Wearable computing and the geographies of urban childhood

Abstract

This paper describes a workshop run as part of 'A New Sense of Place?' an initiative exploring and developing the interface between children and new mobile 'wearable' ICTs. This initiative is one part of 'Mobile Bristol', a wider project developing wearable devices, their applications and understandings of their potential in social terms. 'A New Sense of Place?' is particularly interested in considering how these new technologies might integrate with childhood and how they might be applied to help children to reengage with urban spaces. The paper establishes the rationale for this work and describes a two day exploratory workshop with 10 children held in April 2002. The workshop was designed to introduce children to the technology and explore whether, from the children's point of view, the technology might hold enough potential for their use in the urban environment for the work to develop.