Augmented Publics

Any given public is the result of the activation of a certain kind of circulation. Following that claim, Nathaniel Rivers and I argue in this chapter that all publics are augmentations and such augmentations can be seen as accelerated in and through locative media. We demonstrate our claim by examining three micro-case studies: Google Maps, Ingress, and Pokémon GO. Together, these three, nested cases help cultivate the rhetorical activities needed to navigate and negotiate a public as a circulatory project. Ultimately, we argue that locative media not only help us trace a public in circulation but that such devices also compel us to place circulation into and as a rhetorical practice.