Visual mobile communication, mediated presence and the politics of space

摘要

This article is a study on the role of mobile phones - particularly camera phones and photo messaging - in the management of social space, or what we like to call the a??politics of spacea??. Our notion of social space is a metaphoric representation of the nature and intensity of the involvement that inspires the uses of mobile communication technology for interpersonal communication. We discuss three themes: the motives for communicating with photo messages, the role of visuality in visual mobile communication and the role of visual mobile communication in the politics of space. In our study, we apply the proxemic theory developed by Edward T. Hall and the ritual view of communication as defined by James W. Carey. Our empirical engagement with photo messaging as a communicative practice suggests at least two insights. First, it has all the traits of ritual communication. Second, the distinctive value of visual communication in this type of telecommunicative practice seems to consist mostly of mediated presence and the synchronicity of the gaze. We conclude that the mobile phone is an ambivalent technology for ambivalent desires: a tool for maintaining a feeling of presence in the state of absence while preserving the possibility for absence.View full textDownload full textRelated var addthis_config = { ui_cobrand: "Taylor & Francis Online", services_compact: "citeulike,netvibes,twitter,technorati,delicious,linkedin,facebook,stumbleupon,digg,google,more", pubid: "ra-4dff56cd6bb1830b" }; var addthis_config = {"data_track_addressbar":true,"ui_click":true}; Add to shortlist Link Permalink http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1472586X.2011.571885