Locative media art practices: locating meaning and narrative in hybrid spaces

Dimitris Charitos, Olga S. Paraskevopoulou, Charalampos Rizopoulos New Technologies Laboratory, Faculty of Communication and Media Studies National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. Abstract
Locative media (LM) are systems of technologically mediated communication providing the opportunity to relate physical environments with digital information in order to create hybrid spatial experiences, which may function as the context for social and cultural activities. This has led to new ways of creating, representing and communicating meaning in relation to space and consequently to emergent artistic practices. This paper examines LM in the context of artistic practices with a particular emphasis on their communicative aspects and their ability to act as catalysts for the subjective interpretation of urban space. Furthermore, a categorisation of LM artworks is proposed, on the basis of their communicative function, aiming at highlighting the potential that LM may offer for involvement in artistic practice and for supporting novel forms of social activity in urban space. The proposed categorisation aims to contribute toward developing a systematic understanding of the fundamentally diverse character of locative media artworks and their impact on the users interactional and social practices, as well as their perception (and conception) of urban space. Keywords: locative media, new media art, communication, urban space

1. Introduction Locative media1 (LM) are systems of technologically mediated communication providing the opportunity to relate physical environments to digital information in order to create hybrid2 spatial experiences, which may function as the context for social and cultural activities. The use of these media resulted in new ways of creating, representing and communicating meaning in relation to space and consequently to emergent artistic practices. Location-based technologies and services may differ significantly in the way they are designed and structured. They can have a hierarchical top-down structure or they can be bottom-up frameworks and open systems for exchanging content. Artists use location-aware and ubiquitous technologies to create artistic interventions which aim to reconfigure our understanding of their use and to question the way they may affect everyday life in the city. Apart from their aesthetic value, LM artworks may also result in raising public awareness on various issues such as surveillance, the tracking of human bodies and objects, location detection, the process of map making and the ability to form social networks in the city. This paper documents part of a research, which aims to develop a holistic and systematic understanding of the diverse art forms that have been so far produced in this context. To that end, it investigates particular examples and proposes an approach towards categorizing LM artworks with regard to the manner in which location, space

as well as the experience of activity and presence in such a hybrid spatiocultural context are enriched by multilayered contextual information and meaning. 2. Locative media and artistic practices Location-based systems and media provide the ability to situate information, as well as the mediated interpersonal communication process, onto physical space. By supporting synchronous or asynchronous communication amongst multiple, remotely situated participants, this form of mediated communication potentially affords physical proximity in real space. The combination of these elements provides participants with a new hybrid spatial experience (Charitos 2008). The resulting communicative experience may enable the diversion and reappropriation of social space, thus serving the emerging needs of city dwellers and affording novel ways of public activity. However, the manner in which communication via LM may enrich the ways we interact with other people and the environment is not yet fully understood. The use of LM in emergent artistic practices may reveal ways of using these media not only as services and commodities but also as systems mainly geared towards supporting communication, spatial awareness and collaborative location-specific activities. In addition, LM systems are shaped and evolve within the urban spatial context. Thus, they may result in the creation of digital representations of the city that are continuously augmented with the lived experience of its inhabitants, as indicated by the digital traces of their movement and action. Bourriaud (1998, 28) notes that artistic activities since the early 1990s indicate a shift of focus of artistic practice towards the sphere of inter-human relations. Indeed many artists have focused on creating artworks which provide novel social experiences (Bourriaud 1998, 14-18). In his discussion of contemporary art practice, Bourriaud suggests that art is the place that produces a specific sociabilityOver and above its mercantile nature and its semantic value, the work of art represents a social intersticea space of human relationsthe contemporary art exhibition creates free areas and time spans, whose rhythm contrasts with those structuring everyday life, and it encourages an inter-human commerce that differs from the communication zones that are imposed upon usArt is a state of encounter (Bourriaud 1998, 1618). This paper reviews artistic practices that utilize LM from the perspective discussed above. However, Kraan (2006, 46) suggests that artists have so far made limited use of LM to bring about location-specific social activities that focus on initiating interhuman relations. This has so far been achieved mostly by commercial applications of location-based services. These services rely on a user/consumer model and are meant to satisfy the users needs or even create new ones, resulting in increased profit for private telecommunication providers. On the other end, artistic approaches of LM are primarily motivated by a more creative and open vision for these techno-social systems and by the prospect of illustrating the complexity and richness of culturally constructed space (Townsend 2006) 3. 3. Artworks affording a subjective experience of space Lefebvres (1991, 26, 73) preliminary hypothesis is that (social) space is a (social) product. Social space allows new actions to occur, while suggesting or prohibiting others. As long as abstract space tends towards homogeneity, towards the elimination

