Visual mobile communication, mediated presence and the politics of space (original) (raw)
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“Hey, I’m Here Right Now”: Camera Phone Photographs and Mediated Presence
Photographies 8 (1), 2015
A photograph can mediate the presence of the absent, the object or person captured in the photograph. Now, with the aid of the network connection provided by the camera phone, photographs can function as communicative objects through which distant people engage with each other quite synchronously, helping them to form a connection in the present, as opposed to a connection between past and present. The purpose of the article is to join these two aspects of presence, thereby integrating the study of photography with mobile communication studies. The article contributes to the discussion on camera phone photography by focusing expressly on photography as a communication medium. The camera phone deserves a substantial position in the study of photography, as a rapidly increasing share of cameras are placed in mobile phones. In the article, it is argued that mediating presence visually is an integral practice of using photographs in mobile communication. With results from an empirical case study of Finnish camera phone users, it is demonstrated how photographs can provide means for both maintaining a connection between individuals and mediating presence.
Visual chitchat: The use of camera phones in
2012
Photography and photo sharing nowadays form an important part of mobile phone communication, as evidenced by the rather ubiquitous camera phone. The purpose of the article is to examine how the practices of mobile phone communication influence the sharing of camera phone photographs. In pursuing this goal, the ritual view of communication, formulated by James W. Carey, is utilized as a theoretical framework. According to the ritual view, communication serves in sustaining contact between communicators, without placing importance on the information that is exchanged. The conclusion in the article is that ritual communication is evident in how camera phone photographs are captured and communicated in order to maintain social cohesion among a group or among individuals. In addition to a theoretically oriented analysis, the article utilizes results from a qualitative study focusing on the mobile photo sharing practices of a group of Finnish camera phone users. inTroducTion Interpersonal communication is a fundamental feature of mobile phone communication, which for a long time was about connecting people, mostly two at a time. Nowadays, to a degree, the use of modern mobile phones, the so-called smart phones in particular, has diverged from interpersonal communication, and people now use the device for such tasks as information retrieval Mikko Villi 40 or gaming. Thus, an important part of the use of the mobile phone occurs without involving any direct communication with other people. Examples of this include using the phone for listening to music or the radio, navigating with the help of a built-in GPS receiver or browsing the web. Earlier, a phone would have been quite useless without another person with whom to communicate. Another way in which mobile communication has changed has to do with the fact that the mobile phone as a communication device is no longer limited to just transmitting voice, as is exemplified by the rather ubiquitous camera phone. In parallel to introducing visual communication to the realm of telephone communication, the camera phone has incorporated interpersonal communication more firmly into photography, or better, photographic communication. In order to shed light on the novel interpersonal aspects of photographic communication, I address the question, how do the practices of mobile phone communication influence visual interpersonal communication? In the article, I concentrate in particular on photo messaging-a form of communication in which photographs taken with a camera phone are sent directly from the mobile phone. A common technological application for photo messaging is MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service). In addition, photo messaging is increasingly realized via e-mail, IM (instant messaging) and other Internet-based media. The justification for calling photo messages 'messages' is that they are sent, not shown. Although immaterial and digital at every stage, photo messages appear to be concrete messages that move from one place to another (for instance from a mobile phone in Australia to a phone in Finland) (Villi 2007: 52). A photo message is, in a formalist sense, a photograph (Batchen 1999: 12, 20, 176); yet, at the same time, it is a photograph shaped very much by its communicative uses and thus dependent on specific cultural practices. An important motivation for my study is that the emphasis in communication studies has been on verbal communication at the expense of visual communication (Becker 2004: 149-50). In my view, it is critical to study visual communication, especially in the context of interpersonal communication. Visual interpersonal communication is a quite rare line of study; prior research on interpersonal communication has mainly focused on verbal communication. Knapp et al. (2002: 10) note that 'interpersonal communication scholars still do not agree on whether it is important to examine nonverbal as well as verbal behaviour or whether both parties to the interaction have to speak'. In addition, 'non-verbal interpersonal communication' often refers to gestures, body movements and facial expressions-body languagein face-to-face communication situations (Burgoon and Hoobler 2002: 243), but not to the use of photographs or other images in communication. The need for research on visual interpersonal communication is also emphasized by the fact that the studies on visual communication, especially on photography, have not focused much on interpersonal communication. One obvious reason for this omission is that the camera as a communication device has not been able to provide a direct interpersonal link between individuals. When interpersonal communication has occurred around photographs, it has mostly taken the form of verbal commentary; images have more been a subject than a medium of interpersonal communication (Villi 2010: 67). Paradoxically, this article also includes verbal accounts of visual interpersonal communication. As a theoretical framework, I utilize the ritual view of communication, formulated by communication theorist James W. Carey (1989: 15-18). Carey
Photographs of Place in Phonespace: Camera Phones as a Location-Aware Mobile Technology
Digital Photography and Everyday Life: Empirical Studies on Material Visual Practices
The focus in the paper is on the significance of place in visual mobile communication, in particular the use of camera phones in the mediation of place. The core notion of the paper is that by communicating a photograph from the mobile phone immediately after capturing the image, it is possible to ‘send the place’ and mediate the communicator’s presence. In this sense, the communication of camera phone photographs is innately a location-aware form of mobile technology use. In addition to a theoretically oriented analysis, the paper utilises results from a qualitative study focusing on the mobile photo sharing practices of a group of Finnish camera phone users.
