Space vs. Place: Comparing Space-based Movements and Place-based Experiences at the Roskilde Festival 2015

Abstract

This paper applies urban informatics methods and techniques on big data generated from the concentrated environment of the second largest music festival in the world, Roskilde Festival. First, we explain how to utilize relevant dimensions from human geography theories towards mapping a 'Geography of Importance'. Second, we elaborate on methods deployed for collecting both mobile GPS and social media traces that the smart phone generates in physical spaces. Third, we compare and contrast the automatically geocoded presence in space and at events with the intentionally socially tagged consumption of these spaces and events as place-based experiences. In doing so, these two layers of space-based movements and place-based experiences reveal the appropriation of affordances and choices of aesthetic appreciation by the crowd at large of what is subjectively and relatively meaningful, actionable, and valuable.