| The ideas Can You See Me
Now? draws upon the near ubiquity of handheld
electronic devices in many developed countries.
Blast Theory are fascinated by the penetration
of the mobile phone into the hands of poorer users,
rural users, teenagers and other demographics
usually excluded from new technologies.
Some research has suggested that there is a higher
usage of mobile phones among the homeless than
among the general population. The advent of 3G
brings constant internet access, location based
services and massive bandwidth into this equation.
Can You See Me Now? is a part of a sequence of
works (Uncle Roy All Around You at the ICA in
London in May is the next) that attempt to establish
a cultural space on these devices.
A future version of the game might allow the
public to play on the streets using their own
devices, as well as online.
These social forces have dramatic repercussions
for the city. As the previously discrete zones
of private and public space (the home, the office
etc.) have become blurred, it has become commonplace
to hear intimate conversations on the bus, in
the park, in the workplace. And these conversations
are altered by the audience that accompanies them:
we are conscious of being overheard and our private
conversations become three way: the speaker, the
listener and the inadvertent audience.
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