DANMite,bsalmond /thesis
The lessons drawn from dérives enable us to draw up the first surveys of the psychogeographical articulations of a modern city. Beyond the discovery of unities of ambiance, of their main components and their spatial localization, one comes to perceive their principal axes of passage, their exits and their defenses. --Guy Debord, Theory of the Dérive
The Points of Interest project is an exploration of the way we use technology to navigate modern urban geography. Assuming the guise of a GPS based navigation tool, the work seeks to uncover the complex relationships between the individual, the urban space, and the technological devices that store information about that space. How best does one explore a modern city? Is experience of a city different when walking, if so how? What is the urban experience like when it is navigated outside the norms of efficiency and consumption. These are a few questions that the POI project was designed, in part, to ask and hopefully, begin to answer. The model for the Points of Interest application is that of a useful navigational tool. However, unlike consumer grade GPS devices, which calculate routes with the assumption that travel should be kept to a bare minimum, the Points of Interest application shapes a route by querying a user's likes, dislikes, anxieties and impressions. The resulting route is one that favors exploration over efficiency, and privileges the experience of travel over the imperative of getting there.