Living in the Mobile World

DIGI30061 Living in the Mobile World 20 Semester 1 Undergraduate Level 3 1 FHEQ level (Framework for Higher Education Qualifications) ' Last part of a Bachelors ' European Credit Transfer & Accumulation System Rating : 10.0 Most theories of the modern world begin with sedentary life, from the fixity of place to the enduring being or essence of technology. Seeing the world through the lens of movement, flux, change, and mobility opens up a new vista, and a sparklingly different perspective on the modern world. People move everyday – from commuters to those seeking asylum – but so do things, from basic goods to scarce commodities. Most importantly, so do technologies, from the web traffic speeding along fibreoptic cables to the fitness trackers we wrap around our wrists. This course unit invites students to consider the modern world of digital media through a mobile lens, and what it means to live in a mobile world. The course unit will engage students in an interdisciplinary discussion around mobility itself – of mobile theories, mobile technologies, and mobile predicaments – and how computational culture has entered a ‘default mobile’ age. It will examine the political and ethical consequences of living in a mobile world, from questions of privacy, tracking, and surveillance, to the monetization of user data that form the ‘fumes’ of our everyday movements. In addition, students will be introduced to mobile methods and methodologies, ways of utilising mobile devices, apps, and software to study social and cultural phenomena – from designing location-based games to intercepting app traffic. Most theories of the modern world begin with sedentary life, from the fixity of place to the enduring being or essence of technology. Seeing the world through the lens of movement, flux, change, and mobility opens up a new vista, and a sparklingly different perspective on the modern world. People move everyday – from commuters to those seeking asylum – but so do things, from basic goods to scarce commodities. Most importantly, so do technologies, from the web traffic speeding along fibreoptic cables to the fitness trackers we wrap around our wrists. This course unit invites students to consider the modern world of digital media through a mobile lens, and what it means to live in a mobile world. The course unit will engage students in an interdisciplinary discussion around mobility itself – of mobile theories, mobile technologies, and mobile predicaments – and how computational culture has entered a ‘default mobile’ age. It will examine the political and ethical consequences of living in a mobile world, from questions of privacy, tracking, and surveillance, to the monetization of user data that form the ‘fumes’ of our everyday movements. In addition, students will be introduced to mobile methods and methodologies, ways of utilising mobile devices, apps, and software to study social and cultural phenomena – from designing location-based games to intercepting app traffic. The unit aims to:<ul><li>invite students to examine the world of digital media through a mobile perspective</li><li>provide students with a conceptual basis for understanding mobility</li><li>offer students opportunities to experiment with mobile methods and methodological approaches to studying digital media  </li></ul> <ul><li>Recognize how everyday life, culture, and use of digital media and technology is thoroughly mobile</li><li>Detail how mobile concepts, practices, and methodologies can elucidate everyday life</li><li>Define and differentiate between different mobile practices and methods</li></ul> <ul><li>Present cogent arguments and perspectives on a diverse range of mobile concepts</li><li>Establish connections between empirical mobile case studies and abstract mobile concepts </li><li>Form an understanding of the differential nature of mobility, mobile practices, and concepts underlying them</li></ul> <ul><li>Experiment with mobile digital tools and devices as research methods</li><li>Cultivate creative and innovative approaches to studying mobile worlds</li><li>Engage in group activities and exercises that interrogate mobility  </li></ul> <ul><li>Design creative and innovative digital outputs to convey abstract concepts and ideas around mobility</li><li>Develop sensitive and appropriate ways to understand and contextualize mobile lives and worlds</li><li>Conduct a substantial independent research project</li></ul> This course unit explores what living is like in a mobile, digital world. In doing so it offers three scales of thinking concerning mobile concepts, mobile practices, and mobile methods. In the ‘mobile concepts’ section, students will consider how philosophers, media scholars, and mobility scholars have conceptualized mobility, from ideas around liquidity, flows, and circulation (e.g. Bauman), to dynamism, virtuality, and trajectories (Deleuze), and from drifting to detouring (Debord). In the mobile practices section, students will explore the many different forms of mobility that increasingly rely on digital media and technology for their operation, from automobility and aeromobility to walking and cycling, as well as the multitude of jobs and logistical operations that rely on the movement of people and objects, from food couriers and taxi drivers to telecommunications and border control. In the mobile methods section, students will learn about the value of mobile methodologies, and experiment with digital mobile methods, from mobile app walkthroughs to location-based games. The unit consists of 1-hour lectures and 2-hour seminars per week, delivered synchronously and in-person.Each lecture will generally cover three parts in which ‘mobile concepts’, ‘mobile practices’, and ‘mobile methods’ are each introduced, enabling connections to be established between each. Small activities in a lecture setting will invite students to draw on their own experiences of ‘living in a mobile world’, especially as it relates to mobile practices.    Seminars will contain a mix of group reading and discussion of key texts, and practical workshop-style activities throughout.In between seminars, students will be expected to draw on (a) their own experiences and (b) reported instances of ‘living in a mobile world’, as it pertains to the digital media, by posting relevant news items and reflections to the course unit Blackboard page.Students will also write a weekly ‘mobile diary’ reflecting on their use of digital media from a mobile perspective, utilising the mobile methods taught in weekly seminars. 0 Other 100% <figure class="table"><table><tbody><tr><td>Assessment task</td><td>Weighting within unit (if relevant)</td></tr><tr><td>Mobile object reflection (individual)</td><td>0%</td></tr><tr><td>Mobile diary (individual)</td><td>50%</td></tr><tr><td>Mobile lives project (individual)</td><td>50%</td></tr></tbody></table></figure> Written, via Blackboard/Turnitin, within 15 working days N Cook, I. (2004) Follow the Thing: Papaya. Antipode 36 (4): 642-644. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8330.2004.00441.x  Akbari, A. (2020) Follow the Thing: Data. Antipode 52 (2): 408-429. https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.12596  Elliott, A. and Urry, J. (2010) Mobile Lives. London: Routledge. Farman, J. (2021) (2nd ed.) Mobile Interface Theory: Embodied Space and Locative Media. London: Routledge. Jones, S. E. (2020) Cell Tower. London: Bloomsbury. de Seta, G. (2023) QR code: The global making of an infrastructural gateway. Global Media and China 0 (0): 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1177/20594364231183618    Migration Trail (2018) Migration Trail project. Available: https://www.migrationtrail.com  Neilson, B. and Rossiter, N. (2010) Still waiting, still moving: On labour, logistics and maritime industries. In Stillness in a Mobile World (eds. Bissell, D. and Fuller, G.). London: Routledge, pp. 51-68. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203855898  Peters, K. (2015) Drifting: Towards mobilities at sea. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 40 (2): 262-272. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24583384 Sheller, M and Urry, J (2006) The new mobilities paradigm. Environment and Planning A 38 (2): 207-226. https://doi.org/10.1068/a37268  Sheller, M. (2018) Mobility Justice: The Politics of Movement in an Age of Extremes. London: Verso. Sprenger, F. (2018) The network is not the territory: On capturing mobile media. New Media & Society 21 (1): 77-96. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444818787351    Lectures 11 Tutorials 22 0 167