A team of four people from HUMlab will co-author a mobile live web log (Live Moblog) to share, document and manifest a Northern Swedish cultural event as it happens. The Moblog is an ideal medium for cultural representation and interaction. It is transient and permanent, direct and reflective, location-independent and location-dependent, and allows for multiple-perspective, multilingual and multimodal stories. The project involves exploring a new medium, managing different kinds of mobile technology under very severe conditions, meetings with many different cultures and narratives, and making it possible for a multitude of people to share and contribute to an important cultural event – the 399th Annual Sámi Winter Market.


Click here to enter the Jokkmokk 2004 blog.

Such a narrative construction draws upon elements of art installation, documentary film, diary and the genre of road movie. With the growing use of multi-media equipped mobile phones and other personal digital assistance devices among individuals in digital societies the mobile blog documentary is relevant to the development of the format and of interest to the many in the blogosphere. From the 5th to the 7th February 2004 Jokkmokk situated 70kms north of the Arctic Circle, the cultural capital of Lapland is host to a three day market and festival celebrating the culture of the Sámi people of Sápmi, the homeland without a border that stretches from the coast of Norway to the vast north of Russia. Representatives from all Sámi communities attend the market which is a highpoint in the cultural calendar of the Sámi nation, particularly as this is a jubilee year for the festival. Music, dance, handiwork, lectures, sports and celebrations accompany the buying and selling of traditional and contempory arts, crafts and even reindeer.

This moblogging project grew out of the interdisciplinary intersection of the humanites, culture and technology called HUMlab. HUMlab is a high-profile humanities IT laboratory at Umeå University in Sweden. One of the HUMlab themes is Participatory Media and blogging has been a lab interest for quite some time now (Jill Walker's HUMlab seminar in November 2002 helped a lot). Jokkmokk2004 will be used as a starting-point for new projects and as material/experience for academic work.

The project is being carried out in cooperation with the Umeå Center for Interaction Technology (UCIT) at Umeå University. Project coordination: Patrik Svensson (web page, blog), director of HUMlab.

The team (all based in Umeå and affiliated with HUMlab):

Jim Barrett: Australian journalist, didgeridoo player and spiritualist. Has just finished his M.A. thesis on chronotopes in cybertexts. Spends much time designing a monumental virtual meeting place for HUMlab.

Therese Örnberg: Ph.D. student in the humanities and information technology. Thesis topic: emergent communication. Does not want to miss out on anything and very talented at managing things (in general - here mainly other team members and logistics).

Anton Gustavsson: Computing science graduate who knows about the inside of technology as well as the big world. Perfectly able to tune complex wireless networks at the same time as taking care of frozen laptops and defrosted mobile phones.

Stephanie Nilsson: American activist and teacher from the Deep South. Passionate about blogging and finding out. Has recently finished her M.A. thesis on social networks and blogging. Has main responsibility for blog technology.

The blog:

 The blog will be started (for real) on February 4, 2003, when the blog team head North (about 5:30 pm CET) on a six-hour car drive from Umeå (see this Lonely Planet map for geography and information). The main part of the blogging, however, will happen the following three days. The grand finale will be a concert on Saturday evening when one of the team members will play  the didgeridoo (and other instruments) live on stage while blogging. A live video stream will also be part of this experience as well as some unique multi-perspective blogging. The blog can be found here.