Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
photography, taking a picture every 20-50
steps, when turning left or right and so on.
Normal links in hypertext documents link
to different parts of text, fi les, images or new
Web pages. The links used 'within' the photos
serve another purpose too; apart from their
function as a guide through the collected pho-
tos, they represent rectangle parts of different
pictures belonging to each other because of the
pictorial elements both have in common.
According to the change of perspective between
the two photos (and then of course between the
rectangles), the transitions between these two
pictures are rendered on the spot. This approach
is therefore based on a network of photos derived
from the actual town or historic site. It is an inter-
active collage with links between the pictorial
representations of actual places, which was
intended for the creation of digital cities by indi-
vidual actors, allowing them to share their own
experiences visually moderated or show memo-
rable sights to other people publicly on the Net.
The software enabling this mapping is
called 'Photowalker' and was developed by
Hiroya Tanaka as free software. It was intended
for building digital models of cities with very few
preconditions (Tanaka
et al
., 2002). Because of
its striking similarity of spatial links with the con-
cept of relational space (Löw) in urban sociol-
ogy, it was chosen for the author's PhD project
to trace the signifi cance and semantic impor-
tance of the constitution of space for identifi ca-
tional strategies in urban space.
The digital still camera operates as the per-
son's gaze, taking pictures every 20-50 steps.
The links between elements of the photos
relate to their importance for the creator of the
collage. This method works analogously to an
eyetracker: the links can be compared with the
division of visual attention. At this stage, we still
have no insight with which meaning certain
relations between elements (of pictures, of real
space) are attributed.
To analyse subjective representations of
the individual actors' image of the city along
with the identifi cational strategies, students were
asked to take photos of their town, Darmstadt,
and to link them with this software to create an
interactive collage.
So digital still cameras were handed out to
students, and they were asked to take photos of
what is important to them, regarding the city
where they attend their study. The high-resolution
images were kept for later analysis and redu-
ced to an image resolution to fi t the needs of
being displayed within this visualization-
technique online (quarter VGA size) (Fig. 6.3).
Linking the pictures is done by identifying
persons, objects or even parts of the picture
itself on at least another one: the corresponding
areas of the photo are chosen by the participant
(not the computer!) and then linked according
to the persons or objects they both have in
common - or that should be considered
belonging to each other (symbolic loading).
These links between the pictures refer to spatial
relations in urban space, carrying a specifi c
meaning - mediated by their pictorial represen-
tations and attached with meaning 'inside' vir-
tual space by the actors' selection (of what to
link and in which ways).
Following the links, the photos will be
cross-faded and morphed allowing the impres-
sion of walking through the collage just by
choosing the next among the linked pictures.
The possibilities of navigating and exploring this
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Fig. 6.3.
Spatial links. Copyright Sergej Stoetzer.
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