The Invisible Landscapes -The Construction of New Subjectivities in the Era of the Mobile Telephone
2006
The interventions of portable digital devices such as mobile telephones, mp3 players, PDAs and many others, have contributed to the formation of contemporary notions of space. The impact of these devices' mobility (informing the users' mobility) could even be paralleled to the shift from the effects of still photography to those of film in the 19th century. Especially important for the perspective of this study is the notion that mobile telephony is said to enhance the complexity of subjective space - for example by its passive aural communication functions questioning and relativising existing spatial boundaries. As this study can exemplify in many cases, the shift in spatialities is one that is first and foremost one that involves subjectivities - ?objective? space remains unchanged, although the rhetoric of telecommunication hastens to suggest this. What has actually changed are the social institutions in public environments, implementing a variety of significant changes ...
EMPLACED CARTOGRAPHIES: RECONCEPTUALISING CAMERA PHONE
In the context of the increased use of high-quality camera phones, along with the growth in distribution services via social and locative media, we are witnessing new forms of visuality emerging. These new types of 'co-present' visuality overlay and interweave online and offline cartographies in different ways -maps that require a revision of ethnography. In this article, we frame this phenomenon as a shift from networked visuality to emplaced visuality and sociality. That is, we reflect upon previous models deployed in mobile communication and depart from them to consider how a phenomenological approach -rooted in visual and multisensorial ethnography -might help provide insight into this dynamic media cartography and the socialities associated with it.
Visual chitchat: The use of camera phones in visual interpersonal communication
Interactions: Studies in Communication & Culture, 3(1), 39–54, 2012
Photography and photo sharing nowadays form an important part of mobile phone communication, as evidenced by the rather ubiquitous camera phone. The purpose of the article is to examine how the practices of mobile phone communication influ- ence the sharing of camera phone photographs. In pursuing this goal, the ritual view of communication, formulated by James W. Carey, is utilized as a theoreti- cal framework. According to the ritual view, communication serves in sustaining contact between communicators, without placing importance on the information that is exchanged. The conclusion in the article is that ritual communication is evident in how camera phone photographs are captured and communicated in order to maintain social cohesion among a group or among individuals. In addition to a theoretically oriented analysis, the article utilizes results from a qualitative study focusing on the mobile photo sharing practices of a group of Finnish camera phone users.
Emplaced Cartographies: Reconceptualising Camera Phone Practices in an Age of Locative Media
Media International Australia, 2012
In the context of the increased use of high-quality camera phones, along with the growth in distribution services via social and locative media, we are witnessing new forms of visuality emerging. These new types of ‘co-present’ visuality overlay and interweave online and offline cartographies in different ways – maps that require a revision of ethnography. In this article, we frame this phenomenon as a shift from networked visuality to emplaced visuality and sociality. That is, we reflect upon previous models deployed in mobile communication and depart from them to consider how a phenomenological approach – rooted in visual and multisensorial ethnography – might help provide insight into this dynamic media cartography and the socialities associated with it.
Mobile and Digital Communication: Approaches to Public and Private, 2015
The types of communicating vessel systems that form public and private "spheres" constitute a multifaceted, complex system that is connected to an almost intractable range of issues. The fact is that the facets of mobile technology – ubiquity, multimediality, multidirectionality – form a new context in which trends to renegotiate, defend, adapt or challenge notions of public and private are developed by individuals in their everyday lives and by social institutions through their rules and goals. This book, which brings together presentations from the conference "Public and Private in Mobile Communications", held in March 2015 at Beira Interior University, Portugal, particularly favors discussions on the uses that individuals make of mobile devices in their everyday practices. However, as a background issue, it also includes the sometimes implicit approach about the transformations that connect new technologies to certain cultural practices, forms of interaction and political uses. In fact, as happened in the past with other technological innovations, it is practically impossible to discuss the penetration of mobile devices and their social appropriations without the perspective of a historical side, even if it is "only" an epistemological background. - See more at: http://www.livroslabcom.ubi.pt/book/141#sthash.VfN7TSa0.dpuf
Technologies of Presence and Accountability
Mobile technologies are increasingly mundane, but they also function as lenses through which another mundane aspect of everyday life comes into view–the organization of space. One of my longer-term projects at the moment concerns the relationships between spatiality, technology, information, and practice. Much discussion of mobile technologies focuses on the ways in which everyday space can be made available as a site of consumption and social engagement. In this paper, I discuss a recent study of a quite ...