OTOCRON

It is slowly dawning on me that the term location is subtly aquiring an added new meaning in the context of digital media. Location in the context of the geotagged web is not primarily the physical place (that can be indicated by latitude and longitude coordinates) but it is primarily an informational context, an informational dimension. On the web, location is re-invented as a handy way to organise digital information with the aid of a universal worldwide number system. Of course this number system intends to point to places on the globe, but it exists as an independent informational dimension as well. Actually, through GPS we can take the latitude and longitude system as our primary base of reference and experience, and use it as a way to look at actual physical places. See The Degree Confluence Project. I think GPS started the other way around with the numbers only being meaningful because they pointed to a specific place on earth. Now places become meaningful becasue they point to specific numbers.

Near Nihonhesokoen station - the WGS84 E135 N35 degree confluence.Photo published on Flickr by sleepytako. This location at least also has some degree of placeness to it.

20°N 74°W, 26.7 km (16.6 miles) ESE of Cape Punta Negra, Guantánamo, Cuba. Posted by Captain Peter at www.confluence.org . This location, however, only derives its ‘meaning’ from the fact that it is a degree confluence.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 13th, 2007 at 4:14 pm and is filed under locative media, hybrid world. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.