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Digital Cityscapes: Merging Digital and Urban Playspaces
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372 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 5, 2017
1) "Although the majority of early location-based applications focused on Spohrer's initial idea of connecting information---and consequently individual people---to places, LBMGs [Location-Based Mobile Games] created the possibility of connecting groups of people to each other and to specific geographic locations---what we call locative-mobile social networks (LMSN). [...] Furthermore, unlike online multiplayer games or environments such as massively multiplayer games, or social networking sites (SNS), in which connection to a social network does not depend on the geographical position of its members, location-based game players can connect to each other depending on their physical proximity. [...]
The ability to navigate urban spaces in a playful way is also not new. The popularity of games that employ location awareness and use the city as the game board misleads us into thinking that the possibility of using technology as gaming interfaces in urban spaces transform them into playful spaces. In fact, the playful potentiality of urban areas has long been highlighted through earlier tropes of urbanity, such as Baudelaire's 19th-century character of the flâneur, the 20th-century Situationist International (SI) practice of the dérive, and the more recent activity of the parkour. These tropes of urbanity have some common characteristics that evidence the relationships among urban spaces, playful behavior, and mobility. Mainly, they draw attention to (1) the construction of a meaning of play that informs ludic behavior and shapes cities as playful spaces, and (2) the conceptualization of city spaces as spaces to be explored, rather than circulatory spaces, in which the main purpose of movement is to travel from point to point."
2) "Our initial concern was with the discrepancy between the promise and reality of LBMGs. The greater issue, however, turns out to be how these technologies can help people conduct meaningful interactions and how these technologies turn public places into spaces rich in contact, social support, and intelligent actions. Whether and how LBMGs will ever become popular will be determined by their capacity for providing these socially meaningful and enriching experiences."
3) "Blinn users seem to highlight the odd, transient, sometimes ugly or banal side of everyday experiences. Blinn's textualities (names, tags, descriptions, comments, nicknames) and visuals (photos, avatars, mobile and web interface) do not create coherent 'grand stories' about places that are meant to last. Rather, these stories are fragmented, fleeting, and self-referential. Blinn shares often refer to other shares. Many people have photographed their own laptop screen while displaying one of their own shares in a browser. [...] Although it is a reference to a physical object in the 'real world,' it is utterly senseless outside of the hybrid playground. You have to play along in order to see this as meaningful.
Locative media enable the exploration of the physical or 'real' world and the digital or 'virtual' world in conjunction. Locative media make it possible to intervene in what constitutes a place by questioning its boundaries."
4) "Interaction with others always has a certain element of presence as familiar people are always there. Synchronicity (being temporally available) and co-presence (being spatially near)---as well as their opposites absence and distance---may acquire new meanings. They are no longer based on their abstract physical properties: presence at one moment in time and in one point in space. Perhaps they are no longer even solely based on potential availability or imagined nearness made possible by always-on technologies. The basis for new sociality may shift toward actualization and may come to depend on the following question: Are you playing or not? It remains to be seen whether this leads to further fragmentation of meanings, or whether it can be a tool to create new social ties."
5) "A curriculum that includes [Place-Based Inquiry] activities starts at familiar local levels of authentic places---home, school ground, and neighborhood. Students' familiarity with their own places lets them begin group inquiry as experts, building on Crowley and Jacobs' islands of expertise. Through collaborative investigation, mapping, and reporting for their peers, their inquiry becomes a powerful and transformative pedagogical process that reshapes how they look at places they live in and move through. This has already led students to participate in reshaping their neighborhoods by, for example, testifying before their city council on the effects of urban renewal, creating personal games that explore cultural heritage, and writing editorials on road salts' effects on city lakes."
The ability to navigate urban spaces in a playful way is also not new. The popularity of games that employ location awareness and use the city as the game board misleads us into thinking that the possibility of using technology as gaming interfaces in urban spaces transform them into playful spaces. In fact, the playful potentiality of urban areas has long been highlighted through earlier tropes of urbanity, such as Baudelaire's 19th-century character of the flâneur, the 20th-century Situationist International (SI) practice of the dérive, and the more recent activity of the parkour. These tropes of urbanity have some common characteristics that evidence the relationships among urban spaces, playful behavior, and mobility. Mainly, they draw attention to (1) the construction of a meaning of play that informs ludic behavior and shapes cities as playful spaces, and (2) the conceptualization of city spaces as spaces to be explored, rather than circulatory spaces, in which the main purpose of movement is to travel from point to point."
2) "Our initial concern was with the discrepancy between the promise and reality of LBMGs. The greater issue, however, turns out to be how these technologies can help people conduct meaningful interactions and how these technologies turn public places into spaces rich in contact, social support, and intelligent actions. Whether and how LBMGs will ever become popular will be determined by their capacity for providing these socially meaningful and enriching experiences."
3) "Blinn users seem to highlight the odd, transient, sometimes ugly or banal side of everyday experiences. Blinn's textualities (names, tags, descriptions, comments, nicknames) and visuals (photos, avatars, mobile and web interface) do not create coherent 'grand stories' about places that are meant to last. Rather, these stories are fragmented, fleeting, and self-referential. Blinn shares often refer to other shares. Many people have photographed their own laptop screen while displaying one of their own shares in a browser. [...] Although it is a reference to a physical object in the 'real world,' it is utterly senseless outside of the hybrid playground. You have to play along in order to see this as meaningful.
Locative media enable the exploration of the physical or 'real' world and the digital or 'virtual' world in conjunction. Locative media make it possible to intervene in what constitutes a place by questioning its boundaries."
4) "Interaction with others always has a certain element of presence as familiar people are always there. Synchronicity (being temporally available) and co-presence (being spatially near)---as well as their opposites absence and distance---may acquire new meanings. They are no longer based on their abstract physical properties: presence at one moment in time and in one point in space. Perhaps they are no longer even solely based on potential availability or imagined nearness made possible by always-on technologies. The basis for new sociality may shift toward actualization and may come to depend on the following question: Are you playing or not? It remains to be seen whether this leads to further fragmentation of meanings, or whether it can be a tool to create new social ties."
5) "A curriculum that includes [Place-Based Inquiry] activities starts at familiar local levels of authentic places---home, school ground, and neighborhood. Students' familiarity with their own places lets them begin group inquiry as experts, building on Crowley and Jacobs' islands of expertise. Through collaborative investigation, mapping, and reporting for their peers, their inquiry becomes a powerful and transformative pedagogical process that reshapes how they look at places they live in and move through. This has already led students to participate in reshaping their neighborhoods by, for example, testifying before their city council on the effects of urban renewal, creating personal games that explore cultural heritage, and writing editorials on road salts' effects on city lakes."
December 22, 2010
This edited collection explores new and emerging digital technologies and the location-based and hybrid reality gaming they have given rise to. It brings together an international group of scholars for a rich range of perspectives on the social and educational implications of urban gaming, its transformative potential, and opportunities for further research.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews