The Affordances of Place: Digital Agency and the Lived Spaces of Information

Mark Nunes (1)

1 Appalachian State University

Affordances provide a useful frame for understanding how users interact with devices, but applications of the term to digital devices must take into account that human agents operate within a material environment that is distinct from the digital environment in which these devices operate. A more restrictive approach to affordances would focus on the agency of digital devices distinct from the agency of human users. Location-aware mobile devices provide a particularly compelling example of the complex interplay of agents and agencies, and how “augmented affordances†give rise to a lived space of information for human users.

Mots clés: actor-network theory; Affordance; digital agents; mobile computing; sense of place; smartphones; media; media theory

Domaines: Sciences de l'Homme et Société; Sciences de l'information et de la communication

Mark Nunes. The Affordances of Place: Digital Agency and the Lived Spaces of Information. Media Theory, 2019, Rethinking Affordance, 3 (1), pp.215 - 238. ⟨hal-02470355⟩