Locative Media

So this has ended up being my first actual assigned blog post.

I've tried valiantly to blog about our other assignments after reading them - in many cases sitting down and writing for an hour or more. In fact, I've generated countless words - hundreds of sentences - but every time I go to click the post button I come to the inevitable realization that I'm really not saying anything at all.

I'm sure somewhere my 11th grade self is cursing me for saying this now considering how much BS writing I did in highschool. I can just hear myself saying, "JUST TURN IT IN, ED!" But as I've grown I have come to realize that writing that doesn't go anywhere or say something really substantial is just a waste of paper, ink, bytes and other people's time. That's not to say it's not useful from a writing development or brainstorming stand point, but it's definitely not appropriate for blogging IMHO. So bottom line is that I haven't posted any of my reactions thus far in the course.

FINALLY, however, I think I've connected with a topic to some greater extent than "this is cool because" or "this is dumb because". The discussions and readings surrounding Locative Media have really caught my attention because I think that we're looking at something here that is about to break in a very, very big way.

So lets get down to it: I firmly believe that Locative Media is poised to be a very influential force in the coming years and is very likely to become the primary way we experience life and physical/metaphysical spaces in the very near future. With the increasing number of web and GPS-capable mobile devices and the ever more flexible means of creation and content sharing through web 2.0 technologies, technically anything that is posted to the web could be tagged to a specific location and compiled. The technology is available and ready to go but the true power is only just starting to be realized. The few projects we looked at in class were novel in their time, but just don't really seem to really embrace the big picture. Fortunately I think a few companies are starting to get it.

Already, Google is paving the way with their mapping of... well... EVERYTHING. They're going to be the kings of Locative Media because everyone will end up having to use their data to tie anything to a specific locale. This is already happening through Google Maps and Google Earth interactions with wildlife research centers and other entities. Other recent web 2.0 startups such as Flickr and Twitter (through their flexible API) seem to be catching on as well by providing users with the ability to associate GPS coordinates with their posts. People are beginning to realize that while "content is king" without meaningful metadata that can tie the content to other relevant sources you quickly become lost in the web. We have become a world of networking and Locative Media seeks to network ideas, concepts and content (very metaphysical entities) with the physical world - essentially it is an extension of virtual reality that we recently discussed after the reading of "Connecting Bodies in Space".

Attaching the metadata to the content and opening up databases with API integrations are really the only missing links here, but they're developing every day. The functionality exists already, but privacy, Intellectual property concerns, and widespread adoption are the only barriers to enabling this rich and vibrant experience.

We talked in class a bit about how Locative Media is a lot like a tour. The more I think about it the more I come to realize it really is a tour in the fullest sense - basically it's what a real tour should be - going to a place and being able to know anything about it or related to it with the touch of a button. Every day places have countless thoughts, ideas, images, states of motion attached to them every instant that goes by. Locative media keys into the idea that these aspects can be captured and recalled at will to create a unique experience and understanding of a physical space that can span ideologies, senses, and time. This is the best kind of tour - you don't just get told about it, you can experience it to a greater degree.

A few newspapers have already opened their archives up with APIs allowing programmers and developers to manipulate and mashup their articles and research in new ways and experience the idea of Newspaper as a Platform. This is the next step towards advancing locative media, which essentially is just a small aspect of what I like to think of as Media Universiality. Everything is connected and Locative Media is just one way of connecting two or more seeming separate things through the use of the web.

It's not that the idea of Locative Media is brilliantly unexpected or earth shattering in it's concept - but the results definitely have the potential to be groundbreaking.