Northern Urban Lights: Emplaced Experiences of Urban Lighting as Digital Augmentation

Abstract

The shift towards interactivity in the design of spaces and places has persuaded both architects and HCI practitioners to acknowledge that there is a need to work together. However, there is little knowledge of how we actually experience dynamic adaptation, informational services and interactivity in the built environment. As such, there is a pressing need to empirically study actual implementations of media architecture, urban interaction design and urban computing from an emic perspective. Consequently, this article examines participant experiences of an interactive urban lighting pilot, Urban Echoes (UE), which took place in a northern urban park. Collected as video and audio recorded material in walking interviews and semi-structured interviews, we examine the emplaced experiences of two differing participant groups, young adults (20--29 years old) and seniors (over 65 years old). Furthermore, we argue that the concept of emplacement, which highlights the importance of place and the embodied mind, can be a useful tool both as an analytical lens and as an effective way to conceptualize and communicate some essential aspects of architectural thinking in the interdisciplinary arena of media architecture and urban interaction design. Finally, building on the work of Paul Dourish on embodied interaction design, we argue for emplaced interaction design.