Bluetooth enabled performative interactions in public spaces

Mobile phones have become ubiquitous communication tools and are often highly personal, enabling novel means of interacting with others when negotiating public spaces. These features, together with the partially embodied nature of Bluetooth, mean that mobile phone based Bluetooth provides unique affordances with which users can interact with one another. This paper summarises some of our research into users’ active Bluetooth use, their Bluetooth naming and interactions with publicly visible Bluetooth visualizations, exploring how people appropriate the medium in performing interactions in differing contexts.

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