Documenting the ordinary: mobile digital photography as an agent of change in people's practices concerning storing and sharing of photography

  • Authors:

  • Kirsti Lehtimäki;Taina Rajanti

  • Affiliations:

  • University of Art and Design Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland;University of Art and Design Helsinki, Pori, Finland

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the 5th Nordic conference on Human-computer interaction: building bridges
  • Year:
  • 2008

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Abstract

Our research looks at sharing and storing of digital photographs from the cultural-anthropological perspective of people's everyday practices. Our case study was conducted within the Celtic-funded project EnComPas http://encompas.org/, which studied possibilities of supporting the communication needs of communities, especially families and home. In a study conducted in Arabianranta, Helsinki, we first mapped families' practices of storing and sharing traditional photographs through semi-structured interviews; then studied the changes introduced by digital technology and especially mobile phone's camera technology through trials and renewed interviews. Notable was the developed practice of documenting ordinary life, and telling stories with images, confirmed by other research. Ordinary life is documented mostly with the immediate aim of strengthening communication within a family or a group. The sheer amount of images accumulated creates demands on photo-storing and --sharing applications, which we still feel are not the focus of designers and developers: people want to tell stories with the pictures, and are not interested in complicated annotating, organizing or rating systems.