Human–place–technology relations in the digital placemaking process

This study aims to illustrate the relationship between humans, places, and technology by introducing the conceptual framework of this relationship and identifying the influence of spatial media on digital placemaking. The framework presented reflects the results of empirical studies, primarily research conducted through go-along interviews with digital technology usage between 2021 and 2022 in Poznan, Poland. The results show that in the process of digital placemaking, humans act both as a subject who creates the digital representations of places and as a creator of the mechanisms operating in the spatial media that regulate, through algorithms, these representations. Accordingly, digital placemaking is a process in which the human experience of a place is transformed, mediated, and created through multifaceted communication between humans, places, and spatial media. Thus, places are experienced through interaction with their digital representations. Therefore, spatial media importance can be summarised by five key aspects: spatial media as an interface, a filter, a digital representation of places, a space of place representation, and an spatial media agency in the digital placemaking process.