Tag Archives: geo-location

field trip

I’m really getting into the practical part of this ghostly space stuff. Definitely deserve extra marks, even though I haven’t been to class like ever because I am an international worldly girl.

In the States this time around. I spent two days on seven different flights and a lot of burger-flipping money to get here. I spent 12 hours (maybe less) with an uncle I haven’t seen in ten years. We’ve grown in opposite directions apparently.

Most of my ground time has been spent in a car so far, and I’ve come across a very neat app relevant to whatever it is we’re studying in this class. Screen Shot 2015-06-09 at 10.19.50 pm
This is one of those geo-location appy things that seep into your daily movements. Literally. It’s a GPS service that provides an alternative to Google Maps. What’s neat about it is its use of networks – the tagline “Outsmarting traffic, together” is a perfect summary. Users of the app are able to see other online drivers who share their route and their knowledge of hazards, traffic jams and cops. It also incorporates a game-like feature where the more things you report on the roads (thereby benefiting your fellow Wazers), the more points you get to buy avatar upgrades. Mine looks like the car from Dumb and Dumber.

I wonder if it works in Australia. Not that I have a car.

https://www.waze.com/

a cemetery – brief 2

My group has created something monstrous. Around 5000 words of actual research towards an app I hope we do not have to make. The topic is incredibly interesting but I have no application programming skills.

“We are researching Google related apps for place/map making. This is to determine if and how we can use Google Maps to potentially create our own prototype app. In order to do this, we will be looking at current apps that use Global Positioning Systems to implement augmented space material, where users have virtual experiences based on their surroundings. As a result, we will need to have a sound understanding of what the term “augmented place” means.”

My wonderful group members have helped compile all the odds and ends and will present in my stead, as I am still not entirely there.
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they know where you live

This studio has gotten us onto a few interesting and very “this makes me seem well-informed and edgy” topics. In relation to Creswell’s article on the definition of space, we’ve talked about geo-location apps and services.

“At a time when multiple alienations of modern society threaten our sense of belonging, the importance of place to creative possibility in life and art cannot be underestimated.”

Whilst this quote addresses art, it’s also relevant to our sense of augmented place – geological information services merging with our personal online connections. What we’ve created is are online spaces, and sometimes places, where the companies and brands we once were able to visit on our own terms now come to us. They knock on our doors, follow us to work, break through the windows. One of my classmates reminded us how most of those with smartphones are tracked constantly, Siri and Google telling us exactly how long it would take to get to work.

This information is assumed. Never have I ever told Google Maps exactly where I work, but it understands that a place I visit four to five days a week, for five to ten hours a day, and occasionally gets directed to using the GPS service, is where I spend my time flipping burgers. It’s uncanny. I’m scared that it will start noticing my late night travels to Malvern and assume I deal drugs there or something. Or maybe it’ll read my messages saying “On my way” and know it’s my boyfriend. Creepy.