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‘If one accepts the proposition that the meanings of utterances, actions and events are affected by their ‘local position’, by the situation of which they are a part, then a work of art, too, will be defined in relation to its place and position.’ (Nick Kaye, site-specific art: Performance, Place and Documentation) (Kaye, 2000, p.1)

 

By this Nick Kaye means that the meanings of the actions and words amongst other mediums in a space is defined by its position: its place.

 

 

What will this report talk about?

 

This research report will be split into two sections, the first half will talk about my findings from primary research and secondary readings on the topic of how do people like to give a space meaning and why? The second part will talk about other applications and how my app idea will fulfil human’s innate desires to embody space and imbue meaning.

 

Why do humans have a need to embody space?

 

Our primitive territorial emotions make us eager to inhabit an area. We have an innate desire to embody a space and we do this just as we have always done: through marking it. In the caveman times this might be by drawing in chalk on the wall of a cave or creating a fire, for dogs it is urinating on a tree. We have yet to shake off this animalistic craving to mark a space. How we go about it in today’s society however is through posting pictures of us in that place and perhaps even geo-tagging the pictures with a specific location.

 

How is space made into place?

 

By interacting with physical space using our mobile interfaces we are creating areas that De Souza calls ‘Hybrid Spaces’: spaces that can be changed and defined from an electronic platform. Marking a space is not only fulfilling our want to embody a space it is imbuing it with meaning. A space ‘exists as we interact with it’ (De Souza. 2006. P.264) and this is what gives a space its character.

 

‘Space needs to be considered as something that can be produced through use’ (Farman. 2012. P18).

 

By marking a space with a statue or a plaque we are giving it meaning. It is also important to remember that the geographical location of this space: its place, can emphasise or alter this intended meaning that the mark has attempted to produce. Edward Welph defines that place ‘is not just the ‘where’ of something; it is the location plus everything that occupies that location seen as an integrated and meaningful phenomenon’ (Goggin. 2016. P5).

 

My app is called PlaceMaker, its concept taps into our personal desires to embody a space through enabling a user to put their marking on it.

 

How does PlaceMaker work?

 

‘PlaceMaker’ markings are on a digital layer, so to access them you need to be connected to the network through the app on your mobile device. These markings could be a poem, a photo, a video, a voice note or even an augmented statue. It is much like using Facebook or Blogging, but there is one big difference: you can only access the marking if you are in that space. To view the markings that people have put in that space you need to physically travel to that location in the real world. To put down your own markings in that space you also need to be inside that place. This would all work through the use of your phones GPS. A user would put down a ‘space’, this being a digital fence around the area. Once other user’s mobiles track that they are inside this area they would be able to put down ‘Marks’ or view other peoples ‘Marks’ that they have placed in the area.

 

How does PlaceMaker tap into ‘Implacement’ and meet need or demand in this area?

 

In Farman’s book ‘The mobile interface of everyday life’ he talks about the transformation of space into place, this transformation is what Edward Casey calls ‘implacement’ (Farman. 2012. P.40). This ‘implacement’ occurs after we imbue a space with meaning and this is what ‘PlaceMaker’ allows the user to do. The etymology of my name for the app is from the apps digital enactment of this ‘implacement’. A user puts down an area enclosed by a digital fence displayed and named with ‘Space’ on a map on his screen. Once he has put a ‘Mark’ down the ‘Space’ will change colour and become ‘Place’ giving the user a sense of embodied ‘implacement’.

 

‘Embodied implacement gives us the sense of direction in a particular place — direction not only in movement, but also in purpose.’ (Farman. 2012. P.40)

 

Castell coins two terms; the ‘space of places’ and the ‘space of flows’ the former is space rooted in historical meaning and the latter is the space that contains the flow of information, capital, symbols and sounds. He expresses his concerns with modern day society in how ‘Localities become disembodied from their cultural, historical, geographic meaning, and reintegrated into functional networks… inducing a space of flows that substitutes for the space of places.’ (Goggin. 2016. P.8) ‘PlaceMaker’ would construct a ‘hybrid space’ (De Souza. 2006. P.264) as De Souza would put it that is both a ‘space of place’ and ‘space of flows’.

