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, (gerard.goggin@arts.usyd.edu.au); Larissa Hjorth,
Games programs, RMIT University (larissa.hjorth@rmit.edu.au).
Conference website (from August 2006): www.mobilemedia2007.net
