Die Mobilisierung des Privaten

Abstract

Matilda Felix

Mobilising Privateness

Taking the example of the commercial art produced by Delaware, a Japanese art collective, this paper illustrates how applications for mobile phone displays reminiscent of embroidery patterns express a paradoxical reference to privateness: whereas the mobile phone stands for the location-independence of contemporary subjects, that is, an apparently gained freedom and autonomy, it serves precisely to locate individuals in everyday life. As the paper shows, the use of mobile phones even strengthens the traditional Japanese family model, in that it enables mothers to have permanent contact with other family members and thus changes nothing about traditional allocations of roles and space. Delaware’s digital embroidery applications redouble and intensify this paradoxical perpetuation of the status quo in that their hybridisation of digital and manual technology, advanced graphics and traditional motifs, helps create an image free of contradiction.