Mapping the beach beneath the street : digital cartography for the playable city
- Submitting institution
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The University of Lancaster
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- 233192916
- Type
- C - Chapter in book
- DOI
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10.1007/978-981-10-1962-3_7
- Book title
- Playable cities : the city as a digital playground
- Publisher
- Springer-Verlag
- ISBN
- 9789811019616
- Open access status
- -
- Month of publication
- October
- Year of publication
- 2016
- URL
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-
- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
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- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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3
- Research group(s)
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-
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- This chapter builds upon previous pioneering research carried out by the author that explores emerging technologies on mobile phones designed to obtain accurate spatial information, such as GPS receivers and magnetometers (digital compasses) to create the forerunners of commercial mobile location-based games such as PokemonGo, Ingress, and Harry Potter Wizards Unite. In particular, it presents research that seeks to re-establish cartographic practices into digital maps which typically exhibit a dominant aesthetic that has been designed to serve the usability and utility requirements of turn-by-turn urban navigation, which is itself driven by the proliferation of in-car and personal navigation services. The research challenged the ‘blandscape’ of the car navigation aesthetic by exploring novel neo-cartographic approaches through the AHRC Creative Exchange Research Hub by working with artists and designers to create novel map styles that were implemented into bespoke digital map services subsequently implemented into playful and gameful experiences designed for cities. Further, the research experimentally evaluated these maps in situated environments of cities to explore the potential of design approaches that can produce not only more aesthetically pleasing maps, but also offer the potential for influencing user behaviour. For example, it made underexplored streets and areas in the cities more dominant in the map aesthetic rather than main car routes. The evaluation showed such techniques can be used to promote emotional engagement and exploration in playable city experience. The work is now be taken forward by the author in their role as co-inestigator in the recent EPSRC funded ‘Future Places Centre’ which aims to create a world-leading research hub examining how computing technology can shape our perceptions of places using Morecambe Bay and the site of the proposed Eden North as a major experiential testbed.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -