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DAILY NEWS
Sep 3, 2008 8:11 AM
New Book Tackles "Mobile Nation"
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The Ontario College of Art & Design (OCAD)
and Riverside Architectural Press announced the publication of Mobile Nation, a landmark anthology devoted to the emerging field of mobile experience design.
"Mobile devices such as cell phones, BlackBerries and the iPhone are a
part of our day-to-day lives - by the end of 2007, over 3.3 billion people were mobile phone users worldwide," described co-editor Martha Ladly.
"Mobile Nation is one of the first books that looks at the social nature of mobility from a broad range of perspectives. From art and design
through to engineering, architecture, and the social sciences, our authors discuss exciting new approaches in the mobile realm."
Based on the 2007 Mobile Nation conference held at OCAD, Mobile Nation brings together more than 50 leading international experts to explore the
impact of mobile platforms on cultural industries, architecture, engineering, industrial design, advertising, entertainment, recreation, and education. Ladly, an associate professor in OCAD's Faculty of Design, co-edited the book with Philip Beesley of the University of Waterloo's School of Architecture.
"What kinds of new mobile forms are emerging? Researchers, companies, and mobile users share groundbreaking conversations about this question
in this book," added Beesley. "The massive number of images, text messages and video clips that pass through mobile devices has naturally
attracted the attention of major commercial markets. At the same time, we're seeing distributed micro-cultures sharing open-source poetic material, making new kinds of art. This book examines a range of marginal as well as mainstream cultures."
Mobile Nation focuses on five key areas of research with the questions:
* How can mobile technologies be "reimagined" and repurposed for new user communities?
* How can mobile technologies be designed and adapted for multiple platforms?
* How can mobile experiences move beyond text, sound, and image to respond to the diverse and ever-changing needs and desires of mobile
users?
* How are new paradigms in mobile communication challenging the way we experience art, design and performance?
* How are rapidly emerging hybrid, open-source, and do-it-yourself communities intersecting with social science, engineering, architecture,
and other media disciplines?
"The fundamental question we ask is 'How we can design a better, more productive, more creative, more globally accessible mobile experience?'"
concluded Ladly. "I think readers will find Mobile Nation reveals new and surprising ways of thinking and working within this rapidly
developing environment."
About the Ontario College of Art & Design (OCAD)
The Ontario College of Art & Design (www.ocad.ca) is Canada's "university of the imagination." OCAD is dedicated to art
and design education, practice and research and to knowledge and invention across a wide range of disciplines. The university is building
on its traditional, studio-based strengths, adding new approaches to learning that champion cross-disciplinarity, collaboration and the
integration of emerging technologies. In the Age of Imagination, OCAD community members will be uniquely qualified to act as catalysts for the
next advances in culture, technology and quality of life for all Canadians.
Riverside Architectural Press (www.riversidearchitecturalpress.com) is a
publication house associated with the School of Architecture at University of Waterloo. Riverside publications focus on the contemporary
culture and history of the built environment.
