Page 125 - Consuming Media

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112 Consuming Media

an intricate dialectic here, in that media use gives time and space meanings and even
creates its own virtual times and virtual spaces, while also remaining bound and
framed by particular places and moments. Investigating media hardware in the
context of a shopping centre thus invites reflection on how this particular location
of such machines relates to issues of power.
Mobile machines are found in most places where people move. Modern micro-
technologies make many media machines mobile. However, much hardware still
tends to be relatively fixed in space, due to large size or a need to be connected to a
fixed network of antennas, cables or electric power. In some places, even mobile appa-
ratuses may be hard to use, due to physical conditions (for instance under water) or
rules of conduct (when silence or utter concentration is demanded). The question of
where hardware machines are located – and their accessibility – is therefore an issue
subject to conflict and contestation, since they establish a kind of communicative
power over space.
The consumption processes of media machines follow the same basic phases as
with other commodities, but are modified by the specificities of these machines and
the fact that they are tools for media use and always connected to some kind of soft-
ware. Within the space of Solna Centre, this process can be summed up in three main
steps: (1) shopping for media hardware in the centre, (2) using media hardware in
the centre, and (3) using media hardware that has been bought in the centre, outside
the centre. Here, only brief comments will be made about each point, with a focus
on their spatial aspects.

(1) First, media machines are selected and purchased in the centre’s shops. In Solna
Centre, the most general such shop was Expert, a chain store for all kinds of hi-fi
equipment and media hardware: stereos, TV sets, radios, VCR and DVD players,
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photo cameras and computer technology. The Technics Store (Teknikmagasinet)
had a similarly wide range of goods, but geared more towards smaller and cheaper
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electronics, tools, gadgets and games. There were also a couple of short-lived small
shops specializing in computer goods and game tools, including both programs and
hardware. In addition, some shops for mobile phones were sometimes connected to
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a particular company for telephone subscriptions. Finally, there were two competing
photographic shops, Kodak Image Centre and Fuji’s Photo Gang, described in
Chapter 4. Some media hardware could also be marginally sold in other places as
well, in conjunction with other media, or with children’s toys.

(2) Second, regardless of where they are bought, media machines are used in the
centre. Some machines are owned and used by companies and their staff and manage-
ment, others by customers. The TV monitors and sound systems discussed above
belong to the first sub-category. Also, telephones and computers were used by Solna
Centre and its shops, both for internal communication (as with faxes and e-mails
between managements and shops) and as sales tools to stimulate or assist customers’
choice and purchase of other goods (as with TV monitors showing commercials).