Nina and I recently attended the 4S - The society for the Social Studies of Science 2008 conference conference in Rotterdam. Nina exhibited objects and I gave a paper.
Nina’s objects first.
Two Tails
The companion species of Science and Technology Studies are proliferating. Here are two extracts - two tails of STS at this conference. The lion, appearing as a symbol of the Netherlands via the Rotterdam coat of arms, is reduced to a long stuffed tail. It is no longer threatening ‘Stronger Through Struggle’ - the motto of the Rotterdam lion - but rather has been reduced to being one end of a strange fabric entity made of only tails. Instead of a body, attached on the other end is a mass of fake coyote tail. In recognition of Donna Haraway’s formulation of ‘nature as coyote’, the coyote would surely appear on any coat of arms for 4S. Yet the coyote is most prized by hunters for its tail, shown as trophies and used to decorate hats. Here both tails are expanded, faked in synthetics, constructed so that they might almost function as cushions, or maybe allow a tug of war. They could perhaps be the remnants of a sewing class, now brought to be the new trophies for someone attempting to ‘act with’ STS metaphors.
My paper was on the role of mess in the making of WiFi.
The STS of visual representations in science, law and engineering clearly illustrate the sociological value of images and the practices that surround them. In these contexts, graphs, photos and sketches are seen as pivotal in understanding how practitioners construct knowledge, collaborate, reach consensus, recruit new members and do work. In essence, their persuasive power stems from the transformation of mess that occurs behind-the-scenes (raw materials, repetitive experiments and alternative interpretations) into finely honed, ordered, compatible and comparable visual accounts. The result is designed to omit the uncertainties and contingencies of everyday practice. Drawing on ethnographic observation and participation in a volunteer community wireless group in Australia I consider the visual methods members employ in the design of a wireless fidelity (WiFi) network. Specifically I focus on how they retain elements of multiplicity and unpredictability and show how they make WiFi because of uncertainty and ambiguity, not in spite of it. From this position I argue that mess is not a consequence of this fragile technology or the elastic nature of the volunteer community but a deliberate practice and core strength of the group, critical to how they innovate.
September 8th, 2008
kat
Filed under: Conferences, Wireless technology research, travel, Design
I happened across this on the weekend out the front of Tate Modern. It is part of their UBS Openings: The Long Weekend.
Nuts!
May 26th, 2008
kat
Filed under: Art, Just stuff, Events, Design, Cycle
I am really looking forward to this upcoming seminar hosted by CSISP at Goldsmiths. Although the topic in general is relevant to my work I am particularly excited to hear Albena Yaneva speak. Her ethnographic analysis of the role and importance of visual representations and practices in architecture has been very inspiring to me. If you haven’t already read it - Scaling Up and Down: Extraction Trials in Architectural Design, Social Studies of Science, 35/6(December 2005) 867–894
Friday 6 June | Room 137a, Richard Hoggart Building
Speakers:
Jane Bennett | Political Science, Johns Hopkins University
Matthew Fuller | Centre for Cultural Studies, Goldsmiths
Javier Lezaun | James Martin Institute, Oxford University
David Oswell | Sociology, Goldsmiths
Albena Yaneva | Architecture, Manchester University
Claire Waterton | Sociology, Lancaster University
Sarah Whatmore | Geography, Oxford University
Brian Wynne | Sociology, Lancaster University
Discussants:
Andrew Barry | Geography, Oxford University
Gail Davies | Geography, UCL
Kate Nash | Sociology, Goldsmiths
This one-day workshop will bring together social researchers and theorists who bring an interest in publicity and citizenship to the study of material and physical practices.
In fields like science and technology studies, it has long been acknowledged that non-human entities play an important role in the (un)making of social connections. However, everyday dealings with things, technologies, and nature are also increasingly recognized, and explicitly formatted, as occasions for ethical and political involvement. In engaging with these developments, authors in political theory, sociology and geography have begun to explore whether and how everyday practices may be understood as sites for the organisation of publics by socio-material means. This workshop aims to further explore this ‘object’ or material turn in the study of publics and citizenship. It is meant to provide a space for more detailed consideration of the kinds of practices, events and devices that this turn brings into view, from flood management to the art of sowing seeds. Within this context, the workshop will also engage broader conceptual questions about the type of politics, morality or ethics that a socio-material perspective on the public opens up. Thus, it will consider the implications of attempts to bring ‘democracy’ within the realm of embodied experience, including for the types of agency that are enabled and disabled by the repositioning of citizenship, and public involvement, as relations of material and physical entanglement.
May 25th, 2008
kat
Filed under: Conferences, visual research
Nina is exhibiting piece of work at Lewisham Arthouse with fellow fine art students from Goldsmiths in an group exhibition. Go see it. It’s good. It closes soon.
[btw - the dog isn’t part of the work but it was interesting to see the extra attraction of Nina’s work to small children and dogs who wanted to stamp on it or eat it - it is made of icing, eggs, ash and glitter - which added an further layer of fragility and temporality to it].
UNHOMELY
Dates: 14 - 25 May 2008
Private View: Wednesday 14 May, 7-9pm
Aliceson Carter, Dorothea Magonet, Victoria Scott, Nina Wakeford
Despite the proliferation of virtual worlds, and the simulated realities of computer games, the home, and the capacity to be settled or at ease in a place of one’s own choosing, remains one of the most culturally important experiences of our time. In a period of migration and constant mobility, the home appears to provide a respite from the global forces as well as the local stresses that intrude on our intimate, private spaces. And yet the starting point of the four artists in this show is the need to reconsider experiences that, even though they make emerge from our domestic experiences, are distinctly unhomely.
Beginning with the literal translation of Freud’s concept of ‘Das Unheimliche’ as ‘The Unhomely’ the work in this show begins to comment on the lack of coherence of the contemporary home, either as a literal architectural space, or as a symbolic realm of promise and disappointment.
Sociologist Zygmunt Bauman has written of the ‘vicious bacteria of domesticity’, a phrase which recalls the capacity of the home to be colonised by destructive forces. The phrase might well suggest that the only way to respond would be an equally ferocious cleansing. Yet the artists in this show use a range of strategies to explore the energies and experiences of the contemporary unhomely, including a restaging of the mundane domestic object or process, or an overlooked emotional experience. The work also questions the boundaries of the home, as work looks to architectures beyond the four walls of the conventional structure.
By acknowledging the contradictions within contemporary formations of the domestic, the show is far from a sullen treatise on the unhomely. New narratives are explored, and new emotional horizons suggested.
All four artists are currently studying fine art at Goldsmiths.
May 21st, 2008
kat
Filed under: INCITE events, Art, INCITE
It’s been a while between posts (here and my own research blog). Excuse No. 1: I blame the phd. I have simply been too stuck in my phd to do much else. There is a certain style of thesis writing that just doesn’t translate to blogging, for me anyway, and although I like to think of myself as being able to communicate with a variety of audiences in a variety of ways, simultaneously (cue picture of spinning