Brief

We are looking for proposals (essays, reviews, online artworks or other experimental interventions that could work well on our website) that engage with the impact of smartphones upon daily life.

In 1985, Joshua Meyrowitz predicted that electronic media would change the ‘situational geography of life’. At the time, to imagine a world where physical location did not matter, would seem to most a sci-fi fantasy. But the mobile phone soon changed this. Gradually, as the years went by, 24/7 communication, connectivity, work and social activity became incorporated through this single hand-sized object, allowing its activity to take place anytime, anywhere.

As a result, smartphone usage has soared, shaping the practices and behaviour of users on a daily basis. The average person checks their phone every twelve minutes, and over the past ten years, UK smartphone ownership has risen from 17% to 78% (Ofcom, 2018). As our reliance on these devices increases, we would like to dedicate this season to exploring our relationship with this profoundly influential tool.

Smartphones have evolved through a process of integration between humans, machines and their environment. As a mass media technology, how have smartphones developed in comparison to earlier technological developments? Smartphones were designed to make us more productive, but some feel that they’re distracting instead. What aspects of modern life have been shaped by these devices, and what sort of future do we expect as they continue to develop?

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Gabriella Warren-Smith

Curator in Digital Culture

07585953225

www.gwarren-smith.co.uk

Twitter - @cog_sensations

Projects

Cognitive Sensations - Online platform exploring the intersection between art, science and digital culture.

www.cognitivesensations.com

Essays

When Art and Science Meet - Visual perception at the Visual Science of Art Conference.

The Territory of the Digital - Insight into the work of Broerson and Lukács, who use digital spaces to explore the interweaving of fact and fiction in photography, film and media.

Perception and the Mass Media in 1967 - What can we learn from Debord and McLuhan about the impact of technology on perception?

The Body in Bytes - Embodiment, health and the body in the digital age.

Cognitive Control in an Attention Economy - Social pressures and systems of attention in the digital age.