Digital placemaking and networked corporeality: Embodied mobile media practices in domestic space during Covid-19

Abstract

In contemporary life, the mobile phone is integral to digital and material placemaking practices. In this article, drawing on ethnographic analysis conducted in Perth and Melbourne (Australia) in the first months of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, we explore how this relation has been recalibrated as an effect of ‘stay-at-home’ restrictions. We first provide a brief overview of our methodological and interpretative approach – drawing from postphenomenology as a useful framework for understanding the mobile–body–place relation and digital placemaking at home. Second, we consider how mobile media are ‘situated’ in the domestic environment. Third, through an analysis of participant narratives, we explore the concept of net locality (Gordon and de Souza e Silva (2011) through the lens of embodiment theory and suggest that the Covid-19 context has altered our experience of ‘networked corporeality’. Finally, we discuss the ambiguity of digital intimacy in the decoupling of mobile media and the body as a result of a rapid increase in both screen time and time spent at home. Throughout the article, we argue that mobile media use in the home is thoroughly enmeshed in the shifting boundaries of privacy, placemaking and domestic space. We question how the placemaking functionality of mobile media, the intimate body–technology relation specific to mobile media practices and ‘being-at-home’ were subsequently modified by physical distancing and isolation.

Pandemic fitness assemblages: The sociomaterialities and affective dimensions of exercising at home during the COVID-19 crisis

“…Our analysis seeks to extend recent scholarship examining the intersections of the corporeal and technological and the role these entanglements have played in the production of affect, embodiment, subjectivity and relationships during the COVID-19 crisis (Hardley and Richardson, 2020; Norum and Polson, 2021; Watson et al, 2021). In what follows, we draw on our empirical material collected through semi-structured interviews and virtual ethnographic home tours with Australian adults to explore their improvised pandemic exercise practices and the spaces in which they occur.…”

“…Recent research has detailed the ways that digital media and devices used in the home are implicated in everyday placemaking during the COVID-19 crisis (Hardley and Richardson, 2020; Norum and Polson, 2021; Watson et al, 2021). However, less attention has been paid to how digital technology has been used for exercise and fitness training at home during the pandemic.…”

The Digitalization of Religion: Smartphone Use and Subjective Well‐Being during COVID‐19

“…As COVID‐19 and its variants have spread, many people across the world have turned to digital channels to stay connected and track information about the pandemic (Auxier 2020; Hardley and Richardson 2020). The new reality has altered lifestyles and driven people to seek well‐being via technology (Clark and Lupton 2021).…”

Google Maps’ COVID-19 layer as an interface for pandemic life

“…The service also introduced a simplified way to report on how crowded public transport happened to be at the time, either manually or through automatic measurement for those who opted into sharing their phone's location history. The latter innovation marked the beginning of Google Maps' more structured response to the changing conditions of the pandemic, particularly through mobile media (Hardley & Richardson, 2021): repurposing what had hitherto functioned as predominantly a commercial platform to serve as a health and safety tool.…”