'The way we are now' is an innovative photo-ethnographic project. It originates from both practice led research into creativity, technology and embodied mind funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, and research into wellbeing, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. The research into creativity is underpinned by the writings of Merleau-Ponty, including his claim 'that modes of thought correspond to technical methods', and that to use Goethe's phrase 'what is inside is also outside', a position similar to that taken by social anthropologists seeing technology as skilled practice. The research into activity and well-being in daily life uses the experience sampling method (ESM). Traditionally, the method uses questionnaire diaries and electronic pagers which are pre-programmed to bleep at randomly selected times during the day to indicate response times. The research discussed here uses a mobile phone to indicate responses eight times a day for seven consecutive days, extended to include images taken at each signal with the mobile phone/camera, which has not been done before. The research extends both the subject matter of digital fine art, and the portrayal of subjective well-being and quality of life.
