Constance Fleuriot
Morris Williams (UWE)
Owain Jones
Lucy Woods (Ordnance Survey Research)

The objectives of A New Sense of Place are:

• to understand the potential effect of new wireless technology on children’s spatial practices in the city, engagement with and access to their outdoor environment
• to investigate the relationship between physical and virtual geographies
• to understand children’s interpretations of space
• to understand the role of geographical information in soundscape geographies
• to develop a methodology for exploring the use of a technology that encourages children to reengage with their outdoor physical environment

“A New Sense of Place?” explores how the pervasive technology being developed by Mobile Bristol enables children’s imaginative engagement with their environment, and how the spatial practices of children and young people might change through the use of the technology.

Previous work with children in an indoor setting explored whether the technology could be meaningful, engaging and easy to understand and use (see Experience design: John Cabot School technology workshop)

The second phase of the project was a series of workshops in May-July 2003 with a class of 36 children (age 9-10) at Ashton Gate Primary School in south Bristol. We worked with them first to begin to uncover their thoughts and feelings about Old Chapel Park, a familiar outdoor space that is part of their school grounds, before giving them a set of hardware and software tools to create soundscapes in that space.

Apart from the soundscapes themselves, research outcomes so far include papers submitted to various 2004 conferences (IDC2004, CHI2004, social geography), and accepted at several in 2003 (see publications). We have been invited to participate in a workshop on using new technology to enable children’s participation in urban design processes. Team members are writing proposals for further funding for developing the project with the school. We plan to expand our work with this group of children into their local area, using Mobile Bristol technology to build mediascapes (ie soundscapes plus images) that can be accessed by other groups in the community.

The research themes that will be looked at during this next phase are:

• family use of pervasive technologies and the impact on family practice
• enabling children to influence the built environment through using Mobile Bristol technology to give feedback on their experiences
• how to make mapping more inclusive
• developing a soundscape management tool
• interface issues : personalised maps and icons
• theorising technology in the city; understanding new virtual spaces