Slides presented at Helsinki Photomedia 2014: Photographic powers, held 26-28 March 2014, Aalto University, Finland on the everyday routines of members of the Blipfoto online community (http://blipfoto.com).

1. Between Exhibition and Contemplation:
considering everyday routines on Blipfoto
Dr Eve Forrest and Professor Hazel Hall
Centre for Social Informatics
Edinburgh Napier University, UK
@eveforrest
@hazelh
Paper presented at Helsinki Photomedia 2014: Photographic powers.
26-28 March 2014, Aalto University, Finland.

2. Sharing is caring…
Photograph sharing practices through the ages
clockwise L-R: The Victorian Cartes de Visites,
The Polaroid, Images from ‘Dear Photograph’,
Ellen’s Oscar Selfie, the most tweeted image so far
in Twitter history

3. Tim Ingold: Movement and the Meshwork
Ingold (2008) believes that the dominance of networks, where the
emphasis is put on the direct connections between people and things is
flawed
Entanglement and habitation along the trails of everyday life is messier
than simple straight connecting lines and is more akin to a knotted
meshwork of lines
‘To me, as a relatively inexperienced user, navigating the internet is a matter of
activating a sequence of links that take me... from site to site. Travel through
cyberspace thus resembles transport. Experienced users, however, tell me
that... they follow trails like wayfarers... for them, the web may seem more like a
mesh than a net. How we should understand ‘movement’ through the internet is
an interesting question’ (Ingold, 2011:249)
Travel and the digital wayfarer (Pink, 2013) connected to photography

4. Some old practices, some new routines?
Photographs as objects
Sharing of images has always been popular technology makes this a
more common and flexible pursuit
‘new technology both replicates and extends prior social uses of personal
photos’ (Van House, 2007:5)
Orality of photography (Langford, 2008) – telling of stories important with
physical images where we try to add context to our personal images
‘new technology both replicates and extends prior social uses of personal
photos’ (Van House, 2007:5)

5. Methods
Call put out via the blog/forums on Blipfoto
Focus group organised with local (Edinburgh) Blippers in a city centre
location
Skype-type interviews
Caveat: self selection! (of age, gender, socio-economic group)

6. Blip taken at the focus group

7. Blipfoto
Animation via colour
Space and layout
One photo per day constriction

8. Blipfoto: contrasts and tensions
Private/Public
Anonymity/Openness
Words/Pictures
Yourself/Others
Today/Tomorrow
Life /Death

9. Public/Private
‘I am totally anonymous on Blip none of my friends know I blip …but on
Facebook I am totally open. The only people who know I blip are friends
that I have met on there…I quite like the anonymity of that’ (Blipper 2)
‘I have never thought about it as public/private’ (Blipper 4)
‘I am not identified on Blip…its not that that I am trying to be secretive but
I just wish to anonymous on there’ (Blipper 6)
‘But there is a thing about following someone’s life ….recently one person
I followed got engaged …and I had to look back through her journal and
thought when did this start happening?!’ (Blipper 7)
‘I won’t put people or family on Blip’ (Blipper 1)

10. Words/Pictures
‘Comments can be an extension of my real world communications… if I
read something that I really enjoy because it is about the text as well,
then I will make a comment. If I say great photo then I will mean it!’
(Blipper 6)
‘The commenting between me and the people that I know is another level
of commenting, it is much more of a conversation because people who
know a bit about your life’ (Blipper 7)
‘Perhaps there is 2 ways of commenting …I comment but not in a deep
and meaningful way but I don’t mind saying nice things!...it is about
preserving that community feeling its about how to behave and the
protocol. I would rather people we nice than say something critical’
(Blipper 1)

11. Yourself/Others
‘I’m sharing but I am very much doing the photos for myself … I am a
hobby photographer’ (Blipper 4)
‘It is the photo plus the text so it is a record of my life plus those of other
people, in that moment in time and that place… we are connected through
the site and sort of running parallel with lots of other people’ (Blipper 1)
‘I have always kept a diary…but last year was the only year I did not keep
a diary but I was keeping the blip journal instead’ (Blipper 7)
‘When I was away from my wife and family [Blip] became a communication
tool … as well a personal moment for me’ (Blipper 6)

12. Today/Tomorrow
‘[There was] a desire to do a more formal record of each day…I
photograph every day [my camera] stays in my pocket, to [her husbands]
frustration! I don't use Flickr or Smugmug in the same way but I do use a
couple of blogs like that’ (Blipper 8)
‘You can look back on something that happened a year ago or seven
years ago and you go wow! I have got diaries that have appointments in
them but they don’t have a physical image of something I looked at that
day …. It suddenly brings back what you did that day’ (Blipper 5)

13. Life/Death
‘I realise how much I value looking back at a continuous archive of
memories I have created’ (Blipper 6)
‘The day that a woman in the South of France I followed died: suddenly
all you got was her camera on Blip and a story from her family to say that
she had died the day before. This is someone that I had never met, never
talked to but it was very, very personal’ (Blipper 7)
‘I am doing it as a historical record …it’s actually an amazing resource
that will be there forever’ (Blipper 2)

14. Routes and Routines
Blipfoto both becomes part of routine and disrupts everyday routines
Many participants Blip everyday
More linear structure of day to day uploads
Structured interaction with the site, visiting same people and places
online – not as much browsing
Connections through cohorts

15. Routes and Routines
‘It’s something to do every day…you know that day is going to be crap
because you are going to be in the office all day so you try and get something
on the way to work so ‘at least I have got one’ (Blipper 5)
‘I tend to be logged in on my phone all the time but only log in to upload a
photo once or twice a week on average’ (Blipper 9)
‘I have three modes of engagement on Blip. There is posting my picture on
blip which is actually quite functional I’ll take the time to upload it, write my bit
then go do something else. The second is a set of journals that I follow with
other blogs and things and I usually read through them on my phone or on the
bus in some dead time and catch up with what is going on. The third is in idle
moments I will just browse.’ (Blipper, 6)

16. Routes and Routines
‘[Blip] has encouraged me to have my camera with me more. I get
disappointed if I see a good shot but can't take it’ (Blipper 9)
‘I have never missed a day …and never back blipped but the problem is,
that makes me obsessive! I put up the blip, automatically go and look at
my subscribers and then if I have time I will got through them and give
them all a comment’ Blipper 3)
‘I usually use the PC , if I have to I have time, I check other pics then load
mine. There are a few I always check [but] not everyone…the site has
fitted into my routine’ (Blipper 8)

17. Discussion Points
Contemplation and Exhibition – Blipfoto is a site of contrasts
Users tend to follow the same daily routes in and out of the site
Its habitual use has a profound effect on users daily routines too and they
invest a lot of time in the site
More than photography: text beside the photo can add extra depth to the
journal from both the user and subscribers point of view
‘The media become most significant and successful when they become
an integral part of taken-for-granted daily life’ (Paddy Scannell)
Blipfoto is an important place within the everyday lives of users of the site

18. Thanks
Blippers
Leanne and Graham at Blipfoto
Find us on Blipfoto and Twitter:
www.blipfoto.com/evef
@eveforrest
www.blipfoto.com/hazelh
@hazelh