where are you? I am in my mobilitas loci.

Thoughts to the (From Stabilitas Loci to Mobilitas Loci: Networked Mobility and the Transformation of Place, Rowan Wilken & Digitally Local Communication Technologies and Space, Mark Poster) reading:

Yi-Fu Tuan writes “space is more abstract than place” in Rowan’s article, I would say that when the place has been endowed with some sort of value, it could be a location with different functions and meanings. It seems like we could define the place we exist depends on different situation. However, it is clear that man could not be in two places at the same time or move to the other place immediately unless you have extraordinary power like the man who could use his will to control his body traveling to everywhere in the movie, called “Jumper.” That kind of mobility of travel around space may be many people’s eagerness to have, in deed, we all live in the space that we expect or been expected to be. Morley rises that “The mobile phone is often understood as a device for connecting us to those who are far away, thus overcoming distance- and perhaps geography itself.” We always have the conversation like “where are you?” but we never think about “where we actually being?” by answering the regular daily response such as at home, in the office…etc. I would say that it is lucky that we all live in such technology within environment nowadays. Thus, through the phone, we could always feel like at home by conveying the background voice which Morely called it “domesticity”. Taking international student as example, they may be far away from their parents in the long distance of half earth, but they could feel they still be close with their parents in their back home by making a phone call and that kind of voice could take them home for a while. 

However, I found that some interesting issue that there is a new function called “Sounder Cover” or “Call Cheater” of mobile phones from OKWAP A375 and Nokia Series 60, which could created the fake noise in background sound when picking up the phone. For example, there are sounds for train station, office, raining or movie theatre...etc. In that case no one will know what exactly you are. "I could of course have called from any wired telephone , but ha assumed I was calling from a mobile phone and therefore my location in space was unknown to him"(Mark Poster). Thus, this kind of function is addressed by the designer that it’s getting popular for the users who are not willing to confess to their girlfriends or wives even may want to cheat on them. The idea is quite similar to Yoon’s “immobilize,” which states the young mobile users sometimes choose to contact with peers but turning off the phone to avoid parental control. So, is it really matter that when we anwser the phone and say where are we now? Do we always get the answer we want or maybe just the place we expect to  hear? I guess it depends on wherever you would like to be in.

flexible customisation v.s marketable media

Thoughts to the (The paradox of User Control, Daniel Palmer) reading:

Daneil Palmer has raised the issues regarding to the paradox of user control, which affected by the contemporary capitalism make most of common but fantasy choices as a soft domination. It is quite controversial that does it mean that new media mode involved will enhance the quality or trustworthy for the users? More and more media products concerned with the customization, flexible personalization and interactive attempts, since customers nowadays tend to focusing on self- determined or self-centered when they choose the personal digital items. For example, according to Singh, S. in “Study the user: A Matter of Perspective”, he suggests that the provider’s perspective is important, that is, he found that it could be more successful when change the functions of media products from provider-oriented into user-centered approach. In this case, customers would be more interested in such a personal and considerable device. However, when Daniel addressed that customization would probably restrict the choices by users. That is, “where you decide what’s the news.” Users could easily access such as, Apple, Tivo or Msnbc by putting themselves into the center of TV network. What the users have read is just the preference that they might prefer to know. How about the other news which is more important to know and to realize? It’s kind of a concept like we discuss in the class about “Panopticon.” You could not see through in the middle of circle and the wall which contained with the personal media functions access while you are surrounded by it without consciousness. How about people could see through everything from the outer space?

Media consumption is getting privatized as well as taking it as granted to be personal activities to some extend. Remember when you click on some websites or type in your personal details, you may get some commercials pop up or around your pages sometimes, which selected by your online movements that commercial websites could traced back the information maybe from your face book. Thus, they offer the suitable commercials which they think may fit to your situation.

The interactive exhibitions were introduced in class and leave some threads to us that do we really need this media involved with exhibitions? I prefer to say that it may be auxiliary to get know about the topic, however, it depends on the type of exhibitions and what they may really want to express in different way. For me, I would not go to the exhibitions because they have interactive media involved. I mean, the main purpose of attending to the exhibitions is the topic which attracts me, no matter it’s just some pictures and paintings with notes aside. The purpose for participating in the exhibitions would not affect by how fantasy the facilities are. Maybe for some spectators, they may be pessimistic to absorb the information, so they need some stimulus to get into it. It seems to be concerned with some commercial attempts when such electronic facilities are equipped, we may think that do we really need them, or the exhibitions need them to attract more people and make money to hold another exhibition? However, I would say, maybe it is the progress of media technology that transforming the way and the habits which people get knowledge unconsciously.

Choose Technology or being chosen?

Thoughts to the (The Technology within, Darren Tofts) reading:

It is intriguing that if we could actually do the mind speculative in a short story of Ray Bradbury’s prognostications about “Happy Life Home.” It seems that it’s not only control the equipments of occupants’ automatically in the house, but also react upon the basic of users’ mind. It may make technology more organic, considerable and emotional to fit people’s needs. However, is it really suit for people’s necessary? When someone could operate the functions of each facility at home simply by using their liberating thoughts and doing nothing, dose it mean the civilization of human beings actually being enhanced by the progress of technology? We may be controlled by technology to some extend with actual motivations or unconsciously being forced to achieve those actions by moving “certain muscles” such as being addicted to Internet, as Wiener asserts the example of picking up the pencil to write, explaining the cybernetics motivation of writing between human and machine. I mean, in the rapid growth of cyber cultural space we live in, although some of the technology could be internalized within our body as supplementary instruments like bionic ears or heart pace-makers whereas people could not see it but still exist inside also detectable, cultural technology is more immaterial and even harder to detect within our mind than we could imagine. Thus, as regards that technology has already affect human being’s external behaviors to certain aspects; it would be possible to affect the internal if that “Happy Life Home” actually being popularized which Sterling has pointed that technology is visceral, pervasive, under our skin and inside our mind. It reminds me of the memory in childhood that I always play games with myself in mind, when I ask my mom for any unreasonable requests, I always have the will and repeat what I want secretly. Even I do not have confidence of it but somehow it works! It seems like I could control others or machines by my will. However, when it could become possible after two decades, I suddenly realize that maybe technology could move its pace slowly otherwise that would be less entertaining when everything is follow your heart. Would it be too comfortable to be thoughtless? Imagining that people stick on the computer with their body lying on the bed without working and thinking, wouldn’t it be sad to being human?

Writing is a kind of invisible technology that we seldom use. In “within technology,” Tofts raises the problem that we take the writing as technology to disclose the fact that we have already taken it as granted as second nature. Yet we have been assimilating to be sort of illiteracy by overusing typing on keyboard to communicating with others. Statistics shows that it is apparent that the following generations are getting unfamiliar with writing, which means they somehow have no idea to write words by handwriting. When teachers and parents blame their children about their writing, do they really think about the consequence that does these children want to be or forced to be illiterate contributed to the technology. We may consider that words should not be vanished with the massive use of typing word as well as spoken word which are more intimate with when it comes to communicate, but do we really aware that we couldn’t pull ourselves out of this trap as we actually engaged in the situation for such a long time? Although writing cannot have the exactly meaning of what one's opinions, in fact, when we decide to text message or send email to someone, we have already made the choices with more alienated tool than writing as medium.