Tag: Charting the Digital

Mobile Media: Making-Cooperation-Work

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The Charting the Digital team will be making an appearance at the upcoming ‘Mobile Media: Making-Cooperation-Work’ conference in Siegen from the 19th-21st June 2014. As the conference organizers posit:

The growing mobility of people, data and infrastructures is presenting media with new challenges. Where virtuality was till the centre of attention in immobile use, smart-phones, in particular, are currently showing us how central social connectivity, contextual sensing, micro-coordination, and haptic feedback are to our understanding of media practices. At the same time, a variety of phenomena that could be understood as mobile media, such as map apps or connected vehicles, reveal that more and more infrastructures, goods and tools have to be digital and networked in order to make a mediation process possible, as actually portrayed with the Internet of Things. Thus, what this conference aims to focus on, is the specifities of certain media as forms for cooperation.

Led by Nanna Verhoeff, we intend to present on a recent collaborative experiment soon to be carried out in Oxford, UK. Tentatively titled Footage, the experiment is an attempt to bring together playful, navigational and temporal themes in a practical, urban setting.

More details are available at the conference website here. A brief outline is below:

In Footage we [will] use…playful and mobile methods to experiment with notions of temporality, mapping media and space. As a collaborative “experiment” it builds on the ideas of Michel de Certeau: of walkers’ traces and tactics and of spatial and navigational forms, conducted in teams in the city of Oxford as “laboratory” (May 2014). It aim[s] to engage with performative and playful navigational practice-based mobile methodologies and the development of analytical tools for analyzing these mobile and collaborative practices. In this (collaborative) presentation, we will present the goals and design of the experiment, and our experience as researchers working as a team and working with groups of participants.

This mobile game/experiment [i]s specifically designed to reflect on the way in which the city of Oxford holds time and how it comprises a multitude of differing temporalities. The interpretation of these temporalities is experiential – navigational and chronological versus networked and relational. In the experiment we [will] work… with different media maps (still images, moving-image footage, sound, etc.) that encourage…participants to think differently about the way in which you read these maps, experience navigating with them, and then respond to the different temporalities these inform.

GEM #2: ALEXANDER GALLOWAY – THE INTERFACE EFFECT

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On Tuesday January 14th we will have the next GEM jam in Utrecht. Please save the date! We will convene between 1 and 3 at Muntstraat 2A, 1.11. In this second meeting of the Research Group on Geomedia and Urban Interfaces (see below) we will discuss Alexander Galloway’s 2012 book The Interface Effect.

Although it isn’t a particularly lengthy title, some might consider reading Patrick Jagoda’s review in the LARB as a good entry point into the book. If you are unfamiliar with Galloway’s work in general, his other two major books are Protocol (2004), a Deleuzian take on the machinations of control and Gaming (2006), a reading of algorithmic culture. The Interface Effect is the third and final title in his ‘Allegories of Control’ trilogy.

Interface Effect

GEM meetings are open to anyone interested in the specific topic of the meeting and/or the activities of the research group. Please pass on this invitation, and let us know if you want to be put on the GEM email list!

Happy Holidays from the GEM team!
Nanna Verhoeff (Utrecht University)
Sybille Lammes (Warwick University)
Chris Perkins (Manchester University)
Alex Gekker (Utrecht)
Sam Hind (Warwick)
Clancy Wilmott (Manchester)
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Introducing GEM: research group on geomedia and urban interfaces
GEM will regularly assemble at Utrecht University to discuss topics at the intersection of media studies and critical geography, with a specific focus on screens as navigational interfaces. Tied to the Charting the Digital European Research Council project and in co-operation with the Universities of Warwick and Manchester, we aim to provide an inclusive platform to discuss interdisciplinary topics pertaining to this focus.
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Whether or not we wish to speak of a spatial or spatiotemporal turn, spatiality has become a central theoretical concept in media studies as well in critical geography. New urban interfaces, and in particular digital maps, have prompted challenging questions about how spatialities can be epistemologically and ontologically understood and which theories, tools and methodologies are needed to understand our contemporary mediatized and mobile daily lives to their full extent. GEM aims to shed light on such questions by exploring the intersections of the different notions of space in different disciplines and traditions of thought, combined with the analysis of and reflection on how we approach and do geo-media and urban interfaces and explore the essentials we need as researchers to engage with these research topics.
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Open to PhD candidates and other junior and senior researches, as well as interested artists or practitioners, we will occasionally incorporate guest lectures, workshops and master classes. Those who join are more than welcome to suggest their own workshops, reading material, research questions and/or methodologies.

