Locative media or location-based media (LBM) are
media of communication functionally bound to a location. The physical implementation of locative media, however, is not bound to the same location to which the content refers.
Location-based media delivers
multimedia and other
content directly to the user of a
mobile device dependent upon their location. Location information determined by means such as
mobile phone tracking and other emerging
real-time locating system
Real-time locating systems (RTLS), also known as real-time tracking systems, are used to automatically identify and track the location of objects or people in real time, usually within a building or other contained area. Wireless RTLS tags are ...
technologies like
Wi-Fi or
RFID
Radio-frequency identification (RFID) uses electromagnetic fields to automatically identify and track tags attached to objects. An RFID system consists of a tiny radio transponder, a radio receiver and transmitter. When triggered by an electromag ...
can be used to customize media content presented on the device.
Locative media are
digital media
Digital media is any communication media that operate in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital media can be created, viewed, distributed, modified, listened to, and preserved on a digital electronics device. ' ...
applied to real places and thus triggering real social interactions. While mobile technologies such as the
Global Positioning System
The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of the global navigation satellite sy ...
(GPS),
laptop computers and
mobile phones enable locative media, they are not the goal for the development of projects in this field.
Description
Media content is managed and organized externally of the device on a standard desktop, laptop, server, or cloud computing system. The device then downloads this formatted content with
GPS
The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a Radionavigation-satellite service, satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of t ...
or other
RTLS coordinate-based triggers applied to each media sequence. As the
location-aware device enters the selected area, centralized services trigger the assigned media, designed to be of optimal relevance to the user and their surroundings.
Use of locative technologies "includes a range of experimental uses of geo-technologies including location-based games, artistic critique of surveillance technologies, experiential mapping, and spatial annotation."
Location based media allows for the enhancement of any given environment offering explanation, analysis and detailed commentary on what the user is looking at through a combination of
video,
audio
Audio most commonly refers to sound, as it is transmitted in signal form. It may also refer to:
Sound
*Audio signal, an electrical representation of sound
*Audio frequency, a frequency in the audio spectrum
*Digital audio, representation of sound ...
,
image
An image is a visual representation of something. It can be two-dimensional, three-dimensional, or somehow otherwise feed into the visual system to convey information. An image can be an artifact, such as a photograph or other two-dimensiona ...
s and
text. The location-aware device can deliver interpretation of cities, parklands, heritage sites, sporting events or any other environment where location based media is required.
The content production and pre-production are integral to the overall experience that is created and must have been performed with ultimate consideration of the location and the users position within that location. The media offers a depth to the environment beyond that which is immediately apparent, allowing revelations about background, history and current topical feeds.
Locative, ubiquitous and pervasive computing
The term 'locative media' was coined by Karlis Kalnins. Locative media is closely related to
augmented reality
Augmented reality (AR) is an interactive experience that combines the real world and computer-generated content. The content can span multiple sensory modalities, including visual, auditory, haptic, somatosensory and olfactory. AR can be de ...
(reality overlaid with virtual reality) and
pervasive computing (computers everywhere, as in
ubiquitous computing). Whereas augmented reality strives for technical solutions, and pervasive computing is interested in embedded computers, locative media concentrates on social interaction with a place and with technology. Many locative media projects have a social, critical or personal (memory) background.
While strictly spoken, any kind of link to additional information set up in space (together with the information that a specific place supplies) would make up location-dependent media, the term locative media is strictly bound to technical projects. Locative media works on locations and yet many of its applications are still location-independent in a technical sense. As in the case of
digital media
Digital media is any communication media that operate in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital media can be created, viewed, distributed, modified, listened to, and preserved on a digital electronics device. ' ...
, where the medium itself is not
digital
Digital usually refers to something using discrete digits, often binary digits.
Technology and computing Hardware
*Digital electronics, electronic circuits which operate using digital signals
**Digital camera, which captures and stores digital i ...
but the content is digital, in locative media the medium itself might not be location-oriented, whereas the content is location-oriented.
Japanese mobile phone culture embraces location-dependent information and context-awareness. It is projected that in the near future locative media will develop to a significant factor in everyday life.
