The emergent potential of mundane media

Playing Pokémon GO in Badalona, Spain

Bibliographic Data

ID12656263
AuthorsIngrid Richardson (0000-0001-8448-5778, corresponding author), L Hjorth (0000-0002-4793-3233, RMIT, Australia), Jordi Piera-Jiménez (0000-0001-6471-9979, Open Evidence Research Group, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain)
Year2020
Volume24
Issue3
Pages667-683
Publication date2020-10-20
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueNew Media & Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1461-4448 • E-ISSN: 1461-7315
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1461444820965879
OpenAlexW3094340259
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited40

In mid-2016, the streets of cities around the world were populated by digital wayfarers taking part in the augmented reality (AR) game, Pokémon GO. The game popularized the digital overlay technique of AR, in which real-time pedestrian movement is integrated with mobile location-based functionality and network information. In the years that followed, playing Pokémon GO gradually became a mundane activity, fitting into the everyday routines of millions of people across the globe. It is at this juncture – when the gameplay became a habitual and unremarkable practice – that the research discussed here began. Through ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Badalona in Spain in 2018–2019, this article explores how sedimented and mundane media – those that are already embedded in daily life routines and typical scenarios of use – can become possible conduits for informal care, wellbeing and social change through playful inclusion and connection

Aesthetics · Art · Digital media · Epistemology · Ethnography · Everyday life · Globe · Internet privacy · Media studies · Social media · Sociology · Visual arts · World Wide Web · Augmented Reality Applications · Computer Science · Psychology

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