Ubiquitous computing, Web 2.0 technology and the associated mobile
hardware such as smartphones, tablets and digital cameras offer users the
opportunity to blend personal mobility, culture and the internet into virtual
geographies. This hybridisation contributes to the creation of digital
‘assemblages’ that are shaping a digital ecology.
This project is informed by the literature on ‘The Mobilities Paradigm’
and has involved me in developing a methodological framework for viewing and
curating images of artworks on social media platforms. My overall interest is
in what ‘mobilities’ theory can contribute to an understanding of the
experience of social media curating of art online. Through the process of my
research I have identified several interlocking strands of research relating to
the characteristics of social media spaces, how the mobility of users is
affecting these digital spaces, and the nature of the digital artefacts that
users engage with.
In this dissertation, I have focused on one of these strands, addressing
the question: ‘What can mobilities research contribute to our understanding of
‘digital assemblages’ in online art spaces?'
This main question is framed by three further questions:
- What exactly can be understood as an ‘assemblage’ in the context of the Mobilities literature?
- What are the mobility tools contributing to the emergence of digital assemblage in social media art spaces?
- To what extent can experiencing social media art spaces be considered as a practice of creating assemblages?
To explore these questions I carried out an empirical study of three social media applications, gauging how the current practice of facilitating and engaging with online artworks is experienced.
The virtual ethnography gave me the opportunity to blend my role of researcher and curator, building and maintaining online galleries through uploading photographs of original paintings and graffiti. This offered me a participatory perspective of the online platforms, developing my ethnographic expertise of the online field through reflexive practice.
I then employed a social semiotics lens to look at the compositional
elements of the applications, which informed a visual analysis of screen
dumps and screencasts.
The combined ethnography and visual analysis allowed me to refine the
methodological model, identifying a number of key emerging mobility
features which I consider 'mobility tools' and can be described as conditions of the 'temporal', 'situated' and 'shadowed'.
The empirical observations offered two main findings. Firstly, the mobility/mooring dialectic is the main impetus for social media art curating. Secondly social media curating can be seen as a performance informed by 'touch' , whereby the resulting assemblages are the outcome of the intricate material and immaterial co-interactions of the mobility tools.
In addition, I concluded that the practice of flânerie can be re-interpreted in the context of social media spaces.
Start with the Introduction, offering an overview of the dissertation
The empirical observations offered two main findings. Firstly, the mobility/mooring dialectic is the main impetus for social media art curating. Secondly social media curating can be seen as a performance informed by 'touch' , whereby the resulting assemblages are the outcome of the intricate material and immaterial co-interactions of the mobility tools.
In addition, I concluded that the practice of flânerie can be re-interpreted in the context of social media spaces.
Start with the Introduction, offering an overview of the dissertation
