Mobile Taiwan--Research by Sophia Wu

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Among the great papers at Digital Youth East Asia was one by Sophia Tsuey-Jen Wu, Director of the Center for Media Literacy and Education at National Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiwan. Using her thirteen year old daughter and her daughter's friends as her subjects, and their social circle in Taiwan as her field site, Wu discussed creative ways youth use cell phones for subjectivity and intersubjectivity and also for creating shared memories----even in circumstances where they might not actually all be at the same event. My favorite example was a photograph of a soup bowl with three porcelain soup spoons taken by one of the girls in the absence of the other two friends. She then sent that to her friend. Another girl took a photo of the cell phone with the photo. Then the third girl took the photo of the cell phone taking the photo of the cell phone with the three soup spoons, and then they sent it back to the first girl and, in the end, all had the "same" cell phone photo of their [virtually] shared bowl of soup.

Will they remember the cell phones, the soup, the phone-sharing event, or the friendship, as cemented by the cell phones? My guess is all of these. And my guess is that whenever they see an "old school" image of a cell phone, one from when they were thirteen, they will remember that intimacy. That's the interesting thing about technology that is incorporated into one's social life. It becomes a cognitive and affective embodiment (funny word in this context) of the social life itself. Say "radio" to someone of a certain age and I guarantee they will be able to describe in detail what their first radio looked like, why they listened to music with, where they were when . . . Say "45" to someone else and they'll tell you what the record player looked like. My first computer? Oh, definitely. And, for kids, now, that cell phone, that place of intimacy and privacy, away from the surveillance of adults . . . a tiny taste of freedom.

Media artist and theorist Larissa Hjorty has been taking photographs of cel phones, the way youth personalize, customize, decorate, and play with their phones. I'm hoping to post some of her photos on a future blog. In the meantime, check out

http://journal.fibreculture.org/issue6/issue6_hjorth.html.

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And, with special thanks to Strawberry Pies postings on Flickr, some very cute installations of cell phones in a little play bed. For full documentation of Strawberry Pies' work on Flickr, pls click on the image.