Space, Time and Mobility. Which Memory for Augmented Reality?

Call for papers:

Space, Time and Mobility. Which Memory for Augmented Reality

Editors:

Étienne Faugier, PhD candidate in contemporary history, Laval University and Lumière – Lyon 2 University, LER Laboratory

Arnaud Passalacqua, assistant professor in contemporary history, Paris Diderot – Paris 7 University, ICT Laboratory

Marcel Proust used to describe as augmented reality the perception of modern life offered by motorized mobility. Indeed many faces of contemporary mobility lead to conceive our relationships to space and time in a different manner from that of our ancestors. By foot or riding a bicycle, you directly look towards the landscape, whereas trains, cars or planes produce a view on the environment altered by the windshield and collective or individual speed (Mauch & Zeller, 2008).

Following works published on the landscape of transport (Desportes, 2005), this issue intends to consider, on the one hand, the role of mobility systems in the memorial landscape and, on the other hand, the vision of the memorial landscape offered by mobility systems. By the way, this proposal faces up to a paradox: moving is essentially evanescent and, thus, the memory – possibly even the heritage – of mobility is really hard to catch. The history of transport often seems to tell a long-term acceleration which enables men and goods to get rid of space and time and to reach a quasi-ubiquity. Then how can we consider the idea of memory, which supposes a stable frame of space and time? Moreover the relationship of our society to time is a present topic, particularly the notions of speed (Studény, 1995) and acceleration (Rosa, 2005). The concept of time is hard to define, even for the historian, despite its work on a portion of time: the past. This issue proposes to consider time as range changes, when you leave a mobility system for another. Modal changes produce acceleration or slowdown of the user’s time-space, even in the field of memory.

The point of view of this issue makes several questions immediately arise, which can be considered indicative milestones along our reflexion. Are mobility systems the engine of a memory shift, so that memory just records part of their reality? Which memory deformation produce the nowadays mobility systems? In which extent is it different from that of ancient systems, still existing or already disappeared?

Many paths would probably be useful for the authors, among them:

· the differentiated relationships to space and time of various mobility systems;

· the differentiated effects on memory of various mobility systems;

· the links between the high-speed era (high-speed trains, planes, motor races...) and memory;

· the problem of landscapes imposed by various mobility systems in order to be efficient and competitive and their impact on the building of Nation-States (space reorganization, hierarchy, mobility normalization, urban sprawl…) and on human being (feeling of belonging, increasing controlled territory, new vision of space…);

· the influence of modal changes on kinds of memory which are not historical, such as retinal memory or sensory memory, particularly when shifting from a speedy and sterile means of transport (high-speed train) to another one, in which the body gets more implied (bike, foot...);

· the concept of temporality questioned by the immediacy that many contemporary mobility systems seem to procure or by the praise of slowness (Sansot, 1998) which accompanies the noticeable and new interest in kinds of moving which seemed to be buried in a deep memory (bike, horse...).

This call for papers is not restrained to a discipline, a geographical or temporal frame or a means of transport. By crossing approaches (history, sociology, ethnology, geography, literature...), places and periods, our aim is to draw a picture of the memorial landscape of mobility. Hence, transverse studies and comparative or transnational history will be appreciated.

We invite authors to submit proposals (one page) and a short resume by December 15^th 2010 to mobilityspacetime@gmail.com. Contributions (30 000 to 60 000 signs) will be accepted in French or English, should be sent before April 1^st 2011 and will be peer reviewed.

For more information, please visit the following website:http://cm.revues.org/