During our study of Blast Theory, we became interested in the use of mobile phones in today’s society. As mobiles have the ability to create a space where we people can communicate with one another miles apart, we became particularly interested in how it’s being used. Through our discussion what we became fascinated in was how the phone can allow the consumer to have an argument or a personal conversation with their partners or family members and be listened to by passing by members of the public. For example, we have been discussing how we’ve experienced people on public transport have intimate arguments without worrying about the strangers around them. As according to Matt Adams, the users’ of mobile phones “in many countries are now familiar with the juxtaposition of private, intimate conversations with a secondary, inadvertent audience” (Adams, 2004), we now are interested in how we could use this in our performance.
We have also become interested in how the mobile has been used in national disasters around the world. In terrorist attacks, the mobile phone has been a device that has allowed its users to have the opportunity to say their final goodbyes to their loved ones. To explore this, as a group we watched snippets of the TV documentary 9-11 Phone Calls from the Towers and accessed mp3’s of calls from the towers available on YouTube. Although these are of a distressing nature, the virtual space the phone created on this day for the victims to say goodbye is a space we could explore within our piece.
The mobile phone has been something that has interested us all throughout the module so far. After exploring how we can control someone through text messages during an earlier workshop, the ubiquitous device is something we’re hoping can give us a basis to create an impressive multimedia performance that we can all be proud of.
Works Cited
Adams, Matt. (2004) Adelaide Thinkers in Residence Public Lecture, Adelaide: Town Hall
Written by Daniel Roberts.
