Mobile Interface Theory: Embodied Space and Locative Media

by Farman; Jason

• ISBN13: 9780415878913
• ISBN10: 0415878918
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2011-12-02
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Mobile media#xE2;#xAC;#x1D;from mobile phones to smartphones to netbooks#xE2;#xAC;#x1D;is transforming our daily lives. We communicate, we locate, we network, we play, and much more through our mobile devices. In this book, Jason Farman shows how mobile technology has fundamentally altered our experience of everyday life. He argues that mobile media#xE2;#xAC;"s pervasive computing model, which allows users to connect and interact with the Web while moving across a wide variety of locations, has produced for a new sense of self for users, a new embodied identity that stems from virtual space and material space regularly enhancing, cooperating or disrupting each other. Farman explores everyday mobile media practices such as mapping, social networking, and gaming to demonstrate how pervasive computing is redefining both the way we experience and understand space and place. He also examines a number of new media-inspired art practices such as alternate reality games, flash mob performances, and location-based narratives that illustrate how mobile technology is creating virtual environments out of everyday, lived space.

Author Biography

Jason Farman is an Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland, College Park in the Department of American Studies and a Distinguished Faculty Fellow in the Digital Cultures and Creativity Program. He received his Ph.D. in Performance Studies and Digital Media from the University of California, Los Angeles. Farman's research focuses on embodied space in the digital age, including studies of mobile media, mapping technologies, videogames, digital storytelling, social media digital performance art, and surveillance.

Table of Contents

List of Figures	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xi
Introduction: The Pathways of Locative Media	p. 1
Embodiment and the Mobile Interface	p. 16
Mapping and Representations of Space	p. 35
Locative Interfaces and Social Media	p. 56
The Ethics of Immersion in Locative Games	p. 76
Performances of Asynchronous Time	p. 95
Site-Specific Storytelling and Reading Interfaces	p. 113
Conclusion: Movement/Progress/Obsolescence: On the Politics of Mobility	p. 131
Notes	p. 142
Bibliography	p. 154
Index	p. 161
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