of existing differences, a new space cannot be produced unless it accentuates differences (Lefebvre 1991, 52). When we refer to public space what matters is the spontaneity of uses, the density of interaction, the freedom of expression, the multifunctionality of space and the multiculturalism of street life (Castells 2004). LM may potentially embed spatiocultural meaning in the urban world. In this sense, the creative use of LM in urban space may provide a dynamic framework for individuals to generate personal patterns which express their opinions and diversity. They could be spaces where cultural and artistic acts can be performed, witnessed and heard (Borden, 2007). In order to understand recent LM artistic attempts, it is important to take into account other art forms, in which content has been associated with real places for creating meaningful spatial experiences. Relevant examples can be found in arts that make use of communication systems and network technologies as well as in landscape art, public art and the practice of walking. In search of the way that people may interact with the city, artist Tuur Van Balen conducted a series of experiments under the project My City = My Body4 (2008). These experiments were a series of public interventions to critically engage the audience with their city. In his first experiment he attempted to create a map of London which contained biological information of its inhabitants. Another part of the project focused on the substances that pass through our bodies and enter the citys wastewater, eventually ending up in drinking water again. His experiment highlighted differences in the ingredients of tap water sampled from different areas of London based on the food people eat and the drugs they take. In her ongoing project, Mapsproject5 (2006), Lori Ann Napoleon collects personal maps people draw in order to reach a deeper understanding of how individuals connect to their environment. One's memory and perception of a place is very personal, so each map is a reflection of how they perceive, organize, and understand it". The map can serve as an autobiographical tool that records and analyses an individuals view. One can see the potential for a psychogeographic perception and representation of the city, one that can be traced back to the psychogeographic maps of Debord and Jorn. The Fallen Fruit6 (Burns et al. 2004) initiative is an example of the ways in which personal views can be combined and serve a common cause. Having as a starting point the exploitation of the edible sources that can be found in public spaces this attempt could extend to many different purposes showing the way to a more active engagement with the place we live. Their future goal is to get people thinking about the life and vitality of their neighbourhoods and to consider how they can change the dynamic of our cities and common values. A diverse group of contemporary artists have also focused on the theme of walking within the city space, an activity that unites bodily and mental freedom (Horodner 2002). As de Certeau (1984) notes, there are two ways to identify with and perceive the city. One is from the outside, through the map, and the other is from the inside, by walking as a pedestrian. In the former case, space is an abstract structure defined by coordinates. In the latter, space is enriched with personal and social cues (Koefoed, 2008). de Certeau considers space as being actuated by the ensemble of movements deployed within it and, in particular, by the everyday practice of walking. Locomotion

with or without a goal and the ability to make ones way in place and out of place brings to the foreground theories of the flneur and mobility that have been developed from bourgeois Paris of 1900 and advanced to a more critical approach by Walter Benjamin and by the Situationists (Wiszniewski, 2008). Rather than walking through nature, in the manner of Richard Long and Hamish Fulton, Francis Als devises urban passages that take him through different cultural and historical milieus (Volk 2008). Alss artworks invent literal and figurative paths through urban, social or discursive space and time. The central aesthetic principle for his walks is the act of passing through, the art of the ephemeral. Like in many of his works7 he focuses on non-normative ways in which we perceive or construct space and poses questions about why we gather, who is monitored and by whom and what is neglected (Sharpe 2006). The examples above are indicative of contemporary art practices, which are directly related to city life and which attempt to highlight the subjective and the collective perception and the attribution of meaning to space. Artists who use LM value the individuals corporal experience over the virtual, since their artworks are often embedded in actual city space and time. As Kapsalis (2008, 138) notes, the increasing interest in physical and performative expression indicates a reaction to the process of dematerialization as experienced in artworks that are present solely on line. Emergent artistic practices via LM exist only as long as the physical body that actively produces and/or participates in the situated experience exists. 4. An attempt to categorize locative media artworks Several categorizations of LM applications have been so far proposed by Nova (2004), Tuters (2006), Hemment (2006), Bleecker (2006) etc. These classifications are usually conducted on the basis of the practice followed by the artist (i.e. mapping, geo-annotation, hacking), the activity afforded to the participants (i.e. gaming, performative, ambulant, hyphenation, social) as well as the content that is represented to the participants (i.e. data visualization, experiential mapping). These attempts provide a valuable contribution to our understanding of LM artworks. However, they do not provide a framework for categorizing these artworks according to specific parameters. In this section, we propose a categorization of LM artworks according to their communicative function, in an attempt to enhance our understanding of LM systems use and to systematize our knowledge regarding the communicative process that takes place during the creation and reading of an LM artwork. This categorization has been based on an extensive review and analysis of a series of LM artworks documented in Paraskevopoulou (2009). The categorization proposed below is conducted according to specific properties of LM systems and their creative use by artists, such as: the manner in which the parties involved may act during their creation and/or their use or the way that they refer to locations, the spatiality of the artworks, the ways in which they communicate meaning, their temporal structure, the structure of the content, etc. It must also be stressed that these categories are not mutually exclusive; an LM artwork may belong to more than one category.

