Territoriality and the DigiLab — How the Spatial Turn Comes to Matter

The spatial turn will be considered through three case studies involving digital data. Each case considers technological agency in the articulation of space and place. The first two cases will involve the conception of the DigiLab, — from its online case study research (which involved a landscape review of digital research centres, networks and labs and studios worldwide), to its architectural construction as a space located on the ground floor of the London College of Communication. The third case will explore the geo-spatial user-interface design research that required a collaborative studio practice before the DigiLab was built.

In the 1960s Robert Sommer and Edward T. Hall posed questions around design, ‘personal space’ (1969) and ‘proxemics’ (1964). Neither took into consideration the role of technological agency in the articulation of their spatial questions. Further spatial preoccupations occur in the 1980-90s through the de-territorialisation and re-territorialisation maneuvers of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari ([1988] 2004), as well as the interest in the non-place by Marc Augé (1995). These articulations of space and place will be traced through the case studies to understand the spatial turn in STS.

The concept will be explored as a discussion of territoriality and emergence referring to the ‘emergent historic’ (Berlant 2011) by way of ‘intra-action’ (Barad 2003). Independently, each case articulates the spatial turn as the emergent historic. Interweaved, however, the spatial articulations of the DigiLab (media and design lab) emerge alongside the geo-spatial research undertaken and vice-versa (as a simultaneous matter of intra-action).

• http://www.4sonline.org/meeting/13