 

 

How does PlaceMaker tap ideas on memories and identity and meet need or demand in this area?

 

‘PlaceMaker’ has a heavy stress on it having a social networking site element to it. If a user were to put a ‘Mark’ down that was personal, perhaps a photo of their grandfather as the local butcher outside the building where he worked, then they would be practicing their personal proprioception with that place. Another ‘Placemaker’ could come along into that ‘Place’, view the photo and the original ‘PlaceMaker’ profile and communicate with them through private chat about their Grandmothers former relationship with that butchers. Memories would be a large part of ‘Placemaker’, whether the ‘Marks’ put down at the site are poems or paintings expressing a ‘PlaceMaker’ nostalgia with the space, or whether they put down photographs that act as physical snapshots of a moment frozen in time. The key to making my app as successful as possible would be in deciphering what would be the most common use for it.

 

Is PlaceMaker to be used for either: marketing; games and other creations; personal additions; or historical information, or all of these?

 

In my survey 48% of people chose “a secluded place personal to them” in answer to question 1, which asked where they would put an area. When informed of its function and asked what they would upload in question 2 49% answered “something creative such as a drawing relating to the area”. When asked in question 3 if they would change their answer to question 1 now that they know its function 60% said that they would keep their answer the same.

 

From this I can gather that the app’s main use would be of personal and creative benefit. However it is clear that each type of ‘Mark’ whether it be a personally historical addition a nationally historical addition, a marketing scheme or even a game, has its place depending on the location as the results are not overly one sided.

 

 

PlaceMarker vs other apps

 

Generically historical ‘Marks’ such as photos would play into our national collective memories. Photos that ‘PlaceMaker’ obtain from archives could be used alongside the capabilities to link ‘Places’ together to create tours. In these tours when a users mobile device passes into a new ‘Place’ a new audio clip or photo would be triggered allowing ‘PlaceMaker’ to create their own audio tours discussing the in depth history of a city.

 

This would be much like the service ‘StreetMuseum’, in this application a phone can be pointed at a building and a photo of that building in the past would come up. This necessity to physically travel to the geographical location of that building or statue makes learning history an active pursuit and situates the learner within the actual area rather than just allowing them to sit at home at their laptop. The ‘StreetMuseum’ app practices the same implacement that I was discussing earlier, however, with ‘PlaceMaker’, the user creates the content rather than the app creators, so the content can be more tailored to a specific community of users if need me.

 

Where my app differs the most from ‘StreetMuseum’ is within the way over time the users would become the administrators, ‘Places’ and ‘Marks’ would be rated by a database of users. It would also allow for more tailored historical tours such as guides that take users around the location of 1970’s rock stars’ houses.

 

The administrator element of the app would work like this: if a user wanted to put down a ‘Mark’ in another users ‘Place’ then they would have to ask for the original ‘PlaceMaker’ permission and that ‘PlaceMaker’ would have the power to deny the users ‘Mark’ requests. However at the beginning of the apps career, the users possession of that ‘place’ would only last for a certain amount of time before it becomes a ‘space’ again, for anyone to make it theirs. This could change later on when the app grows into a potentially more marketing based app.

 

Facebook has grown into a platform for people and companies to advertise and sell as well as keeping its initial function as a solely social networking app. I think ‘PlaceMaker’ should take a leaf out of its book and first gain a cult following of users by first focussing on the novel uses of the app such as making personal and creative ‘Marks’. The historical and creative side of the ‘PlaceMaker’ would be the side of the app that would build a loyal community of users who are keen to keep the app free of spam. Once the amount of users have grown, the community has been solidified and the app has enough traction then we could go more down the commercial route.

