The Theatre of Everyday Life in the Age of Wireless Media

As many theorists of culture observe (Virilio, Bauman, Levinson to name a few) we live in the world of speed and mobility. Wireless media such as mobile phones, laptops, palmtops, and GPS systems are crucial factors in the process of acceleration of life. They change all aspects of the theatre of everyday life: scene as physical space becomes augmented by invisible network of waves, behaviour of actors who perform on the edge of private and public space, and the role of audience as difference between the stage and the auditorium becomes blurred or even disappears.

The classical metaphor of Goffman is used to stress the performative aspect of social interaction. Although Goffman terms described social relations in the age of „old“ media his proposal seems to be even more useful for analysis of mobile society. Using symbolic interaction as theoretical starting point, the paper questions rules of performance in the information society and focuses on artistic practices that address the role, influence and effect of development of mobile technologies. The stress is put on these artistic activities, which involve cooperation of large number of inter-actors and become critical interventions in everyday life, as the logic of wireless media is the one of connectivness and interaction in hybrid space.