Process and Possibilities Associated with the Development of a Mobile App that Explores Culture, Place, and the Promise of Play
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Date
2013-06
Authors
Parker, Edward Wright
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Abstract
Audiences are engaging with culture and the arts in digital and analog formats through a
variety of modes and in a variety of roles in large numbers. By exploring the wide
variety of user generated media works and collaborative digital projects and communities
associated with today’s participatory culture, it is arguable that participants are engaging
with arts and culture more than ever, as artists, contributors, and curators, in a dual
consumer-producer role. This research project aims to establish a pathway to
participation in local culture for a broad audience through the design and development of
a mobile application that can be used to collect digital artifacts that represent one’s
personal culture and, in turn, one of the many aspects of a community’s larger, collective
culture. Cultureboard, the mobile application I have developed for this research project,
enables participants to digitally capture images, videos, and sound recordings of various
cultural artifacts and phenomena that can be found in the community – particularly
artifacts that represent the things that are meaningful to a participant’s personal culture
within the contexts of narrative, time, meaning, and place. The Cultureboard mobile
application presents participants with opportunities to engage with participatory culture
through storytelling, mapping, and discussion and collaboration via social networks. It
also leverages gamification, or the process of incorporating multiplayer video game
design mechanics and principles, to enhance the user experience while encouraging
participation through friendly collaboration, competition, and play. This research project
will include use cases that detail possibilities for ways to utilize the Cultureboard mobile
application as a tool for collaborative learning, cultural mapping, augmented reality
gaming, and anthropological, archeological, or ethnographic research. This project will
also discuss ways that the Cultureboard mobile application could be used to promote
participation at traditional arts and cultural organizations and events as they relate to each
individual participant based on region and cultural interests.
Description
44 p. Examining committee chair: Dr. John Fenn
Keywords
Mobile applications, Participatory culture, Social media, Gamification, Digital media, Geolocation, Cultural mapping, Storytelling, Smartphones, Tablet