COM 225T Technologized Bodies: Mobile ICTs in the City
Mobile information and communication technologies (ICTs) have become an essential part of our everyday social interactions. It was more than a decade ago that researchers started to look into the way the mobile phone penetrates both public and private domains including the body. As mobile ICTs continue to evolve, their impact on our everyday communication requires constant examination. This course takes a city as a site to explore the way human bodies are technologized with mobile ICTs. It will discuss how people see and document their everyday life of the city with mobile ICTs as well as how they are seen with mobile ICTs in the city (e.g., enhanced capacity of the "natural" human body such as eyes and brain). In light of the recent development of wearable technologies and sociable robotics, the course will also explore the role that such emerging technologies play now and in the near future. Both seminal and recent work on mobile ICTs, fashion, social robotics, and emotions will provide the theoretical base for the course. Field observations during the academic travel period will be a primary methodological approach to explore relevant issues of the technologized body in the city