 

 

Creative uses

 

The creative users of the app would take pride in their work, and thus they would make sure the app was used in a relatively professional manner. In the sphere of creative ‘Marks’ there are immense possibilities with the application. The city-scape could be transformed into a videogame, a race or an art installation. Locative art works such as Jeremy Woods ‘The Oxfordshire’ show how GPS can be used to map out beautiful digital representations of a landscape. Locative literatures are stories that you make your way through as you travel to different locations, such as Eli Horowitz ‘The Clock Without a Face’ and ‘The Silent History’. The latter was developed with an iOS app that played characters segments when the reader lands at specific airports. ‘PlaceMaker’ would be the perfect platform to create works such as these and a huge database of users could share, read and rate each others works as well as meet up in real life within the lore of the specific literature. Races could be held as ‘Places’ could act as starting or finishing lines and checkpoints, competitors could be made to complete mini-games as they enter each ‘Place’ to progress through the race.

 

‘Places’ could be international, such as a man in England wanting to talk to his wife in China he could set up a ‘Place’ in a nearby café and the wife could do the same in China, when both of them are in this ‘Place’ they could bring their phone up in front of them and on the screen would be the view from their phones camera overlaid with their partner in the seat opposite. This concept could extend to international business meetings and the act of travelling to that ‘Place’ would perhaps make the meeting feel more purposeful and professional. ‘Places’ in museum’s across the world could be linked so that if you stand in a ‘Place’ in the Natural History Museum you could see the mirror ‘Place’ displayed like on Facebooks ‘360 view’ or perhaps the same on a busy high street in two cities across the world. This would be even more exciting in real-time, the places would act as portals that you could see through.

 

Marketing

 

In the survey, 31% of people answered that an advert in their ‘place’ would result in financial gain, and this is a high enough percentage to pursue this avenue for ‘PlaceMaker’. Companies could own ‘places’, where automatic surveys track when user enters it through using the personal details, adverts would then pop up as notifications on the users screen. This is much like Apples ‘iBeacons’ and Googles ‘Eddystone’ beacons, these are small devices that can ‘trigger specific messages or actions as they walk by a particular micro-location in the store’ (Bhalla. 2017). The difference is with my app not just large corporations would be using this software; anyone could own a ‘Place’ and use it to market their product. In ‘PlaceMaker’ these notifications could be disabled alongside foreign access of personal information. However there would be advantages to the user, and therefore motives to leaving these functions and information enabled, such as discount codes to catch in the form of Pokemon Go-like minigames in the form of augmented reality content: ‘It is estimated that the AR market will be worth £70bn by 2020.’ (digi-capital. 2016). 

 

Dating invitations from people could be sent to users of a certain age range. Once the commercial side of the app starts to take off and the value of the ‘Places’ ownership increases the ‘Places’ could be valued with real money. Companies would have to buy these digital plots of land off the app and unlike previously were you only own the ‘Place’ for a certain amount of time, now when you buy the ‘Place’ you own it until you sell it on, but only back through the app which would take a cut.

 

Summary

 

PlaceMaker meets the demands that our primordial instincts engrain within us, needs to mark territory, embody space and imbue space with meaning. It is also a platform where this act can be broadcast and this adds to our personal and national ideas on identity and memories. It pushes users to communicate in cityscapes that are becoming increasingly lonely to live in. Unlike other services such as StreetMuseum, Ibeacon and Pokemon Go that focus solely on different areas of gaming and creation, history and marketing, ‘PlaceMaker’ focuses on all three of these areas at once.

 

My aim is to create an app that fuses the act of ‘place marking’ with socialising within a community driven service that anyone can access through their mobile. PlaceMaker moves administration and content design into the hands of the user meaning that the app is effectively run by a group of users who would be keen to keep the app un-tainted by anyone being inappropriate. Mobile phones are the best platform to host ‘PlaceMaker’ on, as mobile phones are devices that we have been socially enforced to have on us at all times. This pressure will only increase so from a business perspective this presents app creators with the perfect time to design locative apps.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bibliography

 

Kaye. N. 2000. P1. Site-Specific Art: Performance, Place and Documentation. [Online. P.1]. [Accessed 20th December 2016] Available from https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=8iW8X7FWJgoC&pg=PA1&lpg=PA1

Brunnenburg. L. 2012. Pages 113-125. Placemaking in the 21st-century city: introducing the funfair metaphor for mobile media in the future urban space [Accessed 20th December 2016]  Available from http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14626268.2012.709943

