Hybrid Spaces: Presence, Rhythms and Performativity

Online and mobile socially networked spaces and real-world places are connecting and converging in numerous and complex ways. The physical and material space of the city is augmented with layers of technology/media and social behaviours which changes how we interact. A key impact is how it affects the characteristics of presence in space and an awareness of others, which are increasingly mediated through technology. The focus of the first half of the paper is on how to understand the way that behaviours are enacted within it i.e. both the locality of media and how media itself is located or situated in urban public space. The second half of the paper seeks to characterise hybrid space. In summary it outlines the corresponding implications and effects on urban space for how it is inhabited and experienced.