Enabling technologies
Locative media projects use technology such as Global Positioning System (GPS),
laptop computers, the
mobile phone,
Geographic Information System
A geographic information system (GIS) is a type of database containing Geographic data and information, geographic data (that is, descriptions of phenomena for which location is relevant), combined with Geographic information system software, sof ...
(GIS), and web map services such as Mapbox,
OpenStreetMap
OpenStreetMap (OSM) is a free, open geographic database updated and maintained by a community of volunteers via open collaboration. Contributors collect data from surveys, trace from aerial imagery and also import from other freely licensed g ...
, and
Google Maps among others. Whereas GPS allows for the accurate detection of a specific location, mobile computers allow
interactive media to be linked to this place. The GIS supplies arbitrary information about the geological, strategic or economic situation of a location. Web maps like Google Maps give a visual representation of a specific place. Another important new technology that links digital data to a specific place is
radio-frequency identification
Radio-frequency identification (RFID) uses electromagnetic fields to automatically identify and track tags attached to objects. An RFID system consists of a tiny radio transponder, a radio receiver and transmitter. When triggered by an electromag ...
(RFID), a successor to
barcodes like
Semacode
Semacode is a software company based in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. It is also this company's trade name for their machine-readable ISO/IEC 16022 Data Matrix barcodes, which are used to encode Internet URLs.
Semacodes are primarily aimed at being ...
.
Research that contributes to the field of locative media happens in fields such as
pervasive computing,
context awareness and
mobile technology. The technological background of locative media is sometimes referred to as "location-aware computing".
Creative representation
Place is often seen as central to
creativity; in fact, "for some—regional artists, citizen journalists and environmental organizations for example—a sense of place is a particularly important aspect of representation, and the starting point of conversations."
Locative media can propel such conversations in its function as a "poetic form of data visualization," as its output often traces how people move in, and by proxy, make sense of, urban environments.
Given the dynamism and hybridity of cities and the networks which comprise them, locative media extends the internet landscape to physical environments where people forge social relations and actions which can be "mobile, plural, differentiated, adventurous, innovative, but also estranged, alienated, impersonalized." Moreover, in using locative technologies, users can expand how they communicate and assert themselves in their environment and, in doing so, explore this continuum of urban interactions. Furthermore, users can assume a more active role in constructing the environments they are situated in accordingly.
In turn, artists have been intrigued with locative media as a means of "user-led mapping, social networking and artistic interventions in which the fabric of the urban environment and the contours of the earth become a 'canvas.'" Such projects demystify how resident behaviors in a given city contribute to the culture and sense of personality that cities are often perceived to take on.
Design scholars Anne Galloway and Matthew Ward state that "various online lists of pervasive computing and locative media projects draw out the breadth of current classification schema: everything from mobile games, place-based storytelling, spatial annotation and networked performances to device-specific applications."
A prominent use of locative media is in ''locative art''. A sub-category of
interactive art or
new media art, locative art explores the relationships between the real world and the virtual or between people, places or objects in the real world.
Examples
Notable locative media projects include Bio Mapping by Christian Nold in 2004, locative art projects such as the
SpacePlace ZKM/ZKMax bluecasting and participatory urban media access in Munich in 2005 and
Britglyph Britglyph was a collaborative locative art and geoglyph project created by Alfie Dennen for ShoZu which took place in the United Kingdom between December 2008 and March 2009. Participants were instructed to travel to specific locations across the co ...
by
Alfie Dennen in 2009, and location-based games such as AR Quake by the Wearable Computer Lab at the
University of South Australia and
Can You See Me Now?
Can You See Me Now? (CYSMN) is an urban chase game developed by Blast Theory and The Mixed Reality Lab in 2001. CYSMN is a pervasive game, where performers on the streets of a city use handheld computers, GPS and walkie talkies to chase online ...
in 2001 by
Blast Theory
Blast Theory is a Portslade-based artists' group, whose work mixes interactive media, digital broadcasting and live performance.
