ABOUT VENUS RISING'S 'MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS IN THE 21st CENTURY'

PUT QUESTIONS TO THE PANEL VIA EMAIL IN ADVANCE OF THE EVENT <questions@venusrising.org.uk>.

BIOGRAPHIES

Chair:

Lizbeth Goodman

Dr Lizbeth Goodman is Director of the SMARTlab Centre for Site Specific Media, Performing and Digital Arts  at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. She also directs the Practice-based PhD programme for CSM. She was previously Director of the Institute for New Media Performance Research at the University of Surrey, following on from eight years leading the BBC Open University's multimedia research teams in Shakespeare, Drama, Gender Studies and Literature. Dr Goodman has written and edited some 12 books and has written and produced a wide range of multimedia programmes ranging from educational cd roms and video/media packs to more experimental online performance events, including the Extended Body Project.

Panel:

Lev Manovich
<www.manovich.net>

Lev Manovich is recognized as one the leading figures in the field of new media culture worldwide. He is the author of "The Language of New Media" (The MIT Press, 2001), which is hailed as  "the mostsuggestive and broad ranging media history since Marshall McLuhan." His latest publication is the DVD/book "Soft Cinema: Navigating the Database" (The MIT Press, 2005).  Manovich is a Professor in the Departament of Visual Arts, University of California - San Diego.

Emma Westecott

Emma Westecott has worked in the game industry for over ten years, producing and programming games as well as lecturing in game design internationally. She achieved international recognition for working closely with Douglas Adams as producer for the best-selling CD-ROM Starship Titanic (1998, Simon & Schuster).  Emma has gradually built up a worldwide reputation for developing original as well as popular projects and products, establishing herself as a figurehead and spokeswoman for a more emotional approach to gaming. Emma has been invited to present her vision and philosophy at many prestigious international venues including BAFTA, the Tate, the Banff Centre. This, combined with her recent invaluable experience in running the zerogame studio for The Interactive Institute in Sweden, and the impressive body of work created under her leadership, have brought her to her latest position at the IFSW, University of Wales, Newport.

PROGRAMME OF EVENTS

14 September.  d.studio, Dana Centre; 10-6pm.
Workshop A: What do you need from your mobile phone? 

Alexis Johnson (Equator Media) will be running this workshop along with Anke Lohmann (PDD), Vicky Griffiths-Fisher (IBM) and Julie Freeman.  The workshop will engage young mothers and young people with disabilities in a discussion and brainstorming session regarding current state and need of mobile technology.

20 September.  d.study, Dana Centre; 2-5pm.
Workshop B: Who has benefited from emerging mobile technologies? 

Lev Manovich (tbc) and Emma Westecott (tbc) will be running this session for a small group of members of the public.  This event is free and space is very limited.  To attend this session, email Monica Biagioli <monica@cybersalon.org>

20 September.  d.cafe, Dana Centre; 7-9.30pm.
Panel: Where is mobile technology taking us in the 21st century? And do we want to go there?

Lev Manovich and Emma Westecott will be asked to answer these questions from the lens of the feminine.  Dr Lizbeth Goodman, who will be chairing this event, will also look at the results from the previous workshop sessions to feed into the discussion

Think Pieces – Triggers for Discussion

Alexis Johnson, Co-Director of Equator Media.

Could Mobile Technology make a better world? It’s certainly proven its power to transform our lives for good. It’s connecting up the poorest people in Tanzania through the supply of free second hand mobiles from the west, saving lives through cancer scan text alerts by the NHS or stamping out domestic violence in Morocco and India through a community mobile phone alert system that mobilizes help. 

Future Mobile technology has the power to free us and connect us. It can broker understanding, truth, knowledge and ideas. It can make you heard and can stop you from feeling alone. It can act as a vital communication system for those in fear across the world. And it can aid people with motor, hearing and sight impairments to communicate to the outside world.

Put simply mobile technology can support and aid many of our social needs. It can transform how we act, communicate, interact and feel. It's potential for good is as infinite as people's imaginations. 

If this is where mobile technology is heading, then yes, we want to go there.

But the threat exists that mobile technology could be used to bind us, track us, subdue us and control us.  Or worse still become banal sub-standard devices whose only purpose is to fuel endless consumption through need and want.

Why? Because mobile technology’s future application will be decided by the corporate sponsors agenda, whose primary motivation is stakeholder profit.  Unlike the democratic Internet, where every person can interact and effect change, the only way we can ensure mobile technology holds some value to us is through consumer pressure.

It’s therefore crucial that we seize a little of this power back away from the corporations with their profit incentives, and give the every day person a say in what they need and want from this technology. 

Future mobile technology has the potential to transform our lives for the greater good.  Whether we go there is dependent on the developer’s social agenda.