De Souza. A. 2006. Mobile Technologies as Interfaces of Hybrid Spaces. [Online]. 9, p264 [Accessed 20th December 2016]  Available from http://sac.sagepub.com/content/9/3/261.full.pdf+html

 

Farman. J. 2012. The Mobile Interface of Everyday Life. [Online]. Pp.1-94. [Accessed 20th December 2016]  Available from https://www.dawsonera.com/readonline/9780203847664/startPage/14

 

Goggin Gerard. 2016. Mobile Technology and Place. [online]. Pp.5-7. [Accessed 20th December 2016] Available from https://www.dawsonera.com/readonline/9780203127551/startPage/68

Bhalla. M. 2017. Everything You Should Know About Location-based Marketing Technologies [Online]. [Accessed 25th December 2016] http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/location-based-marketing-technology/

Digi-capital. 2016. Augmented/Virtual Reality revenue forecast revised to hit $120 billion by 2020 [Accessed 25th December 2016] Available from http://www.digi-capital.com/news/2016/01/augmentedvirtual-reality-revenue-forecast-revised-to-hit-120-billion-by-2020/#.WG2TQWSLQy4

 

 

Specification Report

 

Introduction

 

Make a space a place!

 

PlaceMaker is a location-based mobile phone application that allows the user, or ‘PlaceMaker’ to attach multimedia content to a specific area or ‘space’. Each ‘Space’ is one 5 by 5 metre area within a grid that spans the world (although the app will begin only in the UK to find its feet). To own a ‘space’ you must first travel to an area that is not owned by anyone for you to inhabit it. Once you’ve ‘inhabited’ a ‘space’ other users will be able to see. Once you post your content or ‘mark’ in the ‘space’ it will be called a ‘place’.

 

If other users want to access these ‘marks’ or submit their own to this area they first need to travel to that exact 5 by 5 metre geographical location within the real world. If you ‘inhabit’ that ‘space’ then you are the ‘administrator’. As administrator you can accept or reject other users content. 

 

Communicate with a large community of ‘PlaceMaker’ your personal knowledge and memories with photos, videos or poems. Rate other users ‘marks’ and give feedback, converse and meet up with them. Get creative - make audio tours that take users from one ‘place’ to another, submit challenges, races and even pose questions within a ‘place’ that other users can answer.

 

 

Similar apps - StreetMuseum

 

StreetMuseum is a free location-based app that works only in London, it is available on the App Store and contains a database of photos from the past. To view the photos and coinciding information you must travel to the building, statue or street corner and hold you phone up to it. Once the app recognises that you are in the correct position it will overlay the photo from the past on top. Much like ‘PlaceMaker’ you cannot view ‘StreetMuseums’ pictures and information unless you go to that area which I think is good because it promotes a less-reclusive learning process.

 

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Figure 1, A screen capture from the iPhone application Streetmuseum, 2012 Oneidig Noord- Holland

 

 

‘PlaceMaker’ differs from ‘StreetMuseum’ in the way that it can be any multimedia not just photo’s. What I do want to take from ‘StreetMuseum’ is the function where a photo of a building from the past can be overlaid on top of the current building. ‘PlaceMaker’ content is also created by the users not the app creator. This way the content can be more tailored to a specific niche of user and more specific communities of ‘PlaceMaker’ will arise. The function of the user owning a ‘place’ is exclusive to ‘PlaceMaker’ and will allow for them to be the administrator of their own ‘place’.