Biography
The group was founded in 1991 by Matt Adams, Niki Jewett, Will Kittow and Ju Row Farr. The group is curr ...
in collaboration with the
Mixed Reality Lab
Mixed is the past tense of ''mix''.
Mixed may refer to:
* Mixed (United Kingdom ethnicity category), an ethnicity category that has been used by the United Kingdom's Office for National Statistics since the 1991 Census
* ''Mixed'' (album), a co ...
at the
University of Nottingham. In 2005 the Silicon Valley-based collaborators of C5 first exhibited the C5 Landscape Initiative, a suite of four GPS inspired projects that investigate perception of landscape in light of locative media.
In
William Gibson's 2007 novel ''
Spook Country
''Spook Country'' is a 2007 novel by speculative fiction author William Gibson. A political thriller set in contemporary North America, it followed on from the author's previous novel, ''Pattern Recognition'' (2003), and was succeeded in 2010 by ...
,'' locative art is one of the main themes and set pieces in the story. Narrative projects which engage with locative media are sometimes referred to as Location-Aware Fiction, as explored in "Data and Narrative: Location Aware Fiction" a 2003 essay by
Kate Armstrong. This Location-Aware Fiction is also known as Locative Literature, where locative stories and poems can be experienced via digital portals, apps, QR codes and e-books, as well as via analogue forms such as labelling tape, Scrabble tiles, fridge magnets or Post-It notes, and these are forms often used by the writer and artist
Matt Blackwood
Matt may refer to:
* Matt (name), people with the given name ''Matt'' or Matthew, meaning "gift from God", or the surname Matt
*In British English, of a surface: having a non-glossy finish, see gloss (material appearance)
* Matt, Switzerland, a ...
.
The Transborder Immigrant Tool by the
Electronic Disturbance Theater
The Electronic Disturbance Theater (EDT), established in 1997 by performance artist and writer Ricardo Dominguez, is an electronic company of cyber activists, critical theorists, and performance artists who engage in the development of both the th ...
is a locative media project aimed at providing life saving directions to water for people trying to cross the US/Mexico border. The project attracted global media attention in 2009 and 2010. Articles included an LA Times cover story focusing on Ricardo Dominguez and an AP story interviewing
Micha Cárdenas and Brett Stalbaum. The articles focused on concerns over the legality of the project and the ensuing investigations of the group, which are still underway. The Transborder Immigrant Tool has recently been included in a number of major exhibitions including ''Here, Not There'' at the
Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego and the 2010 California Biennial at the
Orange County Museum of Art.
Invisible Threads by
Stephanie Rothenberg
Stephanie Rothenberg is an American artist who lives and works in Buffalo, New York and Brooklyn, New York. Rothenberg's interdisciplinary practice combines elements of performance and installations with networked media in the creation of public ...
and
Jeff Crouse
Jeff Crouse (born September 10, 1980 in Baltimore, Maryland) is an American artist and hacker/creative technologist who works with live data feeds from the internet to make art works.
Background
Crouse's undergraduate study in Computer Science a ...
is a locative media project aimed at creating embodied awareness of
sweatshops and just-in-time production through a virtual sweatshop in
Second Life. It was performed at the
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...
in 2008.
The application called Yesterscape was realized for iPhone by Japanese company QOOQ inc. in 2013.
This
augmented reality
Augmented reality (AR) is an interactive experience that combines the real world and computer-generated content. The content can span multiple sensory modalities, including visual, auditory, haptic, somatosensory and olfactory. AR can be de ...
camera App which can show historical photo of the space as if user look into the time tunnel. QOOQ inc also offers user to add their historical photos via web interface for them to show through Yesterscape.
See also
*
Location-based service
*
Location-based game
*
Mobile media
*
Soundmap
*
Urban informatics
*
Virtual graffiti
Virtual graffiti consists of virtual or digital media applied to public locations, landmarks or surfaces. Virtual graffiti applications utilize augmented reality and ubiquitous computing to anchor virtual graffiti to physical landmarks or objects ...
*
Location-based software (category)
References
External links
Mobile technology articleson the MediaShift Idea Lab
{{DEFAULTSORT:Locative Media
Digital media
Geomarketing