Jonathan Huck

Mapping the Beach Beneath the Street: Digital Cartography for the Playable City

Maps are an important component within many of the playful and gameful experiences designed to turn cities into a playable infrastructures. They take advantage of the fact that the technologies used for obtaining accurate spatial information, such as GPS receivers and magnetometers (digital compasses), are now so widespread that they are considered as ‘standard’ sensors on mobile phones, which are themselves ubiquitous. Interactive digital maps, therefore, are widely used by the general public for a variety of purposes. However, despite the rich design history of cartography digital maps 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 navigation aesthetic is now widespread across almost all spatial applications, even where a bespoke cartographic product would be better suited. In this chapter we seek to challenge this by exploring novel neocartographic approaches to making maps for use within playful and gameful experiences designed for the cities. We will examine the potential of design approaches that can produce not only more aesthetically pleasing maps, but also offer the potential for influencing user behaviour, which can be used to promote emotional engagement and exploration in playable city experiences.

Combining physiological, environmental and locational sensors for citizen-oriented health applications

This work investigates the potential of combining the outputs of multiple low-cost sensor technologies for the direct measurement of spatio-temporal variations in phenomena that exist at the interface between our bodies and the environment. The example used herein is the measurement of personal exposure to traffic pollution, which may be considered as a function of the concentration of pollutants in the air and the frequency and volume of that air which enters our lungs. The sensor-based approach described in this paper removes the ‘traditional’ requirements either to model or interpolate pollution levels or to make assumptions about the physiology of an individual. Rather, a wholly empirical analysis into pollution exposure is possible, based upon high-resolution spatio-temporal data drawn from sensors for NO2, nasal airflow and location (GPS). Data are collected via a custom smartphone application and mapped to give an unprecedented insight into exposure to traffic pollution at the individual level. Whilst the quality of data from low-cost miniaturised sensors is not suitable for all applications, there certainly are many applications for which these data would be well suited, particularly those in the field of citizen science. This paper demonstrates both the potential and limitations of sensor-based approaches and discusses the wider relevance of these technologies for the advancement of citizen science.

Negotiating the Ground: ‘Mobilizing’ a Divided Field Site in the ‘Post-Conflict’ City

ABSTRACT While an exploration of mobility patterns in ‘post-conflict’ societies has much to tell us about how division is produced through ordinary activities, less work has considered the practical application of a mobilities ‘lens’ during fieldwork in such contexts. Negotiating the ground in highly polarized contexts presents a unique array of challenges, but also offers opportunities to make use of mobile methodologies. This paper discusses the advantages of GPS-based technologies and walking interviews to a recent activity-space segregation study in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and reflects on methodological issues posed by the ‘post-conflict’ field site.