Intersections between Mobility and Memory

The final speaker in this final AoIR 2015 session is Lee Humphreys. Her interest is in the intersections between mobility and memory, and this needs to be understood in terms of degrees of mobility; some devices are more mobile than others.

There is also a very long history of mobile media, all the way back at least to the immensely popular pocket diaries of previous centuries. These devices enabled their users to create media messages – to note things ad hoc as users were going about their day. By contrast, (paper) photo albums could be seen as mobile media memory holders.

What makes the mobile phone different from these historical examples is the ability to create and consume memories on the same device, due to the combination of several previously separate technologies. Also, the digital nature of these memories enables greater production, distribution, and consumption without losing the original artefact (such as the photo).

Memory is not static, of course, but changes as we engage with the artefact over time, and as we make memories with mobile devices, we also capture places; conversely, we turn previously unfamiliar spaces into known places by creating memories there. Further down the track, we may also situate ourselves nostalgically by reencountering remembered places through mobile devices.

There are other forms of memory-making using mobile media, too – for example by photographing lists as an aide-mémoire for going shopping. So, there are degrees of mobility and memory.