Analysing the visual dynamics of spatial morphology

Recently there has been a revival of interest in visibility analysis of architectural configurations. The new analyses rely heavily on computing power and statistical analysis, two factors which, according to the postpositivist school of geography, should immediately cause us to be wary. Thedanger, they would suggest, is in the application of a reductionist formal mathematical description in order to `explain' multilayered sociospatial phenomena. The author presents an attempt to rationalise how we can use visibility analysis to explore architecture in this multilayered context by considering the dynamics that lead to the visual experience. In particular, it is recommended that we assess the visualprocess of inhabitation, rather than assess the visibility in vacuo. In order to investigate the possibilities and limitations of the methodology, an urban environment is analysed by means of an agent-based model of visual actors within the configuration. The results obtained from the model are compared with actual pedestrian movement and other analytic measurements of the area: the agents correlate well both with human movement patterns and with configurational relationship as analysed by space-syntax methods. The application of both methods in combination improves on the correlation with observed movement of either, which in turn implies that an understanding of both the process of inhabitation and the principles of configuration may play a crucial role in determining the social usage of space

Recent Developments and Future Trends in Volunteered Geographic Information Research: The Case of OpenStreetMap

User-generated content (UGC) platforms on the Internet have experienced a steep increase in data contributions in recent years. The ubiquitous usage of location-enabled devices, such as smartphones, allows contributors to share their geographic information on a number of selected online portals. The collected information is oftentimes referred to as volunteered geographic information (VGI). One of the most utilized, analyzed and cited VGI-platforms, with an increasing popularity over the past few years, is OpenStreetMap (OSM), whose main goal it is to create a freely available geographic database of the world. This paper presents a comprehensive overview of the latest developments in VGI research, focusing on its collaboratively collected geodata and corresponding contributor patterns. Additionally, trends in the realm of OSM research are discussed, highlighting which aspects need to be investigated more closely in the near future

Seeing the City Digitally

This book explores what's happening to ways of seeing urban spaces in the contemporary moment, when so many of the technologies through which cities are visualised are digital. Cities have always been pictured, in many media and for many different purposes. This edited collection explores how that picturing is changing in an era of digital visual culture. Analogue visual technologies like film cameras were understood as creating some sort of a trace of the real city. Digital visual technologies, in contrast, harvest and process digital data to create images that are constantly refreshed, modified and circulated. Each of the chapters in this volume examines a different example of this processual visuality is reconfiguring the spatial and temporal organisation of urban life

Understanding Relational Locations and Complex Urban Systems: Mapping The Relations Between Computation, Space and Infrastructure

This thesis examines how computation has become part of different aspects of urban territories. In particular, this research focuses on the increased softwarisation and datafication of these territories and consequently, on the conditions that have favoured the emergence of new modes of urban spatialities. It proposes that relational locations have emerged as prevailing urban spatialities, brought about by the relations between space, infrastructure and computation. Beginning with an analysis of the relations between these three areas, it is shown that the crucial impact of computation, through the processes of softwarisation and datafication, mostly takes place within complex urban systems and their tendency towards convergence and concretisation, now accelerated and intensified. Furthermore, it is proposed that this tendency is increasingly sustained by the development of relations of mutual dependency and continuous feedback with practices of standardisation and risk management, which have become specifically location-oriented. From this standpoint, two case studies emphasise the localised implications of the transversal logic of computation. The first case study starts with the analysis of the convergence between the traffic management infrastructure and the air quality monitoring network. It draws attention to the dynamics established, extension of scope and use of indeterminacy as a management tool. The second case study focuses on the intensive gridding that new approaches to the logistics’ last-mile are creating. The delivery of ‘parcels’ continuously divides space and monitors increasingly more elements, turning vehicles into dots. The main argument of this thesis is that complex urban systems and the relations that support them are central to the understanding of computation throughout urban territories. This thesis aims to show that the impact of the computational logic goes beyond its area of immediate action, increasingly creating contexts of mutual dependency and co-evolvement and translating adjacent elements into computable formats

Seeing the City Digitally

This book explores what's happening to ways of seeing urban spaces in the contemporary moment, when so many of the technologies through which cities are visualised are digital. Cities have always been pictured, in many media and for many different purposes. This edited collection explores how that picturing is changing in an era of digital visual culture. Analogue visual technologies like film cameras were understood as creating some sort of a trace of the real city. Digital visual technologies, in contrast, harvest and process digital data to create images that are constantly refreshed, modified and circulated. Each of the chapters in this volume examines a different example of this processual visuality is reconfiguring the spatial and temporal organisation of urban life

Embodying heritage: a biosocial investigation into emotion, memory & historic landscapes

This thesis examines the embodied geographies of heritage environments by discussing the various features and qualities of these environments in relation to the body. Emerging from, and contributing to, the increased emphasis on interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary studies in human geography and particularly developments in biosocial theory, this thesis develops an original approach to the study of embodiment within geography. This approach pays attention to the socio-cultural, material-built, remembered, and more-than-human environments that are present in urban conservation areas and the psychophysiological events that occur in this relatedness. In doing so, this thesis pursues two interlinked lines of enquiry: firstly, it develops and critically evaluates a biosocial methodology through the use of biosensing technology within a qualitative mixed-methods approach. In doing so, it discusses the effectiveness of biosensing technology outside of a laboratory setting and for investigating different areas of study in geography. Secondly, and drawing upon the residents’ accounts of the urban conservation areas of Bournville, Moseley and the Jewellery Quarter (Birmingham, UK), the thesis discusses the various features (both in material and imagined worlds) that establish or contribute to an individual’s connection with the urban heritage environments. Combined, these two lines of enquiry create a biosocial account of urban heritage landscapes

Gatherings in biosemiotics

http://www.ester.ee/record=b2860486*es