Digital Chorographies: conceptualising experiential representation and marketing of urban/architectural geographies

Richard Koeck,Gary Warnaby

doi:10.1017/s1359135515000202

Abstract

An important theme in place marketing, branding, and architectural literature – and practice – is the development of a strong, attractive image, through (primarily) visual representation of a location. But considering that today we live in cities that are digital hybrids, in which we are connected to a wider system of information, how is an ‘image of the city’ constructed in this context, and are there other strategies and tactics that should be considered? Using Plato’s notion of chora and Claudius Ptolemy’s notion of chorography as points of departure that will lead us to consider Michel de Certeau’s concept of walking as an experiential and dialectic process through which we relate the spatial stories of places and moreover, in the context of digital locative media, we will point to ways by which this may be accomplished. In introducing the reader to the concept of digital chorographies as a means by which a place’s spatial narratives may be constructed, we suggest that a current emphasis on visual representation (for example, of attractive place product elements/attributes, such as architectural landmarks and cityscapes, etc.) should be considered in conjunction with the articulation and narration of qualities contributing to a place’s realm of meaning.

Highlights

Urban representation and marketing Representing the city in a positive light to actual and potential users is recognised as an important part of urban place marketing, which has assumed ever greater importance as both a practice and an area of academic study.[3]
Focus has turned to place branding, whereby, consistent with a key aim of a brand to distinguish a product from its competitors,[5] places have sought to achieve some form of differentiation – and spatial competitive advantage – through more overt, branding-oriented promotional activities
Might the fragmented, complex, and kaleidoscopic nature of urban places be represented visually through inclusive place marketing activity in order to highlight distinctiveness, in an attempt to communicate place competitive advantage? We suggest that branding/ promotional activities are one means of telling the spatial story of a place, but at the same time, argue that through co-creative processes, facilitated by new information communications technology, such stories should not emerge solely from marketing considerations alone, but from the landscape and its people

Summary

Battersea Ghost Cinema app

These ideas were taken further in another recent AHRC urban heritage project, led by François Penz (University of Cambridge), Richard Koeck (co-author of this article), and Chris Speed (one of creators of Walking Through Time application), which uses digital tools to create experiential spatial representations. BatterCtrax, produced by Amblr Ltd. in collaboration with Koeck and linked to the above AHRC project, takes de Certeau’s notion of kinesthetic appropriation and storytelling into the contemporary digital realm.[50] While Ghost Cinema substantially relied on historic images, the BatterCtrax audio app, written for the geographies in and around Battersea Park, has aside from a handdrawn inaccurate map (the use of which is optional), no visual interface whatsoever In this form of city representation and promotion of a place, mapping occurs through a performative act in the mind of the walker who ‘drifts’ in and out of sound bubbles that are filled with audio material, onsite recorded interviews, and on location sounds, edited together in real time depending on geographical location and individual routes [4].

15. On Derrida and the concept of chora see also

52. See for example