The affective intensities of datafied space

Abstract

The concept of datafication - which refers to the idea that many aspects of life can be rendered into digital data which can subsequently be analysed and used to understand, predict and guide interventions in society - has been both enthusiastically engaged with and critically deconstructed in recent literatures. In this article, we explore the relevance of datification for understanding the spatiality of everyday life. In doing so, we argue for a refigured concept of datafication through theoretical and empirical scholarship focused on affect. We suggest that a renewed concept of datafication - that is, of datafied space - offers a framework for how we dwell in and move through a world where digital data about humans have an increasing presence. To make our arguments, we offer an account of a recent study of cycle-commuting and self-tracking in Melbourne and Canberra, Australia. We used helmet-mounted action cameras and video interviews in a ‘digital sensory ethnography’ to explore the entanglement of bodies, bicycles, digital devices, data and affect that shape how people move through and make sense of what we call ‘datafied space’.