ABSTRACT
Over the past ten years, smartphones, or sumaho, have been changing the nature of our social relationships by redefining the notion of place. Based on our experiences with mobile phones (keitai), current sumaho users are ‘matured’ as users of digital media technologies, and in handling various types of information over SNS. Many aspects of our communication behavior became heavily dependent upon the use of mobile media. Studies have shown that we are using social media in order to construct and maintain various relationships. We are becoming more and more sensitive about locational data to be delivered through uploading files on SNS. While we think that locational data has to be handled carefully because of its personal/private nature, we also became aware through experiences of crisis situations (e.g., natural disasters) that making one’s locational data open may become critical in one’s own survival.
This chapter draws from 15 years of using mobile media to co-design with regional communities for revitalization. Over this period, just as the media has developed, so too have the possibilities for collaboration, connection, and sustainability. This chapter is particularly interested in how mobile media can be understood as equipment for methods that enhance our creativity and enable a variety of design practices. In this chapter, I begin with a contextualization of mobile media in Japan and discuss possibilities in the context of art and design. In promoting the discussion, I will introduce the cases of participatory learning projects using mobile media as practical examples.
