A03 - Navigation in Online/Offline Spaces

Visualization of the sensory recognition that takes place on board Waymo vehicles. (Source: Waymo)
Principal Investigators:
Researchers:
Fernando N. Van der Vlist, M.A.
Associate Researchers:
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)