Technology and Environmental Understanding
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The document discusses a project exploring how technology can better utilize the environmental knowledge of Parks Victoria staff. It describes conducting interviews and mobile diaries with staff to understand how they conceive of and interact with space in the park. Preliminary findings show locations act as a common vocabulary for sharing stories, and staff form personal understandings of the park. The project aims to use these insights to inform technology designs that focus on storytelling, temporality, and embodiment, acting as a responsible part of existing social networks around the park.
Technology and Environmental Understanding
- 1. Geo-placed knowledge: The relationship between technology and environmental understanding Chris Marmo RMIT University
- 2. Today... • Project Introduction • Technology & environmental understanding • Progress + future steps Geoplaced Knowledge - Chris Marmo
- 3. Geo-knowledge Project Geoplaced Knowledge - Chris Marmo
- 4. Geo-knowledge Project How can Parks Victoria better utilise the knowledge it and its staff have? Geoplaced Knowledge - Chris Marmo
- 5. Geo-knowledge Project Two case studies within the park: “day-to-day” V “emergency event” Geoplaced Knowledge - Chris Marmo
- 6. Geo-knowledge Project Knowledge Geoplaced Knowledge - Chris Marmo
- 7. Geo-knowledge Project Knowledge People Geoplaced Knowledge - Chris Marmo
- 8. Geo-knowledge Project Knowledge People Geoplaced Knowledge - Chris Marmo
- 10. Location as Context Often overly tech-focused & fails to understand human-environment interaction
- 11. Location as Context “Space” is something to be overcome
- 12. Human & Cultural Geography • “Space” is not problematised. • It’s not objective, but emerges from interactions. • Viewing an environment in this way offers alternatives for technology design. Geoplaced Knowledge - Chris Marmo
- 13. Networked Interactions Geoplaced Knowledge - Chris Marmo
- 14. Networked Interactions • Munn (1996) describes the way space is produced for indigenous Australians. • A network of taboo relationships, ancestral mythologies that are tied to a place. • Basso (1996) describes how Western Apache view space as a series of moral stories. They entrench places in the cultural landscape. Geoplaced Knowledge - Chris Marmo
- 15. Flows and Mobility Geoplaced Knowledge - Chris Marmo
- 16. Flows and Mobility • The movement of people, goods and information produces a certain kind of space. • Focuses less on the actors, and more on mobility in its own right. • Movement imposes a social geography (Lynch, 1960). Geoplaced Knowledge - Chris Marmo
- 17. Temporal space + Geoplaced Knowledge - Chris Marmo
- 18. Temporal space • Examines the way histories and memories accumulate and influence our view of a place. • Spatialising memories to make them part of history (Podoler, 2010). • Meaning is often tied up in seasonal rhythms - or “oscillations” (Askew, 2002). Geoplaced Knowledge - Chris Marmo
- 19. Embodied Space Geoplaced Knowledge - Chris Marmo
- 20. Embodied Space • Multi-sensory, “being-in-the-world”. • Cultural, emotional and aesthetic perspectives. • Forms a sense of “Place”. • This has been most addressed by designers & technologists so far. Geoplaced Knowledge - Chris Marmo
- 21. Parks Victoria? Using these themes, how is Wilson’s Prom conceived, understood and produced? How can technology fit? Geoplaced Knowledge - Chris Marmo
- 22. Parks Victoria? • Interviews with office staff and park rangers (examine networks and flows). • A mobile diary study in the park (examine flows, temporality and embodiment). • Interpretation interviews, egological drawings. • 30+ interviews. 6 diary participants. Geoplaced Knowledge - Chris Marmo
- 23. Studying interactions with space Reading the cloud - Chris Marmo
- 24. Kim Ranger 9/6/2011 2:20pm Interpreting entries “The photo I’ve just taken is of a giant landslip at lillypilly gully. It’s obviously something the engineers will need to work on, but following their work I think there will be some work for the friends to do some revegetation here - whether it’s by direct feeding or tube-stock planting. They obviously wont do the entire land slip but in strategic spots. I’ve just taken some video as well, I think it’s a very interesting site for people to have a look at.”
- 25. Adding your own Geoplaced Knowledge - Chris Marmo
- 26. Early findings • Locations act as a common vocabulary around which stories are formed and told. • Staff form “personal geographies”: an individual understanding of space that is constructed out of shared stories and own observations. Geoplaced Knowledge - Chris Marmo
- 27. Future Steps • Using a combination of Human & Cultural Geography with study findings to come up with technical designs. • Focusing on story-telling, temporality, and embodiment. In-situ! • Hope this sits within existing networks to form a richer understanding of a park. Geoplaced Knowledge - Chris Marmo
- 28. Conclusions • Technology is too focused on solutions that view everything as a problem. • It should focus on being a responsible actor within existing networks. • Learning how a Park is conceived and produced provides a unique perspective. Geoplaced Knowledge - Chris Marmo
- 29. Thanks! chris.marmo@student.rmit.edu.au Acknowledgements: Prof. William Cartwright, Mr. Jeremy Yiuille. The support of the ARC and the broader Geoplaced Knowledge project team. Marmo Geoplaced Knowledge - Chris
Editor's Notes
- #2: \n
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- #4: Parks Vic. Our case study site is at Wilson’s Promontory. \n\n
- #5: The problem they have is one common to most organisations. It has a spatial element though, due to the nature of the work the rangers perform. \n
- #6: about place? \nThis is becoming a very common problem;\n
- #7: How can they capture the knowledge..\n
- #8: that people have...\n
- #9: about place? \nThis is becoming a very common problem;\n
- #10: The pin is everywhere\nWhen you see this, it essentially means that the application or program you’re using is treating a coordinate from GPS as your “context”.\n\n
- #11: The treat “space” as dumb - having no meaning itself, or not having the right kind of meaning. It pays little attention to the ways we interact with the world, and how we form an understanding of it. \n
- #12: Space is often treated as a problem. It either aims to bridge gaps between people and data as they move around, bring information in the tell us about where we are, or reveal stuff we are not able to see. The problems are: meaningless, not meaningful enough, or not in the right way. \n
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- #14: people, data, technologies and places are all equal parts in a network. Space emerges from the interactions between them. \n
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- #16: focuses on the movement of things\n
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- #19: for tourists to wilson’s prom, the rhythm of going camping in the prom every year forms rituals that produce meaning for those tourists. \n
- #20: our senses, emotions, and “in body” experience of a place. \n
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- #24: focused on providing memories, personal insights, as well as mundane details of work life, including recording conversations, frustrations with access, etc. This was focused on flood recovery. \n
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- #26: these highlighted more of a day-to-day understanding of the park. Personal perspectives. \n
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