Slides from a talk/workshop given at the design school in Zürich (ZHDK) on June 10, 2011

1. ZHDK
LOCATIVE MEDIA, FEW YEARS AFTER
WHAT DID WE LEARN?
NICOLAS NOVA, 10.06.2011, ZURICH
WWW.LIFTLAB.COM

2. 2
ME 60

3. 3
CATCHBOB (2004) 60

4. 4
DAY MENU 60
11:00 - 12:00: Presentation about locative media
12:00 - 12:30: Discussion
12:30 - 13:30: Lunch break
13:30 - 16:00: Workshop activity

5. 5
OUTLINE 60
PART I History
PART II Lessons learned
PART III Opportunities?
PART IV Storytelling and LBS
PART V Workshop activities

6. 6
I HISTORY > GPS TO BE A DUAL-USE SYSTEM (1996) 60

7. 7
I HISTORY > OLDSMOBILE GUIDESTAR (1996) 60

8. 8
I HISTORY > COMMERCIAL APPS 60

9. 9
I HISTORY > COMMERCIAL APPS / HOLY GRAIL 60

10. 10
I HISTORY > R&D PROTOTYPES 60

11. 11
I HISTORY > POSTPONED EXPECTATIONS 60
"Location-aware service integration into
applications began. A critical mass of
network and device support will occur
through 2006"
Gartner, 2003
“Once devices were location-aware, business
applications were expected to take
advantage of the capabilities in the next two
to five years“
Gartner, 2006

12. 12
I HISTORY > POSTPONED EXPECTATIONS 60

13. 13
I HISTORY > POSTPONED EXPECTATIONS 60

14. 14
I HISTORY > WE EXPECTED THIS, WE GOT THAT 60
Check-in / self-declaration Geotagged pictures
no maps (Flickr: 5% of total)

15. 15
I HISTORY > WE EXPECTED THIS, WE GOT THAT 60
"Inexpensive receivers for
global positioning satellites
have given amateurs the means
to produce their own
cartographic information with
military precision..."
Locative Media (Kalnins &
Tuters, 2001)

16. 16
I HISTORY > WE EXPECTED THIS, WE GOT THAT 60

17. 17
II LESSONS LEARNED 60

18. 18
II LESSONS LEARNED > PLENTY OF POSITIONING TECHNIQUES 60
compass +
Public transport stops accelerometers
Bluetooth street names
GPS
WiFi angle of arrival
observed time difference
triangulation time difference of arrival
location postcode IP
street signs zipcode landmarks
time business names
cultural clues cell ID
(phone code? wifi providers? language?)
Ref: “35 ways to find your location” by Chris Heathcote (eTech 2004)

19. 19
II LESSONS LEARNED > SELF-DECLARATION 60

20. 20
II LESSONS LEARNED > THE “EMPTY ROOM” PROBLEM 60

21. 21
II LESSONS LEARNED > TEDIOUS INFRASTRUCTURES 60

22. 22
II LESSONS LEARNED > TEDIOUS INFRASTRUCTURES 60

23. 23
II SECOND-ORDER LBS 60
City Warfare (built on top of 4^2)

24. 24
II ADOPTION FACTORS > “GAMIFICATION” 60
Foursquare Gowalla

25. 25
II FROM STEREOTYPICAL SCENARIOS... 60
navigation buddy finder
location-based ads games

26. 26
II ... TO INTRIGUING EXCEPTIONS... 60

27. 27
II ... TO INTRIGUING EXCEPTIONS... (MOUNA ANDRAOS) 60

28. 28
II ... TO INTRIGUING EXCEPTIONS... (HAYEON YOO) 60

29. 29
II ... TO INTRIGUING EXCEPTIONS... 60

30. 30
II ... AND PLATFORMS (7SCENES) 60

31. 31
II ... AND PLATFORMS (SCVNGR) 60

32. 32
II LOCATION, AMONG OTHER (PERSONAL) DATA 60

33. 33
II MAP OR NOT? 60

34. 34
II LESSONS LEARNED 60

35. 35
II LOCATIVE MEDIA S-CURVE 60
navigation systems
geosocial apps
apps for storytelling
“smart” LBS
time

