snapshots of almost contact
Larissa Hjorth
Website: www.larissahjorth.net
Statement:
As an artist and digital ethnographer I have been interested in the ways that people deploy everyday media such as mobile phone as both communicative and creative devices and how this impacts upon photographic and digital storytelling in an age of social, networked media (such as Facebook). In particular, I am interested in how intimacy is changing (i.e. becoming increasingly public in forums such as Facebook) and how affective, “personalized†technologies such as mobile phones are impacting how we think and practice sociality and politics. I have been researching the gendered use of mobile media and online communities within the Asia-Pacific since 2000 which has resulted in various collaborative and cross-cultural projects including gloss (Australia-Japan Asialink-Japan Foundation magazine and exhibition project, 2002), snapshots of almost contact (Ssamzie space, Seoul, 2005), waiting for immediacy (Yonsei University fellowship, Seoul, 2007) as well as publications such as Mobile Media in Asia-Pacific (London/New York: Asia’s transformation series Routledge, 2009) and a co-edited anthology with Dean Chan, Gaming Cultures and Place in Asia-Pacific (London/New York: Routledge, 2009).
Short bio:
Dr. Larissa Hjorth is artist, digital ethnographer and Senior Lecturer in the Games and Digital Art Programs at RMIT University. Since 2000, Hjorth has been researching and publishing on gendered customising of mobile communication, gaming and virtual communities in the Asia–Pacific — these studies are outlined in her book, Mobile Media in the Asia-Pacific (London, Routledge). Hjorth has published widely on the topic in national and International journals in journals such as Games and Culture journal, Convergence journal, Journal of Intercultural Studies, Continuum, ACCESS, Fibreculture and Southern Review and recently co-edited two Routledge anthologies, Games of Locality: Gaming cultures in the Asia-Pacific (with Dean Chan) and Mobile technologies: from Telecommunication to Media (with Gerard Goggin). In 2007, Hjorth co-convened the International Mobile media conference with Gerard Goggin (www.mobilemedia2007.net) and the Interactive Entertainment (IE) conference with Esther Milne (www.ie.rmit.edu.au).
In 2009 she began her ARC discovery fellowship with Michael Arnold exploring the role of the local and online with communities in the region. This three year cross-cultural case study will locations such as Tokyo, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, Manila, and Melbourne.
Hjorth has been practicing art for over a decade and has received grants such as The Australia Council new work fellowship (2006), Australian Council Tokyo studio (2000), Akiyoshidai International Art Village residency (2002) and the Asialink Seoul visual art residency (2005). Hjorth has had over 10 solo exhibitions at institutions such as EAF and CACSA, participated in over 50 art exhibitions (such as Yokohama Triennale 2001 with Japanese Internet group, Candy Factory) and curated many cross-cultural and social commentary projects such as the Japanese and Australian magazine and exhibition project, gloss (2002).