ALICE WASS
Exploring Media
Postdigital Space
Entry Two
The concept of hyperreality links into postdigital space and is explored in Baudrillard’s ‘Simulacra and Simulation’ (1991). This examines how people perceive the world when influenced by outside factors, rather than reality. Simulated space now covers real space and Baudrillard suggests that hyperreality is more important than actual reality, which has negative impact on society. An example of this is reality TV shows, such as ‘Keeping Up With The Kardashians’. When watching the show the audience does not know if what is being shown is reality or staged, however, the audience decides to accept the prepared realities as genuine. This demonstrates how the lines between real and fake have become blurred within everyday life.
‘Postdigital Space’ explores different spaces and places. This topic is debated between theorists. The first argument is posed by Heidegger (see ‘Introducing Heidegger A Graphic Guide’ 2010), who believes that space is meaningless, whereas place has a purpose and therefore a transformation occurs, once space has meaning it becomes a place. Creswell’s opposing view says: “People do things in place. What they do, in part, is responsible for the meanings that a place might have” (2009: 2). A set of values which are designed and collected and agreed upon about how a space is used, turns it into a place. To understand these concepts better, we discussed the swimming pool as a place. It would have a water, life-guards, diving boards and changing rooms, dress codes, and rules and regulations to follow. This fits with Heidegger’s approach to space and place, as a swimming pool is a place to exercise. However, the rules and regulations at the pool, fit with Creswell’s view of how a place is created. What is interesting, is that these can change. For example, for a pool-party, the rules and regulations are different and the purpose of the swimming pool changes. This fulfils Creswell’s argument that the people and what they do in the space gives the place meaning.
Another topic to consider is imaging in the postdigital space. Postdigital architecture focuses on feelings and mood instead of design and precision. The focus has changed to be more about how people interact with space. Examples of this can be found online on sites such as, Koozarch.
The final concept is hybrid-spaces, an example of this is Pokémon Go. Augmented realities allow an individual’s purpose for a space to differ from those around them. This is described as recasting spaces. There are many interesting examples of hybrid-spaces in ‘Causing a Scene’ by Charlie Todd (2009) in which the group ‘Improv Everywhere’, use MP3 players, listening to the same instructions and completing tasks. One app that I use to recast spaces is the 2012 game, ‘Zombies, Run’. In the game the player wears headphones and gets immersed into a world of a zombie apocalypse, the aim is to complete missions by running. The game causes the player to use the surrounding space in a completely different way to everyone else as they are existing in a different reality.
For this week’s group task we went Geocaching. Geocaching is a network of hidden boxes around different cities, planted by other Geocachers. After creating accounts and downloading the app, we wandered around Coventry searching for hidden boxes. We found the first outside Holy Trinity Church. This reminded us of Creswell’s theory of space, as by going Geocaching we changed the meaning of that space from worship to discovery. Our next find was in the wall near Cosmo. This linked to Heidegger, as it was a space with no meaning, but the addition of the hidden box made the space a place, by adding meaning and purpose. Completing this task helped me understand the topic, as we put into practice what we had been discussing.
References:
Baudrillard J. (1991) Simulacra and Simulation. Michigan: University of Michigan Press
Collins, J. (2010) Introducing Heidegger: A Graphic Guide
Place (2009) 1st edn. London: Elsevier. available from <https://booksite.elsevier.com/brochures/hugy/SampleContent/Place.pdf> [9 February 2018]
Todd, C. (2009) Causing a Scene: Extraordinary Pranks in Ordinary Places with Improv Everywhere. William Morrow & Company