"Locative Technologies and the Human Sense of Place" seeks to uncover the historical relationship between the usage of locative technologies and the development of a sense of place. This project critically evaluates the claims of detrimental effects of locative technologies in the digital age through three historical case studies: 1) A history of spatial literacy as an idea and a concept, 2) A study of how tourists and trekkers have navigated and come to know natural landscapes through locative technologies since 1800, and 3) The convergence of locative technologies and automobiles in the 20th century. The project builds on humanistic and historical expertise in order to contextualize and provide empirical depth to contemporary debates about spatial literacy, the human ability to read and make sense of a landscape, through a deliberately historical perspective, in order to establish a more nuanced baseline from which to evaluate claims of historical change. A key goal is to avoid deterministic claims about the influence of technology on place-based sensemaking processes. The project will argue that the human sense of place is always-already established through deep engagement with locative technologies, of which the GPS is only the latest in a long series.
