Mobile Media – an international conference on social and cultural aspects of mobile phones, convergent media, and wireless technologies.
2-4 July 2007
The University of Sydney, Australia
Barely twenty-five years since their commercial introduction, mobile cellular phones are widely used around the world. Having become an important technology for voice and text communication in the daily lives of billions of people, mobiles are now recognised as central for contemporary transformations in cultural and social practices, and in new developments in computing, media, telecommunications, Internet, and entertainment.
Equipment manufacturers, cultural and content producers, and user groups and creative communities are focussing on the possibilities of mobile media – with mobiles and wireless technologies, platforms,
services, applications, and cultural forms being designed, manufactured, and reconfigured as convergent media.
Various forms of mobile media have been imagined for sometime, and are now a reality: mobile Internet, new forms of mobile text, mobile music, mobile film and video, mobile games, mobile learning, mobile media for the workplace, videotelephony, and mobile television. This relatively short history of mobile telephony is concurrently marked by the shift of the role of users from consumers to active producers – and mobile media is being heralded as a new site for consumption, democratic expression,
individualism, citizenship, and creativity.
In this international conference, held at the University of Sydney, Australia, 2-4 July 2007, we aim to comprehensively analyse and debate mobile media – exploring its emerging structures, features, practices, value chains, producers and audiences, delving into its social, cultural, aesthetic and commercial implications, and debating its futures.
The conference will feature leading scholars including Genevieve Bell (Intel), Stuart Cunningham (Queensland University of Technology), Shin Dong Kim (Hallym University), Leopoldina Fortunati (University of Undine), Leslie Haddon (LSE), Angel Lin (Chinese University of Hong Kong), Dong Hoo Lee (Incheon University), Rich Ling (Telenor), Shin Mizukoshi (University of Tokyo), Raul Pertierra (Ateneo de Manila and University of Philippines), Misa Matsuda (Chuo University) and Judy Wajcman (Australian National University).
We also invite papers on all aspects of mobile media, including, but certainly not restricted to:
what does it mean to talk about mobiles as media?
how do we map and theorise the transformations underway with mobile platforms, applications, and networks?
mobile art
mobiles and photography
emerging cultural and narrative forms for mobiles (such as mobile films and videos)
intersections between mobiles and Internet technologies
wireless technologies and cultures
mobile television, radio, and other kinds of broadcasting
video calling and communications
sexuality, intimacy, and mobile media
mobile media and national or regional cultures
subcultures, minority cultures, majoritarian cultures, and mobile media
how do gender, sexuality, disability, socio-economics, cultural and linguistic contexts inflect cultural practices in the far-from-even-and-even terrain of mobiles?
mobile media and political economy
mobile gaming
what are the implications of mobile media for our concepts of culture, communication, and media
mobiles, community, and public sphere
mobile media, place and space
ramifications of mobile media for creative, cultural and media industries
challenges of mobile media for policy, regulation, and legislation.
Abstracts of 300 words are due by 10 September 2006 (please send copy of abstract to both organizers).
Acceptance advised by 20 September 2006, with full papers due by 15 January 2007.
All papers will be subject to masked peer review and published in the conference proceedings.
For further information, contact: Gerard Goggin, Media & Communications, University of Sydney; Larissa Hjorth, Games programs, RMIT University.
Conference website: www.mobilemedia2007.net
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