ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a holistic assessment of the development of smartphone apps and their implementation in the media ecology of tourist places. Drawing on long-term fieldwork in Estonia, I examine how augmented reality technology reorders tourist imaginaries about Estonia. By combining participant observation in tourist places with walkthroughs of app interfaces, the investigation brought to light how smartphones can be re-purposed as technologies of emplacement. Analysing the design aspirations and visons of Estonian-based app makers, the research indicates that their app production was crucially shaped by quantification technologies embedded in data infrastructures. The locative interfaces of the three researched augmented reality apps facilitated a situated representation of cultural heritages. These apps enabled tourists to unlock augmented content in situ, re-ascribing meaning to heritage objects. Based on an immersion in the Estonian start-up scene, I argue that the researched app makers forged augmented reality technologies capable of emplacing experiences of Estonian heritage objects and instigating re-imaginings of cultural heritages among tourists. The outcomes of the study motivate ethical considerations for the production of location-aware technologies. App makers should provide more operational transparency of their skilled practices, informing users about the digital traces they leave in opaque backend databases.
