Finding Augusta

Finding Augusta breaks new ground, revising how media studies interpret the relationship between our bodies and technology. This is a challenging exploration of how, for both good and ill, the sudden ubiquity of mobile devices, GPS systems, haptic technologies, and other forms of media alter individuals' experience of their bodies and shape the social collective. The author succeeds in problematizing the most salient fact of contemporary mobile media technologies, namely, that they have become, like highways and plumbing, an infrastructure that regulates habit. Audacious in its originality, Finding Augusta will be of great interest to art and media scholars alike.

About the Author :
HEIDI RAE COOLEY is an assistant professor in the Department of Art at the University of South Carolina.

Review :
"A prescient, well-written and convincing interrogation of mobility as the defining problem of our current era. It will change the way we study new media by moving us away from questions of surveillance to those of tracking, from autobiography to autography, from images as content to images as a series of patterns and rhythms, from confession to sharing. Absolutely brilliant."--Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, author of Programmed Visions: Software and Memory "H-Net/H-War" (1/1/2016 12:00:00 AM) "A unique contribution to critical mobilities research through its integration of theoretical models from media studies, neurophysiology, and semiotics. The book pursues a bold, practical aspiration to change everyday habits with regard to mobile tracking and thereby resist the ability of governments to surveil and control their populations."--Steve Anderson, associate professor of Media Arts + Practice, USC School of Cinematic Arts (1/1/2013 12:00:00 AM) "Cooley imaginatively examines the contemporary tension between mobility and governance, tracing an archival analog home movie that, in its time, already played with navigation as we now know it. Studying practices of finding and tracking in the cultural present, and the way governance deals with those habits, she examines exciting alternatives to the obsession with surveillance."--Nanna Verhoeff, author of Mobile Screens: The Visual Regime of Navigation "H-Net/H-War" (1/1/2016 12:00:00 AM) "Cooley's book raises critical questions for future research and contemporary debates regarding surveillance, privacy, and civil liberties. . . . The greatest strengths of Cooley's work include her unique example of digital humanities scholarship and critical readings of the political stakes of new media technologies."--Steve Anderson, associate professor of Media Arts + Practice, USC School of Cinematic Arts "H-Net/H-War" (1/1/2016 12:00:00 AM) A prescient, well-written and convincing interrogation of mobility as the defining problem of our current era. It will change the way we study new media by moving us away from questions of surveillance to those of tracking, from autobiography to autography, from images as content to images as a series of patterns and rhythms, from confession to sharing. Absolutely brilliant. Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, author of Programmed Visions: Software and Memory" A unique contribution to critical mobilities research through its integration of theoretical models from media studies, neurophysiology, and semiotics. The book pursues a bold, practical aspiration to change everyday habits with regard to mobile tracking and thereby resist the ability of governments to surveil and control their populations. Steve Anderson, associate professor of Media Arts + Practice, USC School of Cinematic Arts" Cooley imaginatively examines the contemporary tension between mobility and governance, tracing an archival analog home movie that, in its time, already played with navigation as we now know it. Studying practices of finding and tracking in the cultural present, and the way governance deals with those habits, she examines exciting alternatives to the obsession with surveillance. Nanna Verhoeff, author of Mobile Screens: The Visual Regime of Navigation" Cooley s book raises critical questions for future research and contemporary debates regarding surveillance, privacy, and civil liberties. . . .The greatest strengths of Cooley s work include her unique example of digital humanities scholarship and critical readings of the political stakes of new media technologies. H-Net/H-War"