Panorama Behind Glass: Framing the Spatial and Visual Design of Highways

Introduction My current research project on emerging screen technologies and practices ranges from early cinema to hand-held game consoles. In this project, mobility is a central topic, both concretely and as a conceptual metaphor. Mobility figures as a recurring trope of self-reflection throughout the history of modern visual media. Visions of mobility, I argue, reflect, and stimulate thought concerning the virtual mobility that the particular screen technology mediating these visions enables. Mobility concerns re-configurations between spatial and physical dimensions. These may reflect on, mirror, or counter the particular spatial and physical aspects of the screen as part of a viewing arrangement, a dispositif. Instances of the renewal, innovation, and emergence of new technologies show a particular emphasis on mobility, so as to underscore, explain, and exploit the possibilities of the new screen. My most recent case in this respect is the touch screen: the various implementations of touch screen technology in different types of screens, specifically mobile screens. Here, again, the trope of mobility plays a multiple part. On the one hand the mobility of the user is joined with the mobility of the screen, and countered, or enlarged by the content of the screen. The applications – such as games and navigation devices – engage the viewer/user in a form of virtual mobility. In line with Anne Friedberg’s recent work on the window metaphor for the screen (2006), one could argue that, in addition to this concrete meaning, this virtual mobility of the screen