Spatial-technological experiments in the environment: eliciting and representing experiences of urban space

摘要

Building on an experimental study carried out in Dublin, Ireland, this paper discusses the potential of locative technology to mediate the communication of city inhabitants' everyday life experiences of urban space. The study was designed as a spatial-technological experiment and focused on eliciting and representing experiences embedded in everyday life practices, generated by people's daily movement through the city. The paper highlights the importance of first 'provoking' an enhanced awareness of one's everyday environments before such experiences can come to the surface and be expressed. Moreover, inspired by the open source movement, it illustrates possibilities for expanding the role of ordinary city inhabitants from data-generators to co-producers of knowledge for, and about, the city, through the use of locative technology. In doing so, the paper advances knowledge regarding the use of Global Position Systems technology in citizen-sensing initiatives.