Roller Coaster Planet

Abstract

This paper addresses the interrelation between mechanical motion and electro-mechanical mediation. It draws attention to the close parallels between various modes of 'mobile subjectivity' associated with moving image/sound technologies and mechanical forms of transportation. The kinetic experiences associated with the freeway and the roller coaster are offered as two quite different examples of how the interpenetration of media, objects and subjectivities takes place in the realm of moving images and bodies. It is argued that the same modes of perception and motion associated with the car and the roller coaster also figure in a variety of new media forms that appeal to the contemporary body-in-motion/perception-in-motion nexus (from virtual environments to ride films and location-based entertainment). Like other communication networks of the present, both exist as ambivalent spaces for the representation of social interaction and social fears.