Despite the popularity of Skype with video many of us are still figuring out how to ‘do’ it. Interviews reveal that we can now run the programme but we are less certain about how to ‘perform’ in front of the webcam. Seeing ourselves in the box on the side can feel strange. We are not quite sure which bits of our bodies to display on the screen, how much to move around the room, or move the device around the room. Is it acceptable to use Skype with video at a funeral, in crowded spaces or while in bed? This book addresses how people are emotionally and affectually connecting with others audio-synchronously on the screen in a variety of different spatial contexts. Topics include Skype with video being used by grandparents to connect with grandchildren, friends and family using it for special occasions, and partners using it for romance and sex. Theories addressing bodies, gender, queerness, phenomenology and orientation inform the research. It concludes that while Skype does not offer some kind of utopian future, it does open up possibilities for existing power relations to be filtered through new lines of sight/site which are shaping what bodies can do and where.
Les mer
List of illustrations Preface Acknowledgements 1 Why Skype, why now? Feeling my way Milestones for Skype Where to from here? 2 Queer phenomenology: from writing tables to digital screens Getting orientated Spinning outwards Bodies Screens Space3 Interviewing: face-to-face and on Skype The participants Feeling the interviews Shifting senses Internet sources or ‘vulgar geographies’4 Selves, others, objects and space The self in the box The difference gender makes ‘Theatres of composition’ 5 Families, friends and loved ones Across the generations Special occasions ‘Sinking’ into the spaces of Skype 6 Skype for work: ‘A bit weird’ Job interviews Meetings and collegial communications ‘Disorientations’ 7 Skype sex: ‘Queer effects’? Katie’s story Real sex and contrived sex Generational difference? 8 Reorientating bodies and spaces Lines of sight/site Back to writing tables and digital screens Bibliography Index
Les mer

Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9781472434548
Publisert
2016-09-12
Utgiver
Vendor
Routledge
Vekt
362 gr
Høyde
234 mm
Bredde
156 mm
Aldersnivå
U, G, 05, 01
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Innbundet
Antall sider
162

Forfatter

Biographical note

Robyn Longhurst is Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Academic and Professor of Geography at University of Waikato. She has served as Editor-in-Chief of Gender, Place and Culture: A Journal of Feminist Geography and Chair of the International Geographical Union Commission on Gender and Geography. Robyn has published on issues relating to digital media, pregnancy, mothering, sexuality, ‘visceral geographies’, masculinities, and body size and shape.