New Domestic Locations: Reconfiguring the home through the Internet of Things

This paper reflects on the reconstruction of the home as it becomes filtered through that data that is streamed from smart objects. Retrofitting a home for The Internet of Things involves the placement of multiple sensors that record changes in conditions in order to construct a simulacrum of the actual house from which to analyse and form understandings of behaviour and in turn opportunities for connection.

This domestic data shadow (as it might be called) is not just a record of one inhabitants activities within the house, but the sum of all of the activities of all parties. The single routines that constituted patterns of behaviour of personal habit and ownership become mixed in a single database that, without individual signatures, are lost and the house loses it’s cognitive architectures.

The paper explores the implications upon the occupants sense of location as their model of home become reconfigured through the lens of a database. The paper draws upon findings of the Hub of All Things (HAT) project funded by the Research Council’s UK Digital Economy Programme.