1) With regard to the artist, as actor/s who is responsible for the creation of the work, LM artworks could be categorized as: a. the ones in which the content is created by the artist/s. In these cases artists usually explore the communicative potential of the medium through the interrelation of digital and physical space and sometimes provide a more critical insight into the use and appropriation of LM (e.g. GPSdiary.com-Knaub 2003, Drift-Rueb 2004, Tracking Transience-Elahi 2002). b. the ones in which the artist is mainly creating a mechanism and a context within which the users/participants may interactively create content. This user-led creative activity could be conducted individually or collaboratively (e.g. Urban Tapestries-Angus et al. 2002-2004, Yellow Arrow-Allen et al. 2004, Rider Spoke-Adams et al. 2007). c. it is also possible (following the open software approach) that an artist may create a system where both the software mechanism as well as the content is open to users for manipulation and creative involvement (e.g. London free map-Walsh and Erle 2004, wiki-maps). 2) With regard to the participant as an actor who experiences the artwork, LM projects could be categorized as: a. the ones accessed and experienced individually via personal communication systems (e.g. Drift-Rueb 2004, Water-Schemat 2004). b. the ones which are experienced collaboratively by multiple participants who may be co-present within a physical and/or digital representational context (e.g. Urban Tapestries-Angus et al. 20022004). Kraan (2006), however, suggests that the social use of these systems is limited, while most applications are developed for commercial purposes. 3) With regard to the spatial context (and its representation) in which the artwork takes place: a. artworks that are site-specific (Rieser 2008, in Paraskevopoulou, 2009). They cannot be separated from the spatiotemporal and cultural context in which they are located and usually refer to particular aspects (e.g. history, associated activities) of one specific location (e.g. Milk-Polak 2003, 34North 118 West-Knowlton et al., Media Portrait of the Liberties-Nisi 2005). b. artworks with relative site specificity (Rieser 2008, in Paraskevopoulou 2009). These artworks are not associated with a predefined and specific spatiotemporal and/or cultural context, but may be installed and performed anywhere (e.g. Rider Spoke-Adams et al. 2007, Bio-Mapping-Nold 2004-2008). c. artworks in a dislocated spatial context. These artworks may combine representations of multiple separate spatial contexts (e.g. Shadows From Another Place-Levine 2003, You Are Not Here .org-Zer-Aviv 2006). 4) With regard to the artistic intention in terms of creating a spatially meaningful digital representation (and in agreement with Hemment, 2006): a. artistic interventions in which artists create a spatial representation where a certain situation or a series of characteristics are extracted and

