Maps and Pervasive Computing (but mostly maps)
1. In Dr. Farman’s book, he writes “I knew the map was representing my location incorrectly. I also knew the name of the nearest intersection. But, I had no idea where I was! Though I had barely taken a few steps outside of the hotel, I was already lost” (36). This made me think about that moment of realization of being lost and how mapping and mobile technology change the experience of that moment in terms of when it happens and how the realization hits. How do mobile devices and maps enforce that feeling? Do they? I’m thinking specifically about the moment when you realize your map is representing you incorrectly or your GPS loses its signal–you are suddenly aware that you don’t know where you are, but in relation to what? Would you have known you were lost if your device hadn’t essentially told you that you were? Also, how is our experience of location (and lost-ness) impacted by mobile maps? Do we experience being lost in a different way now?
2. This isn’t so much a question as a request. I’m really interested in the violence and the potential for reclamation that lies in cartography that Sletto discusses a number of times in his article. I wonder if we, as a class, could focus on this for a little while, examining the ways in which processes of mapping often necessitate a mapping over or onto that contributes to the erasure of certain people and places. I’d argue that Augmented Reality and Embodied Implacement are implicated in this process, especially if we use Dr. Farman’s example of the Streetmuseum application. What images are considered part of the history? Whose history? Why this image/event and not others? (Okay, it turned into a question…)
3. The questions of access and alternatives were a consistent thorn in my side as I read through this week’s texts. Who has access to mapping technologies? Who doesn’t? Why not? Why the primacy of maps? What alternatives to maps and mapping exist? How do people who do not or cannot use maps (paper maps, electronic maps) “map” space? Is it always necessary to do so? Is there some other form of knowledge that is more or differently useful than maps?
Body: This week, the body seems like a really locative technology–as in, it is through your body that you know where you are
Place: A space imbued with meanings that come both from the person inhabiting or considering that place, but also from outside, often larger institutional forces