Enmeshed with the digital: satellite navigation and the phenomenology of drivers’ spaces

Abstract

This paper aims to develop a theoretical interpretation of how satellite navigation transforms drivers’ experience of automotive spaces. The use of satellite navigation has, so far, been predominantly studied from a cognitivist perspective based on the computer model of cognition and the theory of spatial disengagement. Experimental studies have concluded that over-reliance on digital navigation tools diminishes spatial orientation and spatial memory. According to the dominant interpretation, satellite navigation causes disengagement from space. After addressing these approaches, the paper introduces an embodied perspective of satellite navigation. This is accomplished by applying the phenomenology of perception of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, whose notions, such as perception, body schema, motor habit, and virtual body, illuminate otherwise undertheorized dimensions of drivers’ spaces. By using digital tools for wayfinding, drivers’ body schema, virtual body, and perception of space are modified, thereby enabling an engagement with convoluted ‘mesh spaces.’ This new term is integral to the interpretation of drivers’ spaces, as well as being distinct from that of ‘hybrid space,’ although both aim to conceptualize spaces, including physical objects and their visual representations. Conclusions will be drawn against the broader context of the mediatization of everyday life.