A Function-based model of Place (original) (raw)
Related papers
Spatially Enabling ‘Place’Information
2010
Many attempts to embed the concept of 'place' into current location-based technologies and spatial data infrastructures have failed spectacularly. Resolving places to single georeferenced points has been identified as a major factor. The prevailing hypothesis is that more complex georeferenced descriptions of places will resolve the problem. This paper refutes this hypothesis. It challenges it from five perspectives including issues related to: determining positional accuracy, defining vague and dynamic places, administering natural places with uncertain boundaries, supporting vanity and vernacular places, and representing the salience of places. These five perspectives demonstrate that while more complex modeling of place is necessary, it is only part of the solution. Successful spatial enablement of place will require other essential issues to be addressed including: combining absolute, relative, and visual accuracy definitions of place, using emerging sources of data (e.g. crowd-sourced) to develop dynamic descriptions of places, determining how to capture 'places' from remotely sensed data, incorporating vanity and vernacular places into spatial data infrastructures, and embedding measures of the salience of place into spatial data infrastructures. These findings are synthesized into a future research agenda in spatial data infrastructures, or spatial information science in general.
From Space To Place And Back Again: Towards An Interface Between Space And Place
2018
Geographic information systems represent and process space whereas people refer to and use place. A question that arises is what are the benefits of introducing a unified data model that combines the rigid representation of space and the information-rich concepts of place. In this work we contribute to this research question by proposing a two-way interface that aims to bridge the notions of space and place. This interface relies on the four conceptions of space and interconnected spatial objects. Step-by-step descriptions as well as examples are provided to illustrate the intended use of the proposed interface.
The Cognitive Aspect of Place Properties
International Conference on GIScience Short Paper Proceedings
The need to computationally handle the cognitively grounded concept of place is fundamental for spatial human-computer interaction. However, there is thus far no consensus about a formal definition of place. In this paper, we explore the feasibility of a constructor of an abstract data type place by exploring a cognitively supported set of properties of place. We study the applicability of Alexander's 15 structural properties of a whole to inform a place property parser of natural language place descriptions.
Revisiting the Role of Place in Geographic Information Science
ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information
Although place-based investigations into human phenomena have been widely conducted in the social sciences over the last decades, this notion has only recently transgressed into Geographic Information Science (GIScience). Such a place-based GIS comprises research from computational place modeling on one end of the spectrum, to purely theoretical discussions on the other end. Central to all research that is concerned with place-based GIS is the notion of placing the individual at the center of the investigation, in order to assess human-environment relationships. This requires the formalization of place, which poses a number of challenges. The first challenge is unambiguously defining place, to subsequently be able to translate it into binary code, which computers and geographic information systems can handle. This formalization poses the next challenge, due to the inherent vagueness and subjectivity of human data. The last challenge is ensuring the transferability of results, requir...
Around the globe, Geographic Information Systems (GISs) are well established in the daily workflow of authorities, businesses and non-profit organisations. GIS can effectively handle spatial entities and offer sophisticated analysis and modelling functions to deal with space. Only a small fraction of the literature in Geographic Information Science—or GIScience in short—has advanced the development of place, addressing entities with an ambiguous boundary and relying more on the human or social attributes of a location rather than on crisp geographic boundaries. While the GIScience developments support the establishment of the digital humanities, GISs were never designed to handle subjective or vague data. We, an international group of authors, juxtapose place and space in English language and in several other languages and discuss potential consequences for Geoinformatics and GIScience. In particular, we address the question of whether linguistic and cultural settings play a role in the perception of place. We report on some facts revealed by this multi-language and multi-cultural dialogue, and what particular aspects of place we were able to discern regarding the few languages addressed.
Modeling places for interactive media and entertainment applications
2011
Taking advantage of the multitude of cameras now available and capable of recording all aspects of our lives, this work explores the notion of virtualizing a physical place using cameras and sharing the resulting model with others. This social sharing would create new forms of relationship and common space discovery that would enhance video chats and virtual visiting of physical places. Furthermore, the research will consider the possible interactive applications, from games to augmented reality, which can take advantage of the created spatial and temporal models.
AoIR Selected Papers of Internet Research
This panel introduces and critically examines the concept of "digital placemaking" as practices that create emotional attachments to place through digital media use. As populations and the texts they produce become increasingly mobile, such practices are proliferating, and a striking array of applications and uses have emerged which exploit the affordances of mobile media to foster an ability to navigate, understand, connect to, and gain a sense of belonging and familiarity in place. The concept of digital placemaking is both a theoretical and applied response to the spatial fragmentation, banal physical environments, and community disintegration thought to have accompanied the speed and scale of globalization—the implications of which include suggestions that our collective sense of place has been disrupted, leaving people unsure of their belonging within conditions and boundaries that seem increasingly fluid. While it is imperative to attend to the shifting social, econo...
Understanding Place as Experience: Augmenting Human Activities in Context
2005
In this paper we will outline our approach to studying and understanding place as a notion to guide the design of novel interactive installations in public spaces, in order to augment and enhance, as well as support, peoples' experience. Our current research project “Shared Worlds” is focusing on two case studies within two different public spaces, a city centre open-air market and an international airport.
Guest Editorial: Does Place Have a Place in Geographic Information Science?
2009
), and hence, has undisputed standing also in non-computational sciences. Yet, in spite of its prominence in everyday tasks and communication, place is still rarely mentioned in Geographic Information Science, mainly because of a lack of definitions that would allow a formal approach to capture and model places in spatial databases.
A Mindset for User-Centered Spatial Applications
2006
Background Places are spatial locations that have been given meaning by human experience. The sense of a place is captured in its support for experiences and the emotional responses associated with them. This is a model of place grounded in practical use. Describing a place is an experiential claim (Tuan 1977). This sense provides direction and focus for our daily lives, telling us where to go and what we might find there when we arrive. Representing this has been a difficult proposition.