Paper short abstract:

This paper takes issue with the manner in which digital technologies have impinged upon society and its values. It does so through analysis and ethnographic accounts of usage of old-fashioned photobooths.

Paper long abstract:

The subject of discussion will be the photobooth phenomena in Berlin, and through the study of its expansion I will provide some grounds for reflection upon broader issues; for instance, how the digital culture has produce an escalate of personalisation and immediacy, as well as how people look forward for dosing the use of these devices.

I put forward that when the digital becomes a disciplining regime, when virtuality and immediacy turn out to be unpleasant and abducting, when acceleration and contingency turn to be excessive, individuals develop retro-resistances and seek terrains of freedom elsewhere, manifested as a move back, culturally embedded.

As demonstrated in my ethnography, the analogue photobooths provide an opportunity for body encounters, sensuous dispositions, unpredictable exchanges and the possibility to fail. Thus they have turned into sites of resistance to the excessive virtuality and immediacy of daily life.