Bordr iPhone app – 2011

20130717-121753

Short project description

Bordr started as “Project Borders”, a graduate studies project at The New School under the thesis supervision of Christiane Paul and in design collaboration with Marcus Haraldsson. Bordr app started as an investigation into how perceptions of local and international borders compare and change over time.

Borders explored

First and primarily geographical borders. More ephemeral borders were included in time.

Method

design research, experience sampling, data visualization.

Purpose

To see if a participant’s perceptions of borders change over time through experience sampling and comparison of their logged crossing experiences with those of others.

Audience

iPhone users.

Project Period

Late 2011 through Mid 2012

Locations

New York City, NY

Project results

The start of a database of border crossings, categories for understanding perceptions of borders, and a reflection on the use of networked devices (i.e. smartphones) to define places through “check-ins”. The project has subsequently been iterated in exhibitions and as a web app.

Inspired by

The project was inspired by George MacKerron and Susana Mourato’s Mappiness app and Ricardo Dominguez and Brett Stalbaum’s Transborder Immigrant Tool. Could the interogation of borders that the Transborder Immigrant Tool be provoked through the curiosity about our own experiences of space that Mappiness investigates?

Difficulties

Participation in the app during the project was limited, so the objective of measuring changes in perceptions of borders over time was not realized.

Credit

App developed by Christo de Klerk with collaboration of Marcus Haraldsson.

More

Bordr is available for download on the App Store.