'Training the eye': formation of the geocoding subject

From 2004 to 2007, a nonprofit organization in Seattle conducted over twenty-five street surveys in ten neighborhoods. Participants in these surveys collected geographic data about community 'deficits' and 'assets' using handheld devices, while walking around their local neighbor...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inSocial & cultural geography Vol. 12; no. 4; pp. 357 - 376
Main Author Wilson, Matthew W.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Taylor & Francis Group 01.06.2011
Subjects
Body
cartografía
cartographie
cartography
Citizens
corps
cuerpo
Discourse
Embodiment
Engagement
Foundations
geo-codificación
geocoding
Graffiti
géocodage
Local communities
Mapping
Neighborhoods
Neighbourhoods
New York City, New York
objects
objetos
objets
Political integration
Seattle, Washington
Sight
Subjectivity
subjects
sujetos
sujets
Technology
Training
U.S.A
vision
visión
Online AccessGet full text
ISSN1464-9365
1470-1197
DOI10.1080/14649365.2010.521856

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Summary:From 2004 to 2007, a nonprofit organization in Seattle conducted over twenty-five street surveys in ten neighborhoods. Participants in these surveys collected geographic data about community 'deficits' and 'assets' using handheld devices, while walking around their local neighborhoods. These residents marked graffiti, litter, vacant buildings, and abandoned automobiles, as well as, 'friendly' business districts, appropriate building facades, and peopled sidewalks-all among their categories of interest, initially borrowed from a New York City foundation responsible for developing the handheld devices. Here, I analyze the geocoding protocol, 'Training the Eye', that was created by the New York City foundation and was adapted by the Seattle nonprofit. This technology of citizen engagement in governmental practice enacts an embodied cartographic vision that is productive of liminal subjectivities. These practices of geocoding, of assessing place in space, are intensely bodily, both in their messy enactment of digitally-extended vision and in their data-based imaginings of bodies at the margins. I draw upon theories of the cartographic gaze to discuss how technologies of vision constitute particular urban imaginations and discuss how subjects are formed through the discourses and practices of geocoding.
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ISSN:1464-9365
1470-1197
DOI:10.1080/14649365.2010.521856