Re: [-empyre-] Is "locative media" the same as "mobile multimedia"?

[hight@34n118w.net]

> The Theorist Norman Klein in conversation with me referenced a new
modernism. This is simply the idea of taking new media /locative media/a
better term  beyond the works that are not developing enough of an end
result and is more of the technology. The danger is in just rehashing
previous works in the clothes of new tools and this is something to be
very aware of, at the same time it can be useful to pick elements of
previous schools and dynamics to see what they can bring to your content
and what layers of concepts and elements of place you want to reference.

One of the things I teach in visual communication and multimedia is to
cirumvent the shiny appeal and lure of the "new".  New gear always brings
a sense of time as tilted toward a future and a hot present, but this is
partially a presumption based on an accumulation of previous signifiers in
time of future and tech.  The danger is that a lot of the work will look
new as per a current asthetic or the edge of a developing asthetic but
this will always recontextualize in time. Content needs to be emphasized
and needs to be rich, and interface needs to be to highlight and reference
content. There is a continuim of work that fades as its asthetic falls
from favor as opposed to work that has more interesting content and form
that can retain interest beyond the umbrella of a certain paradigm of
design and "new" tech and layout.

There is a need for better terminology.



GPS is probably the first digital locative user interface that was mass
> marketed and broadly available to a large public. (The .mil industry has
> had other digital systems for a long time...) Companies like Garmin and
> Thales (Magellan brand), have a close to a couple of decades of
> experience designing and deploying digital locative media interfaces.
> The diversity of these interfaces are mature and quite advanced -
> compare an aviation GPS system to a mapping system for drivers to hand
> held devices for hiking and climbing.
>
> I have used GPS for many years and own more than one device. My favorite
> UI to a GPS device for most purposes is the Garmin geko interface - the
> most minimalist and unobtrusive UI, with the lowest resolution screen
> and most limited features. The entire reason I like it most is that it
> does the most to get out of my way, easily becoming a transparent,
> invisible interface. I don't go hiking to experience a digital UI, even
> though I *quite* enjoy being mediated by GPS as a location based service.
>
> What I am proposing is that there is a critical/aesthetic distinction
> between "mobile multimedia" (designing user experience with digital UI
> that happens to use location data as triggers), and other potential
> forms of locative practice. The former is what I think most people refer
> to when the new meme "locative media" is being indexed today, while the
> latter may relate to any number of art practices such as land art,
> site-specific installation, and performance mediated by location aware
> technology. My issue with the former is that it implies "user interface,
> user iterface, user interface" and not "location, location, location."
>