You Are Here! Playful Mapping and a Cartography of Layers

Abstract

This paper departs from Media- and Performance Studies in a theoretical reflection on the performativity and deixis of digital mapping practices and the use of mobile interfaces for navigation and play. Playful mapping practices and the shift from the map as form of representation to the map as interactive, if not ludic, interface for navigation point to-wards the performativity of our engagement with the map as tool to think with, as well as tool to do with. In this contribution I will take up the pro-posals for considering playful mapping (Perkins 2009; Lammes 2013) and a ludification of culture (Raessens 2010) and extend on my argument about navigational interfaces and navigation as performative practice (Verhoeff 2012) and consider how, through the centrality of these practices, the map is the interface for a subject-centered, deictic and haptic engagement with space. Moreover, I will suggest how the digital map as interface for time-based ludic practices, provides a layered cartography of space. Keywords: interface, navigation, performativity, play, index, deixis