
Visualization of the sensory recognition that takes place on board Waymo vehicles. (Source: Waymo)
Principal Investigators:
Prof. Dr. Carolin Gerlitz
Prof. Dr. Tristan Thielmann
Researchers:
Dr. Sam Hind
Fernando N. Van der Vlist
André Heck, MA
Former Researchers:
Hendrik Bender
PD Dr. Michael Lommel
Max Kanderske
Asko Lehmuskallio
A03 explores how sensor-based and autonomous navigation reconfigures current accounts of mapping, spatiality, autonomy and movement. For this purpose, A03 conducts two case studies (on SLAM-based indoor navigation and networked outdoor navigation of autonomous vehicles, respectively), which are complemented by a comprehensive analysis of the specificity of sensor media vis à vis their platforms, infrastructures and data practices. The subproject employs digital and ethnographic research methods to describe and theorize the mutual making of shared media, data and spatial practices that characterize contemporary navigation processes. The project draws on situative methodological approaches, including praxeological techniques (focusing on navigational use), multi-sited ethnography (focusing on navigational decisions), and software/platform analysis techniques (focusing on navigational infrastructures). Utilizing digital methods, we experiment with the collection, analysis, and visualisation of sensory data to understand the layers of technical mediation underpinning sensory navigation. The project claims that sensor-based and increasingly autonomous modes of navigation are reconfiguring the practices and infrastructures of cooperative navigation, thereby challenging distinctions between the online/offline, indoor/outdoor, micro-level/macro-level.

HERE 360 interface mockup for sensor-based object detection. (Source: HERE Technologies)
Publications
Forthcoming
Thielmann, T., Kanderske, M. 2022. Mediengeographie - Handbuch für Wissenschaft und Praxis. Baden-Baden: Nomos.
2020
Kanderske, Max. 2020. “Simultane Lokalisierung und Kartierung.” In Mediengeographie - Handbuch für Wissenschaft und Praxis. Baden-Baden: Nomos.
2019
Dieter, M.; Gerlitz, C.; Helmond, A.; Tkacz, N.; van der Vlist, F. N. and Weltevrede, E. 2019. “Multi-situated App Studies: Methods and Propositions.”
Social Media & Society 5 (2): 1-15.
https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305119846486.
Helmond, A., & van der Vlist, F. N. 2019. “Social Media and Platform Historiography: Challenges and Opportunities.” In
TMG – Journal for Media History 22 (1), 6–34.
https://doi.org/10.18146/tmg.434.
Helmond, A., Nieborg, D. B., & van der Vlist, F. N. 2019. “Facebook’s evolution: Development of a platform-as-infrastructure.” In
Internet Histories: Digital Technology, Culture and Society 3 (2), 123–146.
https://doi.org/10.1080/24701475.2019.1593667.
Kanderske, Max and Thielmann, Tristan. 2019. “SLAM and the Situativeness of a New Generation of Geomedia Technologies.”
Communication and the Public 4 (2): 118-132.
https://doi.org/10.1177/2057047319851208.
Thielmann, Tristan. 2019. “The Bicycle at the End of the 19th Century: An Instrument for Land Surveying and Mapping.”
Proceedings of the 29th International Cartographic Conference 2: 129.
https://doi.org/10.5194/ica-proc-2-129-2019.
2018
Alinejad, Donya; Candidatu, Laura I; Mevsimler, Melis; Minchilli, Claudia; Ponzanesi, Sandra and van der Vlist, Fernando N. 2018. “Diaspora and mapping methodologies: tracing transnational digital connections with ‘mattering maps’.”
Global Networks, a Journal of Transnational Affairs: 1–23.
https://doi.org/10.1111/glob.12197.
Bender, Hendrik, eds. 2018. “The New Aerial Age: Die wechselseitige Verfertigung gemeinsamer Raum- und Medienpraktiken am Beispiel von Drohnen-Communities.” In
Kollaboration: Beiträge zu Medientheorie und Kulturgeschichte der Zusammenarbeit, edited by Ghanbari, N.; Otto, I.; Schramm, S. and Thielmann, T., 121-145. Paderborn: Wilhelm Fink.
https://doi.org/10.30965/9783846758403_008.
