Cultures Mobiles/Mobile Cultures
A graduate student symposium on mobile media and wireless communications
Hexagram Resource Room: EV 11-705, 1515 St Catherine Street, West, H3G 2W1
Wednesday, April 20 from 1-5 pm
Thursday, April 21 from 10am – 5pm
Sessions:
Wednesday, April 20
Wed 1:00- 3:00: Transforming Practices, Mobile Productions. Transformation des Pratiques, Productions Mobiles
Moderated by Chantal Francouer, Department of Journalism, Concordia University
« No need, we’re already here », Mobile Media, Social Networks, and the Displacement of Traditional Media
Alexandre Cayla-Irigoyen, Université du Québec à Montréal
Few professions have been more tied to their means of production than journalism. Digital media, by considerably reducing the costs of access to means of production and diffusion, have arguably reduced the gate-keeping and framing power that is traditionally the mainstay of a few « legacy media » outlets. As newspapers continue to struggle financially, ‘citizen-journalism’ has been portrayed as possibly replacing ‘legacy media’ journalists. This paper assesses the contributions of each to develop a framework for understanding how these two disjointed and opposed practices may be reconciled.
Les journalistes citoyens n’ont pas encore tués le journalisme : les impacts des technologies mobiles de communication sur l’information journalistique
Marc-Olivier Goyette, Université du Québec à Montréal
Dans ce travail, nous désirons observer de manière théorique quels sont les impacts des technologies mobiles (Goggin, 2008), et plus particulièrement de l’adoption de la téléphonie mobile de 3e et 4e génération, sur le travail des journalistes, notamment la production/édition/hiérarchisation des informations journalistiques (Miel et Faris, 2008). Nous montrerons quels sont les impacts sur la collecte et l’édition d’information dans le contexte du décloisonnement de la profession journalistique, induits par les technologies mobiles et l’amplification de la participation des usagers-consommateurs (Kawamoto, 2003).
Media production in flux: Kickstarter as mobile assemblage
ME Luka, Concordia University
This paper examines the mobility of creative ideas, resources and practices in media production through their articulation with the crowd-sourced, virtual funding hub Kickstarter.com. More specifically, I compare why two Canadian filmmakers funded film projects on Kickstarter, and what it means to engage in its “do it with others” ethos.
*coffee: 2:30- 3.
3:30- 5:00 pm: Music in Motion: From Podcasting to Mobile Composing. Musique et déplacements: du podcasting à la création mobile.
Moderated by Olivier Asselin, Département d’histoire de l’art et d’études cinématographiques, Université de Montréal
Moving Outside the Sound Bubble: RJDJ and the ‘Reactive Music Revolution’
Samuel Thulin, Concordia University
This paper contextualizes and examines emerging mobile music practices, looking specifically at a recent iPod/iPhone/iPad application and the rhetoric surrounding it. Incorporating sounds and data from the user’s surroundings and movements, the RJDJ app generates and transforms music on the fly, touting the result as “augmented music”, “smart music”, or “reactive music.” What does this mean for relationships between the mobile listener and the environment and between musical creation and reception?
L’imaginaire de la mobilité et la pratique du podcasting indépendant
Mélanie Millette, Université du Québec à Montréal
Au-delà du dispositif socio-technique qu’elle mobilise, la pratique du podcasting indépendant nourrit une sous-culture participative possédant un répertoire stylistique propre. Nous proposons de réfléchir aux implications de l’imaginaire de la mobilité dans cette sous-culture et plus précisément du côté de la création de podcasts. Car si l’écoute mobile a été l’objet de nombreux travaux, de quelle mobilité parle-t-on lorsque l’on conçoit un podcast?
THURSDAY, April 21.
10- 11:30: Knitting, Designing, Hacking. Tricot, design et hacking : femmes et mobilités
Moderated by Leslie Shade, Communication Studies, Concordia University
Yarn Bombing, Knit Graffiti and Underground Brigades: A Study of Craftivism and Mobility
Jacqueline Wallace, Concordia University
The practice and discourse of ‘craftivism’ imply questions of mobility—nomadic knitting while on public transportation, use of mobile technologies to organize yarn-bombing brigades, digital mapping of tagged spaces, the recording and publishing of installed needlework by mobile devices. Through a series of illustrative examples, this paper queries what it means to think of ‘craftivism’ through the purview of mobility and considers such related concepts as networks, urban space, and articulation with mobile technologies.
