ABSTRACT
Taking Portsmouth, UK, as a case study, this chapter aims to contribute to the wider discourse about mapping sexuality, by overlaying mappings of the city’s more conventionally advertised and experienced gay activity with the representation of data provided by the dating/hook-up app, Grindr. The analysis is based on maps created based on data retrieved from the public interface of the app. These are analysed in relation to the themes of (a) the users’ movement – as it happens in the physical city and as presented through the app, (b) the difference between geographical proximity and accessibility between locations, and (c) the space of the ‘closet’, as represented or experienced in the ‘public space’ of the app’s interface.
To achieve this, the chapter makes comparisons between the data of the app and the ‘traditional’ mappings of LGBT socialisation (bars, saunas, cruising areas), examining the ways that smart phones act as a bridge between the data and the embodied encounters.
