My presentation at the AoIR Internet Research 12.0 conference, inside the panel "Understanding Mobile Media: The Extensions of Us", Seattle, Oct. 12, 2011: http://bit.ly/niPRSt (abstracts of all panelists).

1. MOBILE DEVICESas INTIMATE TECHNOLOGYAND TECHNOLOGY OF INTIMACY Guillaume.Latzko-Toth@com.ulaval.ca Tw: @guillaumelatzko

2. Defining mobile devices a class of portable, handheld digital information and communication devices the hardware platform through which mobile media are accessed and collaboratively produced mobile phones, tablet computers, e-readers, portable game consoles…

3. Mobility doesn’t refer to the portability (moveability) of the device as much as it refers to the fact that it is carried whilethe user is mobile

4. Digitality and versatility

5. contact proximity tactile physical closeness body self intimacy personal privacy

6. 1: Proximity spatial emotional metonymical

7. MDs and the body

8. MDs & proximity management Credits: shappy85 @ Flickr

9. We can be “away from computer” but can we use the same excuse with a mobile device? (me)

10. Technology of proximity? Texting on the move: teens acknowledge spatial proximity to produce a sense of being together “at a distance” (Licoppe, 2009) Location-based apps allow users to “discover” other users around them, “filling” the user’s surroundings with potential social interactions

11. An example: Grindr Online 463 feet away Source: Grindr.com

12. 2: Contact

13. Contact with MDs They touch us: interacting with us in a haptic way (e.g.: ‘‘vibrate’’ mode) We touch them: we tap, swipe, pinch, and shake them

14. The rise of buttons “At first glance, GUIs, touch screens and especially gesture based interfaces seem to make the button disappear. But what is really happening on the screens of PCs, smart phones, and tablets, is an immense inflation of buttons because now designers can display as many buttons in as many arrangements as they like.” Till Heilmann, http://tillheilmann.info/mit7.php

15. Technology of contact When the phone vibrates to announce an incoming message, is it just a "human-machine" physical interaction, or a physical interaction between two people, mediated by an artifact? Virtualizing the contact?

16. 3: Privacy

17. Texting and privacy “the personal medium of the mobile phone becomes the glue for cementing a space of shared intimacy” (Ito & Okabe, 2005) “youth mobile messaging […] construct[s] alternative kinds of intimate “places” or settings where youth can be in touch with their close peer group or “full-time intimate community” (ibid.)

18. Micro private spheres in public settings “My friend on the bench over there just texted me, and said she thinks you look sexy” Ed Bourdon, http://bit.ly/pLPYG1

19. Blurring the spheres MDs bring the private context into the public context They can also disrupt privacy by making public what was considered private (e.g. sexting) http://www.flickr.com/photos/cernicalo-e/92189137/

20. Conclusion People are engaged in an “intimate” relationship with mobile devices But MDs also contribute to reconfigure the ways intimacy is experienced and performed (the praxis of intimacy) THANKS! @guillaumelatzko