It is the first time for me to read something about locative media, I find it difficult to follow some of the concepts in this article “Beyond Locative Media.” However, this article does help me start exploring some major theoretical and practical issues that locative media has encountered on its self-identification and development, such as its autonomy as art, its collaboration with corporation, its relationship with human subject and so on. I am particularly drawn to Marc Tuters’ notion about the complex in the relationship between locative media and human subjects. Tuters pointed out that locative media projects like “Can You See Me Now” and “Milk” involve people in the process of exploring the production and distribution of technology, which makes the project transform from a scientific and technical phenomenon to a social and cultural issue. So to what degree can human subjects involve in the production process of the locative media project? How can human experiences be documented and represented in the process of locative media project? I am also interested in how locative media can benefit people in the society, which should be one of the first questions that I have as a beginner in locative media. I want to explore these questions further in this response paper by looking at the project “Can You See Me Now.”
The development of media technology has not just created hybrid spaces for human living, but has possibly turned human into hybrid being. How do we involve ourselves with media technology? How much autonomy do we have in using media technology? Are we turning ourselves as a human part of media technology and shaping our life under its system? These are the questions make me interested in “Can You See Me Now” project. “Can You See Me Now” is designed as a game, in which people from all around the world can participate in a virtual city against the Blast Theory’s members, trying to track somebody down on the street (not really sure whether I understand the whole process of the game correct). It is not just a game, but also a research on human communication and experiences on different potential layers of space and time between virtual world and real world with the development of communication technology such as Internet and mobile telephone. The artists and researches set the game with their hypothesis, rules and models, which creates a system for the existence of the game. The players from all around the world joined the game with the technology as their expanded eyesight and hearing and speaking means. The virtual world becomes connected to the local streets through technologies, which turns the “local” into “global.” These players can communicate with their collaborators with their own cultural habits or perspectives in using the technologies, reading the map, predicting the movement of runners as well as understanding the past and the present. The interaction between players through technology, with their own subjective power, may create new life to the game and the research. However, will the rules and technologies create a new being that detached the players from their own real being, which makes all the cultural and social differences would not apply? In that case, what forms human subjectivity in space and time saturated by media technology?
Further more, how shall a locative media project like “Can You See Me Now” project effectively represent and document the backgrounds of their players and their experiences in this game and research. The documentation and representation of players and their experiences are essential, since the “process” of the game is so important for this research. Nevertheless, it is often hard to document and represent the fluid and changing process. It is not very clear to me in the information provided from their site. Instead, the website emphasizes more on the intellectual goals and designs of the game. They do use video to show the process, but it plays more like an introduction about the game. I look forward to reading more about the process of “Can You See Me Now.”
