ewritersjourney

The following is the abstract (or summary) for my current Masters/PhD research proposal. 

Dislocations: Finding a sense of belonging through convergent and locative media.

Today’s GPS-enabled mobile phone – or smartphone – not only allows us to find our way to or from a place, it also makes it possible for us to be located. Those who are lost can be found, or can find their way home. But for those whose sense of home is dislocated, temporary, conflicting, ambiguous, dichotomised, eroded, or perhaps even perpetually non-existent – can it help us find our way, not merely through location of place, but through connection with other sojourners, repatriates, global citizens, nomads, non-belongers? Can it connect us to a new sense of belonging?

 The rapid uptake of GPS-enabled mobile phones and tablets gives writers the potential to take narrative into new domains.

My research argues that social and locative media have relevance to the theme of dislocation and belonging, of place as home. It will review the literature on the impacts of repatriation on cultural identity and belonging; and how changing communication technology has altered its effects. It will also examine the emerging poetics of locative media and the non-linear, non-static narrative scope for writers enabled by the rapid rise of the tablet and smartphone as convergent media platforms.

My creative project will integrate thematic narratives utilising a range of media on these platforms to demonstrate how convergent and locative media can effectively reach and potentially connect repatriates to each other (in a virtual or physical place) and, hopefully, activate a sense of belonging.

This combined research and project will deliver new knowledge to the field of creative writing and convergent media.

(c) 2010, 2011 Kaye Blum.