Jailbreak Me, Possess Me — DIY Practices and Mobile Phones
Christina Haralanova, Concordia University
While many experience their mobile devices as objects of liberation or empowerment, there are others who perceive them as extremely limiting in terms of design and settings, software and hardware. This presentation will engage with the practices of users who regard their mobile devices as intimate gadgets. They not only personalize them to reflect personal tastes, but also perform more advanced customization practices such as jailbreaking, software installations, and hardware modifications.
11:30- 1 Lunch
1- 2:30: Relational identities: dis/ability and affect. Identités relationnelles : in/habileté et affect.
Moderated by Steven High, History Department, Concordia University
La normalisation de l’utilisation pratique et identitaire du téléphone mobile: une réflexion
Joëlle Rouleau, Université de Montréal
Dans le cadre de cet exposé, je souhaite démontrer la création d’une forme d’exclusivité représentative au sein des recherches menées sur les utilisateurs et éventuels utilisateurs de téléphones mobiles, ce qui, selon moi, agit directement sur les conceptions de la normalité et de la mobilité. Pour ce faire, j’étudierai l’expérience d’une personne à mobilité réduite face à son utilisation du téléphone cellulaire, et ce en rapport aux généralisations et stéréotypes de personnes présentant des incapacités. Je contextualiserai mon approche par une critique de la culture de la mobilité normative entendue par l’architecture et l’environnement d’une ville comme Montréal.
Habiter l’espace, au croisement du réseau géo-social mobile et de l’amitié
Maude Gauthier, Université de Montréal
Dans cet exposé, je fais valoir l’importance de considérer certains dispositifs affectifs, plus spécifiquement l’amitié, dans l’étude des usages des réseaux géo-sociaux mobiles. La spécificité de l’application Places, c’est-à-dire son intégration au plus grand réseau social Facebook, permet une connexion amicale articulée autour de certaines normes, rejoingnant un ensemble de personnes qui n’utilisent pas nécessairement cette application, ainsi qu’une manière particulière d’habiter l’espace.
*coffee: 2:30- 3.
3-5:00: Virtual Politics, Sacred Spaces. Politiques du virtuel (ou politiques virtuelles?) et espaces sacrés
Moderated by Darin Barney, Department of Art History & Communication Studies
McGill University, McGill University
Virtual Citizens and Emancipatory Politics
Timothy Swiffen, Concordia University
This paper critically examines some of the ways in which the material goals of an emancipatory politics have been problematized in the context of an increasingly mobilized and virtualized social body. What kinds of relationships can be established between this political program and the virtual citizen?
“Tweeting Out A Tyrant”: Social Media and the Tunisian Revolution
Mariam Esseghaier, Concordia University
This paper focuses on how the Tunisian Revolution was predominantly referred to as the “Twitter Revolution” by several Western media outlets. I argue that by framing the revolution in this manner, these media outlets contributed to an Orientalist reading of this social movement, in distinction from the way that Tunisians identify with their revolution.
Tweeting from Mecca: Mobile media, time, and sacred experiences
Krista Riley, Concordia University
In November 2010, Toronto Star journalist Muhammad Lila went on hajj with his iPhone and Blackberry in tow, as both journalist and pilgrim, describing himself on Twitter as the “First-ever western [journalist] to live tweet the whole thing.” Using Lila’s blog and Twitter posts from this period as an example, this paper examines pilgrimage as a particular context of mobile communication, with a focus on the temporal dimension of Lila‘s movements, and on what this might convey about sacred spaces and experiences.
This symposium is organized by Kim Sawchuk, Professor, Communication Studies, Concordia University as a part of the Doctoral Seminar, Mobile Media, Wireless Communications Coms 893J.
Thank you to: The Department of Communication Studies, The Mobile Media Lab-Concordia, Mediatopias working group-McGill, and Hexagram.
Mobile Cultures, Wireless Communications 