Subways, drive-thrus, underpasses, airports, etc. are often classed as "non-places," leaving them overlooked and relegated to the background; and only by virtue of their unimportance are they considered to be related. Rather than considering these spaces as the void between more "meaningful" places, we believe that the in-between world is teaming with potential and significance. In order to realize this conceptual shift, we have mounted a series workshops and applied design projects.
Research and design of new technologies within the UbiComp and HCI communities has achieved great depth in the areas of the workplace, the household, and to some degree, "third places". Though urban computing has emerged as a recent area of study, for many, the term cityscape is a homogenous and generic shorthand for "a place with lots of people." But not all cities are created equal, and not everyone experiences the same city in the same way. But what, then, is at the heart of the diversity of urban life? We belive that the current categorization of spaces only manages to address a narrow range of people's daily experience. The transitions between these spaces remain largely unconsidered. Yet, it is these transitions which structure people's daily life as a continuous flow rather than a series of discrete moments. We are using the concept of in-between-ness to explore these passages between meaningful places and events, and to recognize that these moments of transition are meaningful in their own right.