MusicFootprints: designing interactions for outdoor places

Abstract: This thesis is a research on how people can create a stronger connection to a place through the music that they are listening to in the specific place. It is about making a place’s identity stronger through social interactions based on people’s musical choices. A theoretical research on social interactions in public places and on the field of urban computing and urban interaction design has contributed to the formation of this thesis. Additionally, a study of design examples that have already been implemented by others and are possessed with common characteristics to the subject, as well as a set of design methodologies in terms of Research through Design process, all lead to the design of the final concept of MusicFootprints service.MusicFootprints focuses on the design quality of “imageability” and on the experimental techniques of the Situationists “dérive and détournement” in order to show that it is the way of interactivity and the position of the system in the outdoor environment that matters. Finally, it leads to the creation of a music-living archive interactive system and opens a discussion about a connection between past, present and future’s peoples’ music choices.