Valerie Drew / The (Re)turn to technology…

The mountainous terrain renders much of Knoydart a dead zone without mobile phone or WiFi signal and, whilst some of the group welcomed this new found freedom, at times this appeared to present an additional challenge to a group used to 24/7 access to communication with family, friends and work (although not necessarily in that order).  It was good to engage in conversations uninterrupted by the now commonplace bleeping and vibrating of devices urging their owners to read and respond and it was good to be able to relax without any desire or need to check personal or work email.

Last week I attended an interesting seminar by Professor Richard Coyne, University of Edinburgh entitled ‘How do pervasive digital devices–smart phones, iPods, GPS navigations systems, and camera among others–influence the way we use spaces?’ 

Coyne argues that

‘these ubiquitous devices and the networks that support them become the means of making incremental adjustments within spaces–of tuning place. Pervasive media help us formulate a sense of place through their capacity to introduce small changes, in the same way that tuning a musical instrument invokes the subtle process of recalibration. Places are inhabited spaces, populated by people, their concerns, memories, stories, conversations, encounters, and artifacts. The tuning of place–whereby people use their devices in their interactions with one another–is also a tuning of social relations’.

His seminar reminded me of a point on our return journey from Mallaig when the NC group were recalibrated to their digital devices as the signal strengthened and emails and text messages poured in… phones bleeped and vibrated to alert their owners to their reinstatement… technology interrupting the moment and blocking out breathtaking views of the west coast as people re-engaged with this aspect of their lives.  

One of the most noticeable features of our time on Knoydart was the interruption to engagement with technology which provided more time and space to think.