Publication

‘Aesthetics of Mobile Media Art’
Journal of Media Practice - special issue (2009)
A Decade of Media Practice: Changes, Challenges and Choices – Volume 10 Issue 2 & 3




Intellect 2009

2009

Screenings:
FLEFF Film Festival, ITHACA College, New York, April 2009

Exhibition:
HeART beat Festival, Ekaterinburg, Russia, August 2009

Conference Papers/Guest Lectures: 
Nokia Maemo Summit 2009, Amsterdam, October 2009 (by invitation)
Cité des Télécoms, Plomeur-Bodou, France, September 2009 (by invitation)
HeART beat Festival, Ekaterinburg, Russia, August 2009 (by invitation)
KL Technite, Kuala Lumpur, May 2009 (by invitation)
Telecommunication Technologies and Social Change, King Saud University, Ryihad, Saudi-Arabia, March 2009 (by invitation)

mobile-mentary @ CENTRE FOR EXCELLENCE

CEPLW symposium. In the FILMOBILE presentation in the CENTRE FOR EXCELLENCE I introduced the FILMOBILE project and reflect upon my experience initiating and organizing the networking events. In addition I illustrated the collaboration with different students (BA/MA level) and my experience of professional learning. I concluded by pointing at future prospect for mobile technologies in the educational 
and professional environment.

mobile-mentary @ BOTSWANA

Currently I am developing a new mobile-media course program at the Limkokwing University in London. As part of a staff development training at the Limkokwing Gaborone campus in Botswana, I presented the mobile-mentary project. At the moment we are in discussions to set up a mobile filmmaking school amongst the campuses in London, Gaborone and Kuala-Lumpur. During the time in Africa I was honored to be part of the academic procession, which included Botswana’s prime minister and colleagues from Africa and Asia.

mobile-mentary @ CREAM symposium / VISIBLE EVIDENCE (Germany)

In the panel-presentations at the CREAM Symposium and the VISIBLE EVIDENCE conference in Bochum (Germany), I explored the potential of mobile phone video footage as a new form of documentary filmmaking. I outlined the prospects of this new unconventional medium within the domain of creative media practice and introduced the FILMOBILE network. FILMOBILE is a project, which aims to create a dialogue between the industry, filmmakers and artists working with mobile devices through a variety of on and off line events (www.filmobile.net). In addition I screened extracts from the mobile-mentary project (www.mobile-mentary.co.uk), an experimental documentary shot on a mobile phone in Japan in 2006.

In 2000 the first camera phone was introduced in Japan and six years later mobile phones with video and still cameras have outnumbered the volume of film and digital cameras combined and industry research forecasts a continuous development for the next years.

In my practice-led research investigation I am drawing upon various mobile phone videotexts in the contemporary mediascape, such as mobile phone footage mediated by the BBC or videos, which have originated through subversive networks of peer groups and (online) communities. Beyond contextualising amateur footage through documentary theory I referred to the proliferation of creative mobile media, which surfaced within the field of artistic media practice and documentary filmmaking.

mobile-mentary @ Mobile Content Innovations

Digital Horizons & Screen South (Brighton)







By invitation from Digital Horizons and Screen South I was invited to Brighton to present the mobile-mentary project in the Mobile Content Innovations seminar. The seminar featured presentations by mobile phone industry key-players such as Monty Munford (Director of Communications Player X), Chris Thorpe (CTO Mind Candy), Andre Burgess (Managing Director Crucible Media), Andrew Bud (Co-Founder & Executive Chairman mBlox) and Mark Brill (The Ping Corporation Co-Founder).
A number of interesting industry frameworks have been discussed which have outlined the contemporary business situation and business models (key words: D2C, ICSTIS, PSMS, Subscription/Recurring Billing, amongst others). During my presentation I drew upon the FILMOBILE network. In addition I screen extracts from the almost completed feature film project and illustrated the distribution of mobile micro-movies via Bluetooth hubs.

mobile-mentary @ Conflux 2007

At the conflux festival I explored psychogeography through the lens of a mobile phone filmmaker. In the 30min presentation I illustrated the capacity of mobile devices to merge cityscapes with the cinematic dimensions of time and space.
A 15min Q + A session followed the talk and I invited individual members of the audience to view the micro-movies in the Streets of Brooklyn (NYC) on their mobile devices. By means of altering the screening parameters, viewing the micro-movies in an urban space, a new cinematic experience is created. Mobile productions cannot only be shot on location, but can also be viewed on location. The montage technique is conceptually extended, fusing city and cinematic space, creating an original mobile-montage. As the genre of mobile production is manifesting its position in the mediascape, it is key to analyse the mobile productions as a discipline of its own.

mobile-mentary @ ICDC

I was invited by Bernadette McGrath (Digital Inclusion Co-Ordinator) to present a gust-lecture in the International Centre for Digital Content (ICDC) at the Liverpool Digital, Liverpool John Moores University.
Besides the ICDC staff a number of filmmakers who are involved in the Mobile Movies project formed a most interesting audience. We engaged in a good conversation on the subject of mobile technologies in relation to film making and the potential to work with teenagers using mobile phones. Moreover I consulted the Mobile Movies project group, talking about technical and aesthetical aspects, which were involved in the mobile-mentary production. The ICDC Mobile Movies project aims to take advantage of the pervasion of mobile phone use throughout youth culture in order to encourage young people to create innovative content with their phones and to show them how a device they carry around with them everyday can be a crucial and creative tool.