. Also, the discussion of the use of mobile technology to double presence did not strike me as much as the idea of mobile technology to enact what Meyrowitz (2001) had called "the imagined elsewhere." In other words, it is not my ability to talk or text with my sister in Boston that makes me feel myself as doubled by being there, but my ability to conceive of her context as making her feel present in Raleigh. In other words, I rarely think of mobile technology as doubling me, whereas I do think about it as doubling other people to me. Finally, I was interested in the discussion of the game Mogi, where virtual creatures can be "caught" in hybrid space and uploaded to cell phones, however, many of the creatures would only "go out" at certain times of the day or night therefore bringing together the virtual and physical space along the added dimension of time (de Souza e Silva, 2006, p. 271). Time is an interesting concept in terms of multi-player spaces because so much of game play and/or communication ends up being asynchronous in a purely virtual context, because it has to do with access. However, with hybrid space, the added verisimilitude of time and timing comes back into play more meaningfully. Therefore, while boundaries might become complicated by the introduction of hybrid spaces, there is also a reintegrating sense in "living out" virtual activities in real-time, physical environments.
Farley (2005) introduces the history of mobile technology following WWII. Among this was not just the history of the rise of mobile technology in the United States but the associated process of development, struggle, and competition to maintain marketshare with the Japanese. Also, this history was entertaining to me as my mother owned one of the earlier cell phones in 1989. I can't remember who made it, but it looked very much like the oversized model on the left (p. 30). Therefore, this article made me nostalgic in ways about the oversized phone I eventually had as a junior in undergrad, (because I was a very late adapter,) and even beyond the technology, nostalgic for the mobile phone practices I had in the early 2000s. For instance, not so much due to its unwieldy size as to the whole concept of mobile technology as strange to me, I used to leave my cell phone in the top drawer of my desk in my dorm apartment. Although I carry a cell phone with me now, I still physically turn it off (rather than to silent) when I am in classes, at the movies, etc. While reading about the Nokia 9000 Communicator I was definitely struck by the idea that today's and the next generation of cell phone users (i.e. ten year olds?) will grow up without any concept of cell phone use as necessarily separate from internet use or im-ing (in the form of texting). Much as we've talked about different countries "leapfrogging" or failing to see a division because most computing is done via mobile technologies versus computers, I am still wary of the idea that a significant portion of shopping, emailing, website updating, and navigation will take place via my phone. However, when Farley (2005) references some countries hitting over 100% penetration, with some people possessing multiple mobile phones, I have to admit that the discussion of the history and process for creating a wireless infrastructure is important given the demand for service. (Can you imagine in the 1970s being on a five-ten year waiting list for a phone!)
Mann, Nolan & Wellman (2003) write about the term "sousveillance," which they use to discuss inverse surveillance or reversing the gaze. Initially, the construction of this word bothers me slightly. While sur = above or over, and veillance= the act of seeing, surveillance can be broken down to something like overseeing, watching with its associated overtones of power constructs. However, sous as under or underseeing has a different connotation either below the radar or out of the scope of being watched. Therefore, in the first paragraph I am unsure why Mann et al did not just go with something like counterveillance. This is seemingly a point Mann et al (2003) makes for themselves in noting "We call this inverse panopticon “sousveillance” from the French words for “sous” (below) and “veiller” to watch"(p. 332). However, (I'm belaboring the point, perhaps,) I still do not understand the framework of underwatching or watching from below, watching up? Also, if refectionist tactics are transgressive using the tools of the system, is sousveillance the modern-day example of the graffiti and subversion of the system that Baudrillard calls for? Also, I am very familiar with the power shift of "the male gaze" or the power of the gaze as it relates to film, and I believe that when people are looking (peeping) at the killer either in Rear Window, Disturbia, or Peter Straub's Ghost Story and the killer suddenly looks back right into the eyes of the viewer/reader as voyeur, it can be terrifying. However, there seems to be a much different dynamic at play here. I confess I agree with Jacob that I don't see the effectiveness in photographing police officers approaching my house, shop keepers, or cab drivers. Also, what are the legal concerns involved in wearing data-gathering devices? However, my main concern with this article is that it neglects some of the bottom-up complexity that Dr. Packer covered in his article about automobility and surveillance, and that is that far from a power framework forcing surveillance upon us, this is a condition we willingly accept and call for in a society controlled by fear and capitalism. For instance, in Packer's example of a black box for cars, if people elect to have them in order to lower car insurance rates, pretty soon that method of surveillance will be accepted and integrated into our normal driving/living/being surveyed practices, but it isn't because we have a governmental Big Brother installing them in our cars while we sleep-- we are complicit.
Finally, Dourish and Bell (2007) discuss ubiquitous or pervasive computing which acted as "a 'third age' of computing, following the eras of the mainframe and the desktop personal computer," and that describes how every user will have access through multiple computers throughout his or her daily experience and "spread throughout the environment"(p.1). One of the most interesting sections within this article, to me, was the description of how the use of a computer-based recording system in doctor-patient relations would not just change the interaction, but could even affect the rhythm of the patient's responses such that he or she would wait until the physician pressed the enter button to speak again (Dourish & Bell, 2007, p. 6). This was a particularly striking example to me because it illustrated not only the patient's change in experience, not receiving the gaze of the physician or gaze-cues, but also that the patient would adapt to speaking practices in line with the computing needs so quickly. Finally, Dourish and Bell (2007) present Smail's Imaginary Cartographies in which the three competing location systems of medieval times are explained as neighborhoods, landmarks,and "islands." I thought this section was important especially as we talked about navigation through space either based on locations/roads or landmarks in our earlier discussion of space versus place. However, in a way the navigation by roads is also then tied up in our experience of roads as landmarks and organizing logics of roadways versus highways (even numbers go East and West, odd numbers North and South,etc). Although I think about navigation often, because I have no innate sense of direction, I had never thought about it from the reverse point of view of locational practices instead as intimately tied to navigation. This ultimately made me think about the Borges story, "The Library of Babel." In conclusion, I was surprised by many of the findings of people's experience of place and relation to pervasive computing (particularly the ilkone 8000, which supports spiritual practices,) however, as our experience in occupying and moving through space becomes more tied to infrastructures this kind of study becomes more important. I wonder too though, going back to the debate about whether to rely on GPS if the pervasive computing available through mobile devices also allows us to act more algorithmically. If people are breaking up via text message, will there be a time when instead of just sending the text it is standard practice to first google the top 10 most effective break-up text messages and then send one? In what feels like a hyper-information age are we relying more and more on our ability to look up and check up on what other people did in a similar situation and is this impacting our survival instincts/ability to mentally enact scenarios?