Gerlitz, Carolin, eds. 2018. “Retrieving.” In
The International Handbook of Interdisciplinary Research Methods, edited by Lury, Celia, 126-131. London: Routledge.
https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315714523-19.
Lommel, Michael, eds. 2018. “Was ist Zeit? Synergien im Omnibusfilm Ten Minutes Older.” In
Kollaboration. Beiträge zu Medientheorie und Kulturgeschichte der Zusammenarbeit, edited by Ghanbari, Nacim; Otto, Isabell; Schramm, Samantha and Thielmann, Tristan, 57–80. Paderborn: Wilhelm Fink Verlag.
https://doi.org/10.30965/9783846758403_005.
Marres, Noortje and Gerlitz, Carolin, eds. 2018. “Social Media as Experiments in Sociality.” In
Inventing the Social, edited by Marres, Noortje; Guggenheim, Michael and Wilckie, Alex, 253-286. Manchester: Matterning Press.
http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/103450/.
Opper, Teresa, eds. 2018. “Spiel, Satz und Match‘. Zur kollaborativen Spezifik von Dating-Apps.” In
Kollaboration. Beiträge zu Medientheorie und Kulturgeschichte der Zusammenarbeit, edited by Ghanbari, Nacim; Otto, Isabell; Schramm, Samantha and Thielmann, Tristan, 97-120. Paderborn: Wilhelm Fink Verlag.
https://doi.org/10.30965/9783846758403_007.
Pánek, Jiří; Gekker, Alex; Hind, Sam; Wendler, Jana; Perkins, Chris and Lammes, Sybille. 2018. “Encountering Place: Mapping and Location-Based Games in Interdisciplinary Education.”
The Cartographic Journal 55 (3): 1-12.
https://doi.org/10.1080/00087041.2017.1386342.
Thielmann, Tristan, eds. 2018. “Die bewegte Mediengeschichte des Fotofahrtenführers: ein Co-Motion-Picture.” In
Kollaboration. Beiträge zu Medientheorie und Kulturgeschichte der Zusammenarbeit, edited by Ghanbari, Nacim; Otto, Isabell; Schramm, Samantha and Thielmann, Tristan. Paderborn: Fink.
https://doi.org/10.30965/9783846758403_009.
Thielmann, Tristan, eds. 2018. “Der einleuchtende Grund digitaler Bilder. Die Mediengeschichte und Medienpraxistheorie des Displays.” In
Display / Dispositiv. Ästhetische Ordnungen, edited by Frohne, Ursula; Haberer, Lilian and Urban, Annette. Paderborn: Wilhelm Fink Verlag.
https://doi.org/10.30965/9783846756348_022.
Thielmann, Tristan; Schulz, Carmen and Lommel, Michael, eds. 2018. “Das Fahrrad: Ein Medium der Landerschließung.” In Landmedien und mediale Bilder von Ländlichkeit im 20. Jahrhundert, edited by Zimmermann, Clemens 15, 205–230. Innsbruck: Studien Verlag.
2017
Gerlitz, Carolin, eds. 2017. “The multivalence of consumer affect.” In Charisma and the Arts of Market Attachment, edited by Hetherington, K.; Harvey, P. and Bennett, T. London: Routledge.
Helmond, Anne; Nieborg, David B. and van der Vlist, Fernando N. 2017. “The Political Economy of Social Data: A Historical Analysis of Platform-Industry Partnerships.”
Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Social Media & Society: 38:1–38:5. New York, NY, USA: ACM.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3097286.3097324.
Passmann, Johannes and Gerlitz, Carolin. 2017. “Popularisierung einer digitalen Medien-Praktik.”
Zeitschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Linguistik 47 (3): 375–393.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s41244-017-0067-1.
van der Vlist, Fernando N. 2017. “Counter-Mapping Surveillance: A Critical Cartography of Mass Surveillance Technology After Snowden.”
Surveillance & Society 15 (1): 137-157.
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1401-0325.
2016
Gerlitz, Carolin, eds. 2016. “Data Point Critique.” In
The Datafied Society Studying Culture through Data, edited by Schäfer, Mirco T. and van Es, karin, 241-245. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
https://doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/12478.
2015