displayed: psychogeographic maps, critical cartography, tactical cartography (e.g. One Block Radius-Ray and Mandl, iSee 2001, Chalk Interfaces-Gomes). b. user-led map annotations in which participants create meaningful representations of subjective experience (e.g. Texting GlancesVaucelle et al. 2003, Bio-mapping-Nold 2004-2008). c. representations that capture and represent spatiotemporal patterns of human activity via tracking human locomotion (e.g. Milk-Polak 2003, Real Time Rome 2006). d. integrating socially meaningful activities onto spatial representations that aim at initiating ephemeral situations, social encounters and networking activities in relation to a specific space (e.g. Fallen FruitBurns 2004, PDPal-Bleecker 2002-2004). 5) With regard to the temporal structure of the communicative activity and the relationship between artist and participant or among the participants themselves: a. Artworks that are synchronously experienced: i. artist-participant (e.g. Uncle Roy All Around You-Adams et al. 2004, Bowville-Roush 2004). ii. participant-participant (e.g. Familiar Stranger-Paulos and Goodman 2002, Inside/Outside-Moriwaki 2003). b. Artworks that are asynchronously experienced artworks: i. artist-participant (e.g. 34North 118West-Knowlton et al.). ii. participant-participant (e.g. Urban Tapestries-Angus et al. 2002-2004, Rider Spoke-Adams et al. 2007). 6) With regard to the structure of their location-based content and the manner in which navigation within this content is supported, LM artworks could be said to broadly follow the distinction between database and narrative structure, as proposed by Manovich (2001: 218-233): a. a database structure, where movement within the content may be conducted in an arbitrary manner potentially supported by a search function 8 (e.g. Murmur-Micallef et al. 2003-2007, Athens by Sound-Karandinou et al. 2008). b. a narrative structure, where navigation may follow a series of causeand-effect linear or non-linear trajectories (e.g. 34North 118WestKnowlton et al., The Third Woman Vienna Underground group9)

5. Concluding remarks In this paper we have examined LM in the context of artistic practices with a particular emphasis on their communicative aspects, their potential for mediating user-created content and encouraging interactional behaviour and engagement, within urban space. Consequently, we have proposed a categorisation of LM artworks based on their communicative function. By investigating LM from this perspective, we attempted to highlight the potential that LM may offer for participant involvement in artistic practice and for supporting novel forms of social activity in urban space. Technology may be used for the re-appropriation of space and this should not be understood apart from the rhythms of time and of life (Lefebvre, 164-168). Locative

media can become tools for the artists to see the ephemeral, the immediate, the experiential and the sensational as essential activities of the human existence that stand in stark contrast to prevailing metanarratives. Each individual has a story to tell and share. These micro-narratives form social life and the rhythm of the city. The combination of the subjective and the collective into the context of new types of horizontal interaction and communication may, in the case of LM art projects, become an emerging field of creative practice. New media artists are attempting to interpret, enrich or transform the urban environment as well as to intervene in social life. By doing so they are experimenting with new ways of seeing and occupying the urban context by producing artistic or cultural milieus (Hemment, 2006). These artistic practices are spatial and at the same time social interventions aiming at expressing or exploring our relationship with the modern city.

REFERENCES Bleecker, Julian. 2006. Locative Media: A Brief Bibliography And Taxonomy Of Gps-Enabled Locative Media. Leonardo electronic almanac, 14, no. 3/4 (July), http://leoalmanac.org/journal/vol_14/lea_v14_n03-04/jbleecker.asp Borden, Iain. 2007. Tactics for a playful city. In Space Time Play, Computer games, architecture and urbanism: the next level. ed. Friedrich von Borries, Steffen P. Walz and Mattias Bttger, 332-334. Berlin: Birkhuser. Bourriaud, Nicolas. 2002. Relational Aesthetics. Les presses du rel. Castells, Manuel. 2004. Space of Flows, Space of Places: Materials for Theory of Urbanism in the Information Age, In The Cybercities Reader, Urban Reader Series. ed. Stephen Graham, 82-93. London: Routledge. Charitos, D. 2008. Precedents for the design of Locative Media, In Future Interaction Design II. eds. Saariluoma, P. & Isomki, . London: Springer Verlag. de Certeau, Michel. 1984. The practice of everyday life. trans. Steven Rendall. University of California Press, LTD, England. Hemment, Drew. 2006. Locative Arts. Leonardo, Vol. 39, no 4: 348-355. Horodner, Stuart. 2002. Walk Ways. Independent Curators International. http://www.ici-exhibitions.org/archives/WalkWays/WalkWaysPrjDes.pdf Kapsalis, Dionysis. 2008. Interviewed by Athens by Sound in Greek participation in the 11th International Architecture Exhibition La Biennale Di Venezia. ed. Anastasia Karandinou, Christina Achtypi, Stylianos Giamarelos, 138-141. Athens, Greece. Koefoed Hansen, Lone. 2008. Lost in Location. Paper presented at the 14th International Symposium on Electronic Art, July 25- August 3, Singapore. Kluitenberg, Eric. 2006. The Network of Waves: Living and Acting in a Hybrid Space. In Hybrid Space: How wireless media mobilize public space. ed. J. Seijdel

