Experiences of Hybrid Space: The Multiplicity of Frames in You Are Near#5

Abstract

Due to the locative turn in mobile media, our notion of public space becomes more hybrid. One example of a locative application is the Location Based Mobile Game ‘You Are Near#5’. The pervasive or hybrid quality of You Are Near#5 means that a multiplicity of frames exists during its game-sessions. The game allows players to have a mediated, defamiliarized experience of a public space, and their awareness of the game being played allows them to make sense of certain social interactions in public spaces in a different way. In this paper, Goffman’s frame analysis is explored and connected to theoretical developments in the field of game studies. An auto-ethnographical analysis is used to gain understanding on experiences of frames during game-sessions of You Are Near#5. This method is particularly adequate for understanding experiences of frames. The dual role of participant and observer is a methodological advantage as it is used to gain a unique vantage point for accessing certain kinds of data. Personal experiences of frames have thus been used to elaborate on theoretical understanding of and discourse on frames and LBMG’s. The multiplicity of frames was often recognized and experienced. By negotiating multiple frames in an interaction, tensions could be diminished or even avoided between conflicting frames. Experiences of frames seem dependent on the management of frame tensions and on a degree of immersion felt in a certain frame. Hybrid space is finally understood as a very fragile and temporary experience which exists in the mind of a person after being immersed in the upkeyed frame.