This innovative study opens up a new area in sociological and urban studies: the aural experience of the social, mediated through mobile technologies of communication. Whilst we live in a world dominated by visual epistemologies of urban experience, Michael Bull argues that it is not surprising that the Apple iPod, a sound based technology, is the first consumer cultural icon of the twenty-first century. This book, in using the example of the Apple iPod, investigates the way in which we use sound to construct key areas of our daily lives. The author argues that the Apple iPod acts as an urban Sherpa for many of its users and in doing so joins the mobile army of technologies that many of us habitually use to accompany our daily lives. Through our use of such mobile and largely sound based devices, the book demonstrates how and why the spaces of the city are being transformed right in front of our ears.

Community & Business

Advisory Board: Portalplayer. California.

Consultant: Sound Strategies. London.

Core member: Future Trends Forum. European think-tank funded by Bankinter. Spain.

Member: Wired Sussex.

Research

Mobile comminication technologies and their use, Music and sound in urban culture. New directions in Critical Theory (The Frankfurt School), sensory experience and methodologies.

He is also the founding and managing edotor of the journal Senses and Society published by Berg.

Teaching

Michael teaches undergraduate courses in: Music and Media, Media, Technology and Everyday Life, Media and Power, MA courses in The Political Economy of the New Media and the core course in Media and Cultural Studies..