Public lecture on Space, Social Media & Society: Mapping the Cyberscapes of the Bronze Soldier

On Thursday, October 15 at 14.15 Matthew Zook, Fulbright visiting professor from University of Kentucky shall give public lectures in Vanemuise 46-327

Professor Zook researches technological change and the evolving spatial structures and practices of society and the economy. His work focuses on geocoded user-generated data (both volunteered and unknowingly contributed) including Google Maps annotations and spatialized social media data drawn from Wikipedia and Twitter and seeks to understand how and why geo-coded content is produced and consumsed. He has published more that 50 research papers and a book, “The Geography of the Internet Industry: Venture capital, dot-coms, and local knowledge”. (Wiley-Blackwell, 2005) and is on the founding editorial board of the new Sage journal Big Data and Society.

His talk reviews how spatially referenced information and associated software (or cyberscapes) are increasingly regulating our experience and interaction with cities. Of particular interest are the ways in which power, as mediated through technological artefacts, code and content, helps to produce digital representations of places that vary based on the background of the user. Building upon a series of case studies, including the Bronze Soldier of Tallinn, this talk analyzes how socially constructed layerings of content and the duplicious neutality of code contribute to the uneven and power-laden practices of representations and the experiences of digital augmentations to urban places.

Professor Zook will be offering a related seminar titled "Space, Social Media & Society" during October and November 2013 to graduate students in the Geography department.