The Mobile Visual Environment

In the week seven lecture the topic was the mobile visual environment.  We began by looking at the iPad, and debating if we preferred reading newspapers, magazines and books in a digital format, or in a physical paper format.  Both had various advantages and disadvantages; personally I feel that having this information online, means that we are free to view many different writers’ opinions, instead of hearing the opinion and view of one paper or magazine. Although one little problem I’ve discovered is that if no one buys newspapers, a simple task like lighting a fire, is going to become more difficult; I would advise burning an iPad,  this lead on to a discussion on the Simulacra. 

Simulacra is a concept by Jean Baudrillard. He suggests that people live there life through what they show or reveal, for example through facebook.  In fact our lecturer believed that if we go for a night out; the night does not exist until we post photos or post comments about it on facebook.  I don’t know if this statement is totally true, although I do believe that some people find a need to show there friends and everyone else how good a time they had, and try to portray them selves as something there not.  This lifestyle or decision to put so much information in the public domain also creates a problem, as it means the line between public and private is getting blurred, it is also blurring the line between reality and virtual reality.  We also discussed Appadurai’s theory on “Scapes”.  He believed that the simulacra is made up of different scapes.   Examples of these include:  Ethnoscape, which is ethnic culture, Mediascape and Einenscape, which is money.  Which discussed Einenscape a little, and specifically the fact that fewer and fewer people handle money anymore.  This in a fact that shocked me,and is something I never thought about before.  Any moey we make goes straight into our bank account, and when we pay for anything we just use our cards, so we very rarely see our money.  One huge problem with this is, if our bank or cards fail for any reason we are basically penniless and stranded, because if accounts our shut down we almost lose our identity.  This is one problem with the modern technology.           

The main point of the class was discussing how mobile and accessible interactive technology has become; mainly looking at the iPhone and the iPad.  They have made information and interaction so easy and easily available, in a way that did not seem possible a few years ago.