Lab-in-your-pocket

Lab-In-Your-Pocket is an ongoing research project based at Oxford’s School of Geography and the Environment and is further supported by the Oxford Resilient Buildings and Landscapes Lab (OxRBL). It is divided into two strands; one which addresses the untapped potential for formalising research methods around mobile technologies in higher education, and another which looks towards developing citizen science tools for diversifying public heritage spaces through digital engagements.

The Lab-In-Your-Pocket is both interested in situating heritage sites and historic environments within the discourse of “smart” urban infrastructure, and how digital mediations of such spaces can encourage mobile-tech users to investigate and explore urban heritage environments both as active ecosystems and sites of diversity.

We define laboratories as spaces where participants (both scientists and the public) co-create, experience, investigate, experiment, and reflect. To put the lab "in the pocket", then, is to enable users to create temporary and site-specific spaces of investigation through mobile digital tools.

Furthermore, our project utilises the latent digital literacy of the public to imagine new forums for science communication—both in the context of the academy and in the  context of citizen science—across a range of potential fields and disciplines.