Location of I (a proposal), Martin John Callanan, May 2006
m@greyisgood.eu
“At the seashore, between the land of atoms and the sea of bits, we
are now facing the challenge of reconciling our dual citizenship in the physical
and digital worlds.”
Hiroshi Ishii, MIT Media Lab
This is a world where people live online – working and communicating;
inhabiting online spaces – in a state of continuous connectivity, everything
is done via the Internet.
We are now at the dawning of the age of ubiquitous
computing. When computers are starting, no longer, to be the box on the desk
or the slab warming our legs. The computer as an artefact will disappear.
As they become embedded and ambient our interaction with will become more
invisible; more human. We will become more human. We are not there yet. But
as yet, the people who will be most affected by it, the overwhelming majority
of whom are non-technical, non-specialist, ordinary citizens of the developed
world, barley know it even exists.
A mobile phone can be switched off or left (forgotten) at home. A computer can be shut down, unplugged, and walked away from. However, this coming ambient, ubiquitous technology will be capable of insinuating itself into all the apertures everyday life affords it. An environment will be formed in a way that current technology cannot create.
I am contactable, and I am findable, in the digital world. It is easy to
find me, write to me, work with me, and speak to me. However, people have
trouble meeting the physical me, in the physical world. I have become so
findable and so contactable: I hide. Perhaps not purposely, more though the
perception I do not need to be physically present, because I feel present
already.
Addressing the imbalance
I will use an off-the-shelf smart-phone, on a standard international service plan with a major telecoms service provider. Combined (via a custom server application) with an open-source geo-mapping application; I will publish constantly, live, my exact physical geographical location to a distance of within three meters (talking distance). I will present myself with the option of trading away access to the most intimate details of my movements in return for increased convenience.
By becoming finable – to anyone, anywhere – in the physical world, I can participate fully and with anyone: I become the absolute citizen.
I become a citizen of both the physical and digital worlds, coexisting as one (the same device that makes me visible and findable, allows continuous instant connection – communication – via any digital means); I cannot hide (and I become vulnerable).
