Nomophobia

About the work

Nomophobia investigates how the expectation of mobile connectivity can interrupt an attempt to inhabit the present. Combining moving image with a wearable vibration device, the project asks how habits of checking and anticipating a phone signal shape what we notice and what escapes our attention.

Before entering, each visitor places their mobile phone inside a waist bag containing a vibration device. The bag is secured with a padlock, and the visitor wears it into the viewing space. At a point during the film, the device makes the bag vibrate, mimicking the sensation of a phone vibrating. The phone remains close to the body but cannot immediately be checked: a familiar bodily cue is separated from the action that would usually follow it.

The film attends to mundane and often overlooked moments of travel. Shown in a shared viewing environment, these images evoke the proximity of strangers sharing public transport and invite attention to experiences that might otherwise pass unnoticed. The vibration introduces a competing demand on that attention, bringing the anticipation of a notification into the encounter with the film.

The work makes technological mediation tangible through a sensation worn against the body. It explores the tension between attending to an image and feeling prompted to turn elsewhere, even when the source of that prompt cannot be checked. Made before the current doctoral research, Nomophobia anticipates Song’s continuing interest in how moving images, bodily sensations and shared space can make the conditions of perception noticeable.