ANNOUNCING GEM: RESEARCH GROUP ON GEOMEDIA AND URBAN INTERFACES

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What is GEM?

GEM will regularly assemble at Utrecht University to discuss topics on the intersection of media studies and critical geography, with a special focus on screens as navigational interfaces in urban mobile settings. Tied to the Charting the Digital European Research Council project and in cooperation with the University of Warwick and Manchester University, we aim to provide an inclusive platform to discuss interdisciplinary topics pertaining to this focus.

Academic Focus

Whether or not we wish to speak of a spatial – or spatiotemporal – turn, spatiality has both become a central theoretical concept in media studies as well as in critical geography. New urban interfaces, and in particular digital mapping, have prompted challenging questions about how spatialities can be epistemologically and ontologically understood and which theories, tools and methodologies are needed to understand our contemporary mediatized and mobile daily lives to their full extent. GEM aims to shed light on such questions by exploring the intersections of the different notions of space in different disciplines and traditions of thought, combined with the analysis of and reflection on cultural and technological practices. It wants to offer a platform for discussion, analysis and reflection on how we can approach and ‘do’ geo-media and urban interfaces and explore the essentials we need as researchers to engage with these research topics.

Who is it for?

Open to Ph.D. candidates and as well as other junior and senior researchers, we will occasionally incorporate guest lectures, workshops and master classes. Those who join are more than welcome to suggest their own workshops, reading material, research questions and/or methodologies.

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First Meeting: Non-Representational Theory
Friday, November 15, Utrecht University 13:00-15:00, Muntstraat 2A, 1.11

non-rep

Perhaps one of the most persistent notions in media theory is representation. Geographer Nigel Thrift suggests moving away from representation, towards the domain of practices and performativity. Combining the works of classic phenomenologists with Foucault, Deleuze and Guattari, as well as science and technology studies (STS) and the political sciences, Thrift suggests a new approach to studying the everyday and the role of technology in it.

For this session we will read Thrift’s Non-Representational Theory: Space, Politics, Affect (2007) and discuss how his thoughts and concepts relate to our own work.

If you are interested in joining this session and/or wish to be on the mailing list, please send an email to Nanna Verhoeff (n.verhoeff@uu.nl)

June Workshop – Thinking and Doing Digital Mapping

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CTD Banner 95

I thought I’d repost an announcement from Charting the Digital on a forthcoming workshop at the University of Warwick. I should be presenting an early version of a paper I’m co-writing with fellow CTD member Alex Gekker (who has recently set up his Casual Space blog). We will be talking about the ludification of automobility and satellite navigation. Martin Dodge, Muki Haklay and Lisa Parks are amongst the workshop participants. The blurb is below:

“Digital mapping has developed over the last thirty years to become a pervasive and global technology. It shapes our understanding of the world, and strongly mediates how we approach it.

Yet remarkably little is known about how particular assemblages of digital mapping actually do their work, or contribute to thinking about the world. What approaches yield which kinds of understanding about the encounter between people, mapping and the world? And how are different methodologies wrapped up in digital mapping?

To this end, Charting the Digital is hosting a workshop titled “Thinking and Doing Digital Mapping”. The workshop will explore how digital mapping has become a central tool for thinking and doing in today’s global culture.

Sybille Lammes (University of Warwick, UK)*

Nanna Verhoeff (University of Utrecht, NL)*

Chris Perkins (University of Manchester, UK)*

Tristan Thielman (Siegen University, Germany)

Martin Dodge (University of Manchester, UK)

Joe Gerlach (University of Oxford, UK)

Gregory Asmolov (LSE, UK)

Barry Brown (University of Glasgow, UK)

Muki Haklay (UCL, UK)

Lisa Parks (University of California Santa Barbara, USA)

Larissa Hjorth (RMIT, Australia)

Sam Hind (University of Warwick, UK)*

Alex Gekker (University of Utrecht, NL)*

Clancy Wilmott (University of Manchester, UK)*

It aims to bring together a variety of researchers and practitioners from a wide range of disciplinary and methodological backgrounds who share a common focus on digital mapping. The workshop will run in June at the University of Warwick.”

All * individuals are affiliated to the Charting the Digital project.