Emplaced Cartographies: Reconceptualising Camera Phone Practices in an Age of Locative Media

Abstract

In the context of the increased use of high-quality camera phones, along with the growth in distribution services via social and locative media, we are witnessing new forms of visuality emerging. These new types of ‘co-present’ visuality overlay and interweave online and offline cartographies in different ways – maps that require a revision of ethnography. In this article, we frame this phenomenon as a shift from networked visuality to emplaced visuality and sociality. That is, we reflect upon previous models deployed in mobile communication and depart from them to consider how a phenomenological approach – rooted in visual and multisensorial ethnography – might help provide insight into this dynamic media cartography and the socialities associated with it.