‘Playful Identities’ research blog

Is the mobile phone becoming more and more of a device for pastime? It seems many mobile phone operators and content providers think that way. The BBC has an interesting article on new developments in the mobile phone industry, following the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona.

The industry is pushing the mobile phone more and more towards a ubiquitous device that offers much tighter integration with internet-based services and content, and brings you entertainment wherever and whenever you want. The mobile phone, originally marketed as a means for business and work, can now still be used when work is done. The mobile phone is becoming a pastime in itself. From Webster’s online dictionary:

1. A subject or pursuit that occupies one’s time and thoughts (usually pleasantly): “sailing is her favorite pastime”; “his main pastime is gambling”; “he counts reading among his interests”; “they criticized the boy for his limited interests”

Interestingly, the BBC article ends with the observation that content on the mobile is marketed as useful for passing moments in transitory situations, like sitting in the train, but in reality mostly used in ‘fixed’ moments, like sitting on the sofa at home or in the office.

The theme of making every moment a useful moment with the help of your mobile is also the new corporate philosophy of Vodafone, according to an interview in Dutch marketing magazine AdFormatie with - I believe - the company’s main Benelux manager. Vodafone invests heavily in its LIVE service, that brings all kinds of content to the mobile. It offer newscasts and plans to bring many other content to the UMTS phone. “Make the most of now”. According to Vodafone’s new payoff - the company dropped “how are you?” - we should all continuously live in the present and strive to make this present always a useful moment.

It makes me wonder, is there no room left for experiencing boredom, ennui, to just simply sit somewhere for no reason and enjoy the passing of time doing nothing? No more “dolce far niente”, no more “grace matinee”? Have we commodified time, submitted it to our instrumental rationality of making time a profitable good? Have we colonised time to our will of being useful all the time? And how possibly can providing yet even more information counter the boredom we already feel with so much options to choose from?

With web 2.0 approaching, at least if we must believe the hype, the mobile world is lagging behind. I read this piece on mobile 2.0 in which the author, a mobile phone marketeer/consultant, sees the advent of a new era in mobile communications in which anything is possible. No clues on what mobile 2.0 will look like, only that the user is central. In a reply to this article, I wonder if ever this can be done in the same fashion as web 2.0, without moving to more open source platforms on the mobile:

What I see as a hindrance in the mobile world, as opposed to the web, is the lack of open standards and tools to build your own applications. Web 2.0 is based on user intelligence instead of technologies, i.e. by giving users smart tools that enable them to apply human semantics to information provided, you get a more intelligent web. This can only be done in a massive (thus useful) way with open standards and protocols thar are inclusive and inviting to everyone. Now, as I see it, this ‘open-source’ story is an aspect seriously lacking from mobile platforms. What do you think about that?

What _is_ happening right now is an increase in people moblogging their lives and sharing experiences with friends. This is likely the beginning of a convergence of digital media. There are some interesting applications already being made that are free (as in beer) or even open/free (as in speech):

NetoMat
Tinypictures
MobiLog
ShoZu

Yet the mobile phone as a platform remains closed, apart from having Java on board perhaps. Or are there alternatives?

(Pic taken in Berlin last year with my girlfriend’s phone, why don’t I have a camera-phone yet..? Should I start moblogging too…?)

Things are getting busier now: I have said yes to several opportunities of presenting a paper before a group:

• March 15: I will present a preliminary paper about mobile communication as gift culture in the P.I.G (’Playful Identities Group’, as we have appreciatively dubbed ourselves…)
• March 20: paper about mobile communication as gift culture in the “AIO overleg” (PhD meeting).
• May ??: present second draft of this paper in the ‘Vakgroepoverleg’.
• September 18: a presentation about technology & theory (we will separate identity, play and technology as the 3 main domains to focus on in our literature studies).
• Finish this paper and hope to have it published

And besides that, I also will

• have a meet-up Februari 9 with Tim vd Hoff, who is going to create the research website at www.playful-identities.nl.
• give a little presentation later that day about some articles, during the second lesson of the course by Valerie Frissen about technology
• write a art-science proposal before March 1
• prepare a presentation for one of the final courses of Valerie in April (I think).

And I thought I had all the time in the world to just read books…

VPRO’s digital television channel HollandDoc is broadcasting a couple of really interesting documentaries this week about the history and development of the internet. From January 30 until February 5 2006, these series will be visible both as a LIVE! stream and on demand, under the title “Internet, hopes en hypes: Uitzendingen over het verleden, heden en toekomst van de nieuwe media”.

Check it out here (Dutch only…).

NWO programme “Transformaties in Kunst en Cultuur” (Transformations in Art and Culture) (website poorly updated) is starting a science-art project (Geestesoog NWO #3 Sept. 2005 3-5 PDF file in Dutch) to research the interplay between academic study of new cultural developments and art. Academic research that receive sponsorship by NWO, have been invited to contribute ideas. Our research project ‘Playful Identities’ too has been asked to come up with one or more science-art proposals.
While I was looking for projects that have something to do with mobile technologies, science and art, I found a couple of results that can be categorised into either mobile films or locative art.

category short films/animations for mobile devices:
Mobile Fest Festival for Short Film
Pocketshorts Funding for Short Film makers
Mobilemediafest Short Film Award
Cellflix Festival for Short Film

category locative:
The Milk project
Amsterdam Realtime
Graz Mobile Landscape (see earlier post)
Interdisciplinary project on mobile media and surveillance