<nettime-ann> MEDIALAB-PRADO (MADRID) OPEN CALL "DIGITAL NETWORKS AND PH

OPEN CALL · SECOND INCLUSIVA-NET MEETING:
DIGITAL NETWORKS AND PHYSICAL SPACE

http://medialab-prado.es/inclusiva-net
http://medialab-prado.es/

Deadline: 30 January

Venue: Medialab-Prado, Madrid (Spain)

The purpose of this open participation meeting is to explore the
relationship between digital networks and physical space in the context of
the increasingly widespread use of portable technology and Web applications
in connection with the production and management of geographic information.
In this meeting, the impact of these devices and platforms on the
development of new dynamics and experiences of communicative interaction
will be analyzed from the perspective of a broad range of fields including
art, anthropology, journalism, politics, sociology, and urban development.

Core topics suggested for this meeting are:

-New social habits on Web 2.0 related to physical space and
geo-localization. The formation of participatory media contents based on
spatial annotation: georeferencing and geotagging. Artistic and critical
analysis proposals related to these fields.
-The development of geographic information systems in Web circles.
Technological and social foundations of the emerging Geospatial Web and
Geosemantic Web.
-The design of alternative "geobrowsers" to use and manage geospatial data
and geotagged information.
Bases of the local Web 2.0. "Urban markup" proposals on social networks.
Sharing collective, localized memories. Applications in the field of
education.
-The evolution of open source types of cartographic and mapping tools, and
of geosoftware production communities.
-Blogs referring to contextual, specific places and areas (place blogging)
and hyperlocal journalism. Socializing and critical potentials in the
development of hyperlocal networks.
-Projects for mobile networks and wireless local networks. Augmented reality
projects based on network environments and their potential for developing a
new type of participatory digital urban development.
-Locative media and network systems. Locative art and locative gaming
projects related to collaborative forms and social interaction via the Web
or through other interconnected networks.

(Important note: In addition to the abovementioned core topics, other work
or research will be considered for inclusion in the meeting related to other
areas proposed by the artists and/or researchers, provided that those
proposals contribute to the overall theme of this meeting.)

Call:

There are two ways to participate in the meeting (not mutually exclusive):

-Presenting a project to develop within the production workshop.

-Sending a paper for its public presentation during the meeting.

Introductory text to the meeting:

The relationship between digital and physical spaces is becoming
increasingly important in the development of new technological applications.
Just as several years ago, portable communication systems like mobile phones
and electronic organizers began to incorporate visual tools such as
photographic and video cameras, nowadays they also include GPS devices that
provide geo-localization coordinates.
Meanwhile, on the Internet, huge breakthroughs are occurring in the
development of applications related to geographic information systems; that
is, systems that manage geographically referenced information using data
bases usually associated to digital maps.
That is why geotagging activities have become increasingly common on Web
2.0; that is, assigning spatial coordinates or physical location data to
certain files, such as georeferencing photographs on platforms including
Flickr, Mappr, and Google Earth, or assigning geographic identifiers to
texts and phrases, even video and audio documents. The popularization of
"annotating the world" activities is unquestionably one of the key processes
in the evolution of the current Web toward the formation of what many people
are already calling the geospatial web. Widespread use is being made of the
term: "Earth as Universal Desktop".
Clearly, the desire to know more about the geographic spaces around us, the
place where we live or that we are travelling through, as well as the people
who live there or travel through them has found one of its most active
development channels in the participatory technologies that characterize
social networks, laying the foundations for what we could call "the local
Web 2.0". Some of the best possible examples of this drive to
re-territorialize that comprises a large part of current online dynamics are
the open, communicative practices focused on the lived experience of a place
that are being carried out at present in hyperlocal journalism and place
blogging (a term commonly used to refer to blogs centred on events, news,
and people in a specific local area such as a neighbourhood or a small
town). The recent addition of some aggregators and search engines on
placeblogs are proof of the growing importance of this form of relationship
and the complementary nature of the communicative space on networks and the
physical space we inhabit.
Artistic and experimental practices linked to what in 2003 began to be
called "locative media" demonstrate an intensely critical reaction to the
globalizing dislocation and the loss of any geographic or political context,
which has long been associated with the experience of connecting to the
Internet. Using all kinds of mobile and wireless technologies and computer
localization devices, many artistic manifestations today are attempting to
reconfigure the physical spatial contexts of communication and interaction
among people.
Many artistic proposals use mapping, geo-annotation, localization, spatial
mobility, or mixed reality games strategies to call for a new convergence
between the digital space of networks and the actual territory. They are
always dependent on specific social and geographic contexts and serve as the
first glimpse of what we might call a new participatory digital type of
urban development.

+ info:
http://medialab-prado.es/inclusiva-net

http://medialab-prado.es/