Open Cahier on Art and the Public Domain, Vol.5, No 11, 6-16. Belgium: NAi Publishers, SKOR. Kraan, Assia. 2006. To Act in Public through Geo-Annotation: Social encounters through Locative Media Art. In Hybrid Space: How wireless media mobilize public space. ed. J. Seijdel Open Cahier on Art and the Public Domain, Vol.5, No 11, 38-47. Belgium: NAi Publishers, SKOR. Lefebvre, Henri. 1991. The production of space. trans. Donald Nicholson-Smith. Blackwell publishing. Manovich, Lev. 2001. The Language of New Media. Cambridge: The MIT Press Nova, Nicolas. 2004. Locative Media: a literature review. CRAFT Research report. http://craftwww.epfl.ch/research/publications/CRAFT_report2.pdf Paraskevopoulou, Olga. 2009. Locative Media and Artistic Interventions, MSc dissertation, Department of Communication and Media Studies, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. Rieser, Martin. 2008. Interviewed on the subject of Locative Media and artistic interventions, in Paraskevopoulou, Olga (2009), MSc dissertation, Department of Communication and Media Studies, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. Sharpe, Leslie. 2006. Swimming In The Grey Zones: Locating The Other Spaces In Mobile Art. Leonardo electronic almanac 14, no. 3/4 (July), http://leoalmanac.org/journal/vol_14/lea_v14_n03-04/lsharpe.asp Townsend, Anthony. 2006. Locative-Media Artists in the Contested-Aware City. Leonardo Vol.39, no 4: 345-347. Tuters, Marc and Varnelis, Kazys. 2006. Beyond Locative Media: Giving Shape to the Internet of Things. Leonardo, Vol. 39, no 4: 357-363. Volk, Gregory. 2008. Walkabout: Francis Alys's peripatetic actions have won him acclaim on the global scene. A traveling exhibition surveys the career of this multifaceted artist, while a New York installation makes an artwork of his own unusual collection. BNET Arts Publications. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1248/is_2_96/ai_n24248893/?tag=content;col1 Wiszniewski, Dorian. 2008. Beyond architecture: Architecture and immateriality. In Athens by Sound, Greek participation in the 11th International Architecture Exhibition La Biennale Di Venezia. ed. Anastasia Karandinou, Christina Achtypi, Stylianos Giamarelos, 48-52. Athens, Greece.
1

Advanced sensing systems and location-detection technologies are providing personal mobile communication devices the ability to gather contextual information

which may subsequently affect the course of the act of communication that these systems support. The use of mobile computing, wireless networks, and digital media for the purpose of associating information and meaning with geographic locations via location-detection technologies, has led to the concept of locative media.
2

The paper discusses systems which afford a hybrid (virtual as well as physical) spatial experience. For a more complete definition of the term hybrid space see Kluitenberg (2006).

Nevertheless, current artistic interventions are usually based on a transdisciplinary model of research and development that relies on corporate sponsorship and support. This may partly explain Kraans observation and the fact that LM practitioners often opt to collaborate with the industry and the government and appear less interested in remaining independent from the private capital (Tuters and Varnelis, 2006). Tuur Van Balen. 2008. My City = My Body, http://www.tuurvanbalen.com/projects/mycity%3Dmybody
5 4

Lori Ann Napoleon. 2006. Mapsproject, http://subk.net/maps.html Burns, Viegener and Young. 2004. Fallen Fruit, http://www.fallenfruit.org/

In his work Narcotourism (1996) for example, the Belgian artist walked for seven days in the streets of Copenhagen, each day under the influence of a different drug.

According to Manovich (2001, 225), items in a database structure are represented as an unordered list.

Vienna Underground group. 2009. The Third Woman, created in the context of the e-MobiLArt project and exhibited in the 2009 2nd Thessaloniki Bienalle. http://www.ioct.dmu.ac.uk/Third_Woman/