Datascape is a social geographic storytelling platform that enables artists, researchers, community groups and others to narrate their communities and physical spaces through a mobile vehicle-based laboratory. The van has stationary displays for visual media and a handheld display through which interactive virtual worlds are created and experienced as another layer of the physical world. By collecting and creating geographic data, photography, sounds/narration, and 3D environments, participants engage local geographies to explore and communicate topics of interest, which have included ozone distribution, crime, ecology, art, geology and history. Through the development and use of this platform, we are generating valuable insights into how technologies mediate – and obfuscate – traditional narrative practices.
