Locative Media: From Transcendental Technologies to Socio- Formative Spheres An Examination of the Interface between Place, Agent and Locative Media

Abstract This thesis is a theoretical-empirical study that investigates the consequences and implications of adopting locative media technologies in everyday situations, paying particular attention to the potential strengthening of relationships between locative media and spatial practices of architecture and urban studies. Locative Media is a type of media technology that relates information to location/place, provides sites and occasions for the development of new forms of environmental knowing, spatial and cultural understandings, and arguably constructs new spatial relations with place, place-experience and sense of place. Although there is a vast literature on the socio-spatial and cultural implications of media technologies, social media, social networking sites and other applications accessed through the Internet, there are limited numbers of studies that explore the shift in the ways we understand and relate to virtual materials/information following the emergence of location- based technology, and how those technologies might affect the conventional ways we develop relationships/associations with location/places, or perceive places, or understand spatiality. Tracing the emergence of locative media and the new implications of map/representation, the thesis takes locative media as the subject under scrutiny and investigates the assemblage and interrelationships of the three main ingredients of place/locative media/ agent. The interrelationship of those three ingredients and the social and behavioural norms of using Locative media in real time is explored through an empirical lens using two case studies (individuals using Foursquare/Streetmuseum applications), where three main categories of locative media applications (urban annotation/tagging applications, user-generated maps and social networking applications) are explored. The findings of empirical studies, and issues regarding implications of locative media, are then categorized into thematic chapters: locative media and Image of place, Place-making potentials of new media technologies, locative media and alternative flexible forms of sociability, and finally possibilities of relational place- understanding: In-group experiences. Since the field of locative media is very new, theories and ways of discussing related phenomenon are not yet strongly developed: thus whilst examining existing cases empirically, this thesis also contributes to on-going theoretical discourses regarding place-understanding after new media technologies (tracking the change in place-understanding), and the interconnected issues of spatiality resulting from mediation, embodiment, mobility, technology, and community. Therefore the findings of the empirical studies feed into the process of developing related theories, and construct an argument that locative media could be considered as both Transcendental Technologies (technologies that transcend spatiality, geography and territory) and Socio-Formative Spheres (technologies that form socio-spatial interactions) based on the frames of observation. It also provides an insight into the possible ways that new media technologies can be applied as tools or mediums for architects and urban planners to rewrite the city, to communicate with communities of users, or to adopt those media platforms as site analysis mediums, tools for collecting and sharing site-related information in new, practical ways

DIY networking as a facilitator for interdisciplinary research on the hybrid city

DIY networking is a technology with special characteristics compared to the public Internet, which holds a unique potential for empowering citizens to shape their hybrid urban space toward conviviality and collective awareness. It can also play the role of a “boundary object” for facilitating interdisciplinary interactions and participatory processes between different actors: researchers, engineers, practitioners, artists, designers, local authorities, and activists. This position paper presents a social learning framework, the DIY networking paradigm, that we aim to put in the centre of the hybrid space design process. We first introduce our individual views on the role of design as discussed in the fields of engineering, urban planning, urban interaction design, design research, and community informatics. We then introduce a simple methodology for combining these diverse perspectives into a meaningful interdisciplinary collaboration, through a series of related events with different structure and framing. We conclude with a short summary of a selection of these events, which serves also as an introduction to the CONTACT workshop on facilitating information sharing between strangers, in the context of the Hybrid City III conference

The influence of locative media on social information sharing: a review

Mobile phones and social media enable people to share information with others whenever they want, wherever they want. More recent developments allow people to augment their sharing experience by geo-tagging their information through GPS enabled phones. These 'locative media' can be used to facilitate navigation, way finding or to obtain information about a physical place or object. Other services let the users tag, rate public spaces and recommend them to other people. Furthermore, people can tell their stories by attaching their own context to a physical location. This report is a literature review in the field of locative media. In order to get a complete overview of the research that is done on location-based social networking, the most recent developments in the field are investigated. We also look at research methods used to test the user experience of this type of social media systems. Furthermore, we investigate the influence of location based media on the sharing habits and social practices of the users of these systems. The conclusions of this exploration in the field of locative media research lead to design guidelines and research methods that will be used in a user evaluation of a system for location based smart photo sharing

Community mapping: from representation to action.

Community mapping is an approach to spatial representation that promotes a sense of agency and active engagement by encouraging “bottom-up” participation by users and community groups. Reviewing the place-based work of an earlier generation of geographers, environmental writers, and artists, the paper provides a context for understanding contemporary mapping utilizing geotechnologies such as “locative media.” The author concludes that technologically empowered artists, partnered with specialists engaged in place-based research, can translate objective representations of place into socially engaged action

Building participatory counternarratives: Pedagogical interventions through digital placemaking

Places are filled with stories, with histories that shape how people understand the nature of a place. Places are unique sets of trajectories – each with a story – coming into contact. However, just as much as places are defined by their histories, they are also shaped by the histories that are forgotten, or far too often, actively suppressed through dominant narratives. After all, dominant media of spatial, public memory – for example, plaques and public monuments – often reproduce dominant narratives of a place, narratives created by the powerful. This project examines how digital placemaking can be deployed through locative technologies to push back on dominant spatial narratives and make places more polyvocal in consequential ways. In particular, through a project at Clemson University, we examine how locative storytelling applications can help students intervene in traditional narratives of place to engage with social justice and alternative histories