Welcome to the first issue of Wi,
a
publication initiative of the Mobile Digital Commons Network. The
purpose of this online journal is to highlight and disseminate the
on-going research results of two years of collaboration amongst
designers, theorists, artists, engineers, software developers as a
research network in mobile, wireless and gaming technologies. The title
for our journal, a homonym for “why,” reflects the
spirit
of critical and creative self-reflection on the process of
inter-disciplinary digital media production.
The content of Wi has been shaped by the members
of
MDCN. This first issue reflects some of the pressing
questions
that we have engaged with as a network researching and developing
creative non-commercial applications for mobile digital technologies
such as the cellular telephone and the personal digital assistant
(PDA).
Wi opens with a brief mapping of the MDCN by
Michael Longford,
who, along with Sara Diamond, is the principal investigator (or PI) of
this network. Following this, you will read a piece by Maroussia
Lévesque, Lucie Bélanger and Jason Lewis from
Cityspeak
who describe how the concept of p2P (private to public) informs their
project, which brings private short messaging systems (SMS) from the
small screen into public space. This is followed by submissions from
members of the EMU team, whose task it is to “evaluate mobile
users” within the context of the MDCN.
Alison Harvey’s paper discusses the liminal magic circle as a
motif in the production of digital games. Andrea Zeffiro defines and
interrogates the new media art practice of 'locative media,’
a
body of ideas, research and artistic practices where many of the MDCN
situate their mobile interventions. Janice Leung focuses on a specific
mobile device, the cell phone, and attends to the tensions produced in
its uptake by artists working within the larger context of the
telecommunications market. Neil Barratt questions our use of a
collaborative and open-source software, tikiwiki, as a communications
strategy for interdisciplinary research.
Given our intent to make Wi act as a
collaborative resource
for researchers working in these areas, Janice Leung has selected a
number of mobility related websites for readers to peruse.
Currently, Wi springs directly from the research
now
occurring in the MDCN, and will be published 3 times until the end of
the project in March 2007. However, we hope that these initial issues
act as a template for an online journal open to all researchers working
in these inter-related areas of communications, new media, art, design,
and engineering. If you have ideas for submissions, suggestions or any
other comments, please contact the editors Barbara Crow and Kim Sawchuk
at editors@wi-not.ca
Finally, special thanks to Janice Leung, Neil Barratt and Andrea
Zeffiro for their intellectual input and technical contribution.
Without their energy and collective enthusiasm, we would still be
asking “why not?”
Barbara Crow and Kim Sawchuk
Editors
Toronto, Ontario; Montréal, Québec
Barbara Crow is the incoming director of the graduate program in Communication and Culture at York University. Current research projects include: Digital Cities, focusing on the relationship between digital technology and multimedia cities; Canadian Sexual Assault Law and Contested Boundaries of Consent: Legal and Extra-Legal Dimensions (with Lise Gotell), investigating women's organizations and legal discourses; the Mobile Digital Commons Network, exploring relations of mobile technologies and cultural production; and most recently, CWIRP exploring wifi as public infrastructure. She was president of the Canadian Women's Studies Association, 2002-2004.
Kim Sawchuk is the current editor of the Canadian
Journal of Communications.
Her research involves the close study of the relationship between
embodiment, social practice and discourses on technology. Kim has an
unusual passion for methodology, particularly qualitative methods. She
has been experimenting with the potential of open source software and
multimedia tools for collaborative research and developing research
protocols and processes for better understanding how to enhance user
participation with locative media projects. When Pain Strikes
(1999), with co-editors Cathy Busby and Bill Burns) and Wild
Science: Reading Feminism, Medicine, and the Media (2000),
co-edited with Janine Marchessault are but two of Kim’s many
publications. In addition to her academic interests, Kim has been a new
media activist. In 1996 she co-founded StudioXX, a feminist research
and media arts centre in Montréal.
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