 

 

 

Similar apps – Pokemon Go

 

Users of ‘PlaceMaker’ will be able to drop ‘marks’ in the form of pieces of augmented reality for other users to view. This is much like how Pokemon Go works, Pokemons are dropped in areas and can be caught by users. I would like to implement within the marketing side of the app a function where retail companies such as say H and M can put down Pokemon Go style mini-games in ‘Places’ that they own where the objects of augmented reality can be caught and used as vouchers in stores.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 2, a screenshot from Pokemon Go, 2016, The Independent

 

Similar services – Ibeacons

 

Ibeacons are Apples hardware transmitters that send out signals to smartphones and tablets enabling them to perform certain functions. For instance an Ibeacon could be placed in a store on a certain clothes isle and programmed so that when a customer with a Bluetooth enabled device walks past a certain item of clothing they could be alerted of a 20% off deal on say a pair of shoes. Ibeacons ‘deliver hyper-contextual content to users based on location.’(ibeacon insider. 2015) This idea could be applied to ‘PlaceMaker’ in the form of adverts placed in ‘places’ near stores by companies that alert a user when they step inside the grid space of certain deals, It could even be extended to the Pokemon Go style mini-games.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 3, Ibeacons in a store, 2015, ibeacon insider

Design

 

Overview

 

We carry our mobile device around with us at all times and app designers have begun picking up on how public spaces can be interacted with on a digital layer. With developments in smart phone technology users who were once limited to specific features in certain spaces can now experience connectivity to network interaction at all times. This level of interaction where uses are always engulfed in the digital realm may on paper seem overwhelming but if it is implemented in the right way the constant transitions between interacting with the real world and the digital realm could be an organic process.

 

An app with such ambition can be hard to design in a user friendly way. This is why in this design overview I try to limit the number of buttons by taking design cues from other apps such as decreased numbers of menu screens. I will start by discussing the home page that uses this straight into the action dynamic.

 

 

Home page

 

I’d like to contrast my apps dynamic with other apps by using the analogy of video games. Most video games load up a home screen menu with a long list of options and I feel this gets in the way of the playful nature that they are trying to achieve. ‘Grand Theft Auto’ however drops the gamer straight into the action by eliminating any precursor to spawning into a world. This is an element that I have taken from ‘Grand Theft Auto’ that I will use in ‘PlaceMaker’. The loading screen is emblematic with the large ‘PlaceMaker’ trademark symbol nestled into a grid system. This symbol is a sort of open box and as the app loads symbols for video and image files are thrown into it. I would even like to consider a loading screen where the user physically has to flick the objects into the box.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once the app has finished loading, the transition between the loading screen and the home page is made seamless by the grid system staying put and the perspective changing so that now the viewer is seeing it from a top down perspective. This shift mirrors the view changing function of the app that I will discuss later. A map of the user’s current area is now in display alongside the user’s location.

 

Upon first opening the app the user will be asked if he would like to be sent push notification, the answer to which he can change at any time in the options screen. From the home page the user can explore the map of the area he is in and spot ‘places’ that are under other users control. From here he can select them and opt to create route so that he may travel to this ‘place’ to discover other ‘PlaceMaker’ content.

 

There is consistently a bar at the top of the screen with options on to help the user navigate the app. On the home screen there are three options on the top bar: friends, view and my profile. The user can also synchronise with the grid space that he is in through pressing and holding down on the screen where his marker is.

 

Friends

 

When user clicks on friends they are presented with a list of their friends. In the top bar are the options to go back to home page, find friends, filter or go to my profile.

 

 

 

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The friends will be listed with the number of ‘places’ that they own as a number on the right of their name. They will also have an active or inactive symbol to the right of this that will indicate if their online. The filter option will allow the user to change what friends will be at the top of the list: closest friends, friends with the most ‘places’ or recently connected. The find friend’s bar at the top will allow the user to type in any username and befriend them if they want.

 

 

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After the user clicks on a friends a page will come up with their profile. Initially displayed will be all the ‘places’ that they own with the number of marks in each of them displayed on the side. At the bottom of this page will be friend, un-friend and message options. If the user was to click on any of their friends places it would take them to the location of this ‘place’ on the map, from there they can set a route via public transport, car or walking so that they may travel to this place to see the content.

 

 

 

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View

 

On the home page there is the option to change to street-view. This would enable the user to look at the world through camera on the back of the phone and see through the screen the grids on the ground denoting different spaces. The user would also be able to see all the augmented reality objects in nearby spaces and access them if he wanted by walking into them.

