Snapshots of Almost Contact: the Rise of Camera Phone Practices and a Case Study in Seoul, Korea

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Notes

[1] It is not difficult to feel a sense of déjà vu when hearing current debates around camera phone practices. Only a decade ago, heated discussion surrounded the relationship between analogue and digital photography; now it seems that a similar dialectic is occurring between camera phone imagery and the ‘stand-alone’ digital camera. In ‘The paradoxes of digital photography’, written before the introduction of camera phones, Manovich argues that the ‘the logic of the digital image’ is ‘paradoxical’, that is, it ‘radically’ breaks ‘with older modes of visual representation whilst at the same time reinforcing these modes’ (Manovich, 2003). This leads Manovich to assert that whilst film may disappear, cinema will far from vanish as it ‘acquires a truly fetishistic status’. The digital world is overwhelmed with analogue metaphors, as can be witnessed in applications such as Photoshop, iMovie, and Final Cut.

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Notes on contributors

Larissa Hjorth

Larissa Hjorth is researcher, artist and lecturer in the Games and Digital Art programs at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. Over the last five years, she has been researching and publishing on gendered customizing of mobile communication and virtual communities in the Asia-Pacific. She has lived in Japan and South Korea and has conducted in-depth ethnographic research in both locations. She has published widely on the topic in journals such as the Journal of Intercultural Studies, Convergence, Fibreculture Journal, and Southern Review. Correspondence to: Larissa Hjorth, Lecturer in Games Programs, c/o School of Creative Media, RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria 3000, [email protected]