My iPhone Is My Mother
Students
Valeria Castillo
Tutors
Luís Sallés
Saúl Baeza
Oscar Tomico
Eric Weiss
Format
Research Project
Topic
TFGYear
2023
Being human is an evolving concept. As we move into the digital age, we
!nd ourselves at an intersection where our human qualities, technology,
and our social fabric converge and intertwine. This convergence creates
a liminal space, a sort of in-betweenness that drives us through the
technological medium, reshaping the way we experience and interact
with the world. But how exactly does our human experience translate,
what does it mean to be a human being in transition –or disruption–?
This is an autoethnographic research project that disentangles
and reveals our intricate relationship with technology by exploring the
complex transition of a human connection, the one between a mother
and a daughter. It is a personal story that reveals how the body—with its
new materials–, language —with its new interferences–, and the social
fabric —with its a"ections–transform in order to adapt to the screen. In
essence, it sheds light on the challenges and changes that a human
being faces to be a human today.
MY IPHONE IS MY MOTHER: Rare People, Glitching
Thoughts and Modern Feelings does not aim to provide de!nitive
answers. Rather it attempts to expose the politics of our bodies, the loss
of certain languages, the role of interference, and the complex emotions
that arise when our devices become objects of a"ection. The !nal project
concludes in a manual as a resource for studying personal relationships
and constructing an alternative way of generating experiences on the
screen, recognizing and exploring the space for human agency in the
realm of these media, which can distort, obscure, and fragment our
understanding of what it really means to be human.