 

 

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My profile

 

From the My Profile section you would be able to access and edit your information: this being your bio, name and age. You would also be able to see your ‘places’ and marks that you and that other users have put in them as well as editing your own. You would also have an options section where you could log out, from the options section you could also configure whether or not you have aspects such as Bluetooth enabled. There would also be a message section to the ‘My Profile’ screen you could view message and mark requests from other users.

 

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Syncing

 

The synching function that you access of the home page allows the user to synchronise with the grid space he is in, control it if it’s empty or see the other users ‘marks’ that they have put down. If the user was to synchronise with an occupied 'place’ off the map view of the home page then they would be shown a page with the users ‘marks’, profile and they would be given the option of uploading their own ‘mark’. If the ‘space’ wasn’t occupied then the user would be given the option to own it. Users can also synch from the street view of the home page and the augmented objects within that grid space would be highlighted.

 

 

 

Uploading

 

From the uploading page the user can choose between photo, video, document, audio clip or survey. Once clicking on any of these they would be given the option to either take or upload photo. From the survey selection you would be given the option to make the survey automated, this being a survey that is automatically filled in by the information on other user’s phones when they enter that space. They also have the option with all uploads to make them augmented visual objects to be viewed in street view. Other forms of uploads would be added to the app at a later date such as mini-games and races.

 

 

 

 

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Budget

 

 

Breakdown:

 

·         2000 – 3000 pounds spent on design, direction, much of the design can be done on Photoshop

·         GPS locators – 2000 pounds

·         Social media interrogation, share capabilities - 2000 - 3000 pound

·         The app is designed only for IOS meaning limited costs for only one platform however $99 charge from Apple per year and %30 cuts from each sale

·         Web services – 1000 – 2000 pounds

·         SDK’s such as Applovin – 100 – 200 pound

 

= roughly 8000 pounds excluding Apple charges for Applestore use

 

 

Risk assessment

Research and design

Survey shows that the area of family history would not be as popular as the other uses

medium

low

Incorporate companies such as the national history museum and give them free use

 

Demands will change as cityscapes become too crowded

low

medium

Promote app use out in rural areas

 

Keeping the audience interested

low

high

Constant feature   updates as well as seasonal Easter eggs – much like snapchats seasonal filters

 

Miss- communication with the design team

low

high

Work with the designer don’t just send him designs, gather a team to cover different areas. e.g. team 1 - augmented reality, team 2 - map design

 

 

 

 

Design stage

If the designs are   implemented in the wrong way then the app could look shabby, cheap and may not run smoothly

low

Very high

Run a strict team, appoint team leaders who have aurous of authority so no-one slacks, work closely with these people

 

The main purpose of the app may not be clear with so many uses

low

High

Design tutorials for each part of content upload, advertise interesting examples to tantalise the user

 

Not enough users

High

High

With an app of such magnitude and one that is meant to be effectively run by the user it is crucial to gain a large audience, focus on the social networking and game side of the app to get users hooked, advertise heavily

 

Deadlines may not be met

high

low

Split the project production into sections allowing different teams to simultaneously work on different parts to achieve maximum time efficiency

Development stage

The amount of features might be over ambitious meaning that they may have to be left out the final app

High

medium

Conduct regular surveys and focus groups to establish the main functions used by the user allowing the design team to make educated decision on what to leave out

 

Some of the technology may not be available or may be too costly

High

High

The precision of some GPS systems may be ideal but too expensive meaning that the app may have to settle for larger grid spaces that first anticipated

 

The user run aspect of the app may fall through if the use doesn’t know how to do so

Medium

Medium

More tutorials for beginner users. If this fails adopt a company run approach or perhaps run the app 50% user 50% company

 

 

 

 

 

 

Post production

Bugs, slow running due to the sheer amount of information

medium

medium

Data compression algorithms and frequent check ups

 

Spam users and people being silly

High

Low

Maintain a database of loyal users who will report bad users and prevent them from submitting content

 

Explicit material

High

Low

Have a report feature below the comment section of content that allows a concerned user to contact us directly if they would like to see something removed, also add algorithms that prevent certain material from being posted