Swarm methodology: the Consumer Electronic Show, contagion, and visual data collection Lawrence Mullen* Hank Greenspun School of Journalism and Media Studies, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA (Received 28 June 2007; final form 11 January 2009) This report documents the process of collecting visual data at the 2007 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. Afterdefining CES as a network and the concept of the swarm as a phenomenon with distinctive data collection implications, a two-stage process is outlined. Understood from the point of contagion theory, the first stage of the data collection process resembled a formalistic approach while the second stage focused on specific data content. The goal was to understand swarm as a relatively unique way of studying ephemeral social phenomena and systematize its data collection procedures. Keywords: swarm; visual; data collection; CES Introduction ‘The swarm’ is an experimental methodology used to collect visual, aural, and artifactual data. It is also aphilosophy, or approach for doing collaborative research (the philosophical aspects of swarm are discussed in more detail by Conley, Jones, and Kilker in this volume). As part of the swarm group that infiltrated the 2007 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada, my purpose in this report is to document the data-collection activities that took place during this event, with the goal of systematizing and critiquing the swarm’s procedures and outcomes. Arguably, CES is, more than anything, avisual experience. And in today’s society, it is the visual that takes precedence over all other modes of attracting consumer attention. This study’s focus on the visual elements of CES, then, is an attempt to understand a particular aspect of the dominant form of marketplace communica- tion. Others have written about visuality, the ocularcentric nature of our postmodern society (e.g. Rose, 2007; Mirzoeff, 1999), and visual consumption (Schroeder, 2002) and much of this literature centers on visual representations and the methods for understanding them. This study differs from previous work in its analysis of the process of visual data collection and how the swarm methodology affected the collection process. Understanding CES as a network phenomenon helps to underscore its complex- ity. As a system with myriad components, it would take a lifetime and more to understand the ways these parts come together and interact. We only know that somehow it all seems to work. The various entities forming CES come together for *Email: lawrence.mullen@unlv.edu ISSN 1350-4630 print/ISSN 1363-0296 online # 2009 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/13504630903043824 http://www.informaworld.com Social Identities Vol. 15, No. 4, July 2009, 463Á476