Pokémon Go as palimpsest: Creating layers of meaning through augmented reality
In this article, I employ the concept of the palimpsest of meaning (Bailey, 2007) to illustrate how Pokémon Go shapes and produces relations to place. Using ethnographic data from student players at the University of Guelph, I demonstrate how augmented reality (AR) gaming constructs a curated layer of place meaning that influences players’ knowledge of, relationships to, and movement through space.
I argue that we should not ignore the potential of AR technology to influence how we come to know place, emphasizing the impacts that biases, which are coded into this technology, might have on alternative narratives of place and for marginalized communities.
Pokémon GO as Palimpsest: Creating Layers of Meaning Through Augmented Reality
This presentation was originally given at Engage 2021: New Potential: Reimagining Social Change in a Dynamic Era - a grad student conference hosted by the Sociology and Anthropology Department at the University of Guelph. This presentation received the “Best Graduate Research Presentation” award.