36. 36
III OPPORTUNITY: FROM SINGLE TO COLLECTIVE USAGE 60

37. 37
III OPPORTUNITY: BEYOND PEOPLE’S LOCATION 60
Jabberwocky (Intel)

38. 38
III OPPORTUNITY: SEAMFUL DESIGN (CHALMERS & GALANI) 60
play with constraints
(connectivity, low
accuracy), use them
as a starting point/
constraint

39. 39
III OPPORTUNITY: ROLE OF BYSTANDERS 60
Outsiders can be
spectators, participants or
Non-Playable Characters

40. 40
III OPPORTUNITY: ENVIRONMENTAL FEATURES 60

41. 41
IV CONTENT + STORYTELLING? 60
content or social interactions?
stories or playful interactions?
interactive fictions with legs?
-> how to use locative-media with content?
...location-based storytelling / site-specific
narrative system / location-aware
multimedia stories...

42. 42
IV CONTENT + STORYTELLING 60
Geolocated fragments (historical landmarks)

43. 43
IV CONTENT + STORYTELLING (URBAN TAPESTRIES) 60

44. 44
IV CONTENT + STORYTELLING 60
The reverse geocache
Puzzle Box (Mikal Hart)

45. 45
IV STORYTELLING > “WE TELL STORIES” (SIX TO START) 60

46. 46
IV CONTENT + STORYTELLING 60
Situated reading - adaptive storytelling

47. 47
IV CONTENT + STORYTELLING > M-VIEWS (MIT MEDIALAB) 60
location awareness
drives the flow of the
story (and the type of
media displayed)

48. 48
IV CONTENT + STORYTELLING 60
stories tailored to your
location

49. 49
IV STORYTELLING > WALKING THE EDIT (ULRICH FISCHER) 60

50. 50
IV NARRATIVE STRUCTURE? 60
Q: how can stories be distributed,
fragmented and meaningful at the same
time?
-> Interactive textuality (Ryan):
“In this mapping, the text as a whole is a
territory, the links are roads, the textual
units, destinations, the reader is a traveler
or navigator, clicking is a mode of
transportation and the itinerary selected
by the traveler is a story”

51. 51
IV ISSUES ABOUT NARRATIVE STRUCTURE? (NISI ET AL. 2008) 60
non-linearity -> prefer modular stories
physical effort -> be careful with audience
dual presence physical/informational
space -> design for guidance
how to make clear the link between
narrative bits and physical sites? -> find
connection between areas (not point) and
digital content)
technical glitch (= missed narrative bit) ->
seamful design

52. 52
V DISCUSSION 60
1. What’s your opinion about locative
media/location-based services? Do you use
them?
2. What are the opportunities?
3. What are the limits?

53. 53
V WORKSHOP ACTIVITY 60
1. split intro 3 groups
2. Warm-up activity: discuss and select the
5 elements that would enable the adoption
of locative media
3. Pick up one of the following topic: news,
ad, novel/short story, movie and describe
how you could build up a locative media
platform to expand, complement or renew
the media experience

54. 54
V WORKSHOP ACTIVITY 1: 45’+ 15’ 60
Describe:
0. Name your project!
1. Target audience (who/when/where)
2. Main features, how would it work?
3. 2 use cases (narrative or storyboard): how
would people use it?
-> Group presentation

55. 55
V WORKSHOP ACTIVITY 2: 30’ + 15’ 60
Describe:
5. Content/narrative part: define the
storytelling component of your project, how
does it work? how do you ensure coherence?
7. How can it fail? What to do in order avoid
these problems?
-> Group presentation

56. 56
V WORKSHOP ACTIVITY 60
Design a locative media scenario
based on this novel.
The action takes place in the
distinct cities of Besźel and Ul
Qoma. However, both of them
actually occupy the same physical
space. Because the citizens chose
this separation, Besźel and Ul
Quoma are perceived by people as
two different cities… which means
that inhabitants are taught to
“unsee” or “unhear” the persons
from the other city.

57. THANK YOU MERCI GRACIAS DANKE GRAZIE
NICOLAS NOVA
nicolas@liftlab.com
www.liftlab.com