Data doubles co-constructing spatial practices: An empirical study

Data doubles modulate and co-construct everyday spatial practices. These practices occur in between the individual and their multiple doubles, aggregated beings that are carried in smart devices and cards, living and acting in surveillant apparatuses, or operating in other means of data collection widespread in any spatial setting. These beings leak out of devices, and seamlessly blend with humans and their spatial practices. This study elaborates on a qualitative data collection carried out with younger generations in Turku, a medium-size city in Finland, where they were asked to reflect on their data doubles for two weeks. The shared stories show multiple types of doubles, to various degrees blending into individuals’ spatial practices. The article shows how doubles are not simply passive recordings of data that individuals generate, but, rather, they are experienced as agentic beings infiltrating into human bodies’ movements and behaviours while co-constructing blended, physicaldigital spaces.