mobile devices observation field exercise 9.8.05
recently a co-worker of mine had been preparing his knitting needles while utilizing a cellular telephone. knitting is about intermingling the same way communication devices create cycles of joined knots. knitting can also be an automatic task, the same way some individuals are so adept at text messaging that they don't be fully attuned mentally, their fingers just glide across keypads. its interesting though because while these two practices maintain numerous similarities, the striking difference is that knitting does produce a tangible output. while it may not be durable enough to maintain a sort of archive, it still is physical and material for a period of time. it would be interesting to see how these physical outcomes of automatic behavior are used and viewed on a social level.
another friend of mine expressed grievances about mobile phones, mainly he was worried about constantly misplacing or losing it. since i do that on almost a daily basis (if not the phone the charger), i could fully relate. this brought up many issues of practicality, wearability and just plain smart design. if we supposedly live in such a high-paced, infiltrated with information, never have time for anything let alone searching for my charger urban wonderland, how is it logical that our necessary communication devices are not integrated with something as vital and necessary as our garments? for the most part we don't forget to dress each day and if we did, the social order in most places would quickly reprimand a swift reminder.
last year around this time i was preoccupied with the structure of creating textiles through weaving and its numerous associations with technology, especially communications patterns such as morse code. i was fascinated by the parallels of obsolete or outdated forms of communication and using conductive fibers in weaving. i recently read an essay by sadie plant called mobile knitting, which recalled many of the ideas i had been working with then, also the essay was filled with many ideas that i has not even considered. unlike weaving, knitting is not fixed to a structural device. it is a variable, only limited by a number of stitches or weight it can hold. knitting is similar in that it involves making loops and meshes, joins and connects. throughout history there are very little fragments or remnants of knitted garments, patterns or information on processes because knitted garments were intended to be worn away by the process of time. in the essay, sadie plant draws a connection between this lack of material history and the transience of celluar communications. she points out how text messages or calls are easily forgotten, deleted and dismissed without any sort of archiving. these messages express the feeling of exactly now, something unable to be reproduced or documented, something melancholy that exists in an emotional experience. she considers the mobile phone something to be worn as a garment, even a second skin but at the current juncture the mobile phone on a widespread level is nothing of the sort.
emotional interactions between individuals and technology or communication devices has been a personal interest of mine for a period of time. while i like the idea of creating a living memory, some issues come to mind. concerning messaging, calls and documentation, the mobile telephone is contextually unaware. an individual's interaction with geographical space affects connectivity, therefore even something as simple as riding a subway or airplane places the individual in a space where such devices cannot be utilized. or even when your telephone beeps to inform you of new voicemail, only to find out that it's two days old but this is your first time hearing it. the idea of exactly now becomes lost in logistics, caught up in transmission or lack of, not even mentioning the need to charge a phone in a non-mobile location so and wouldn't it be great if your mobile communication device was intune with your emotional, mental or physiological state? when you battery runs out you once again miss the now. the mobile phone as we know it on a mainstream level is not a second skin, but rather a prosthetic: you can function without it but *somehow* it makes life more convenient, more manageable, easier to go up that ramp. a second skin implies integration, a fusion of an unobtrusive device seamlessly integrated and aware of its environment rather than a plastic hard circuit box buzzing in the bottom of your bag while you ruffle through your bag chock full of other analog devices only to miss the exactly now.
on the topic of living archives, i am reminded of a proposal to utilize the junk dna of cockroaches as a living archive of new york city. unofrtuantely the essay is in storage and i was unable to find anything online about it, but i will keep searching and post later if i find anything.
also, an article from last year on knitting carbon nanofibers to create artificial muscles for robots.
