On Mobile Telephony (2002-2010)

This artistic research project is relating to phenomena and communicative structures of and around mobile telephony and new subjectivities in new mobilities and networked thinking. In this project, I saw the mobile phone as a pivotal point between questions of labour, capitalism, and politics. I attempted to unfold these issues from one of the most familiar everyday objects and acts. It was initiated as my doctoral research project in Philosophy in Arts at Malmö Art Academy, Lund University (2002–2007), supervised by Prof. Sarat Maharaj. During this research, I curated three international exhibitions with accompanying workshops and symposia on the topic of mobile telephony. Each venue included more than fifteen artists, scientists and people in the mobile phone industry from Scandinavian countries, Democratic Republic of Congo, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand (Malmö 2003, Bangkok 2005, Lund 2006). From the actual results that I gained, I developed a full dissertation, titled “The Construction of New Subjectivities in the Age of Mobile Telephony” and another complex of the mobile phone exhibition, World in Your Hand, shown at Kunsthaus Dresden, Germany (2010).

Dresden (2010)

THE WORLD IN YOUR HAND Contemporary art, film, talks – On the global everyday culture of the mobile telephone March 20 – May 23, 2010 In the Internet era the mobile phone promises an almost infinite expansion of our spheres of action with ubiquitous connections. Over the past decades, almost no other technological innovation has been able to find widespread dissemination so easily and rapidly, none other has taken such complete possession of our daily lives as the portable telephone. As a status symbol of up-market consumerism that is less concerned with material goods than with information, it embodies the…

Lund (2006)

The Invisible Landscapes, Lund Lund Konsthall, Lund, Sweden September 8th to 17th, 2006 In the age of worldwide digital communication mobile telephony promises to connect us to new possible fields of action. The mobile phone can be considered a crucial connecting point for various disciplines that cultivate contemporary modes of thinking. To describe the geopolitical and epistemological impact of the mobile phone, I have researched the actual and notional spaces it creates. I call them ‘invisible landscapes’, referring to the wide range of everyday invisibilities triggered by the mobile phone. They are modulations of new realities caused by small individual…

Bangkok (2005)

Lak-ka-pid, Lak-ka-perd The Bangkok Invisible Landscapes March 11 – April 15, 2005 Sopawan Boonnimitra and Miya Yoshida presented a series of art projects on contemporary urban conditions of Bangkok, titled “Lak-ka-pid, Lak-ka-perd: The Bangkok Invisible Landscapes,” at Center for Academic Resource, Chulalongkorn University, and House Rama Theater, from March 11 through April 15, 2005. “Lak-ka-pid, Lak-ka-perd: The Bangkok Invisible Landscapes” was a group of projects, consisting of exhibitions, lectures and a screening thematically focused on the city of Bangkok. It aimed at illustrating and questioning the transformation of spaces in urban life. After going through significant changes by the effects…

Malmö (2003)

The mobile phone has become a very popular communication medium today. Most of us have experienced hearing their ringtones in the middle of a conference, in the streets, on the train. According to a research project that was conducted by the Communication Institute in Tokyo, the 2001 diffusion rates of mobile phones were at 71% in Sweden, at 73% in Finland, at 61% in Denmark. This wide diffusion which, in the meantime has exceeded the limit of “one mobile phone per person” in a number of countries, is creating a variety of invisible changes in our daily lives, changes which…

Dissertation

The Invisible Landscapes – The Construction of New Subjectivities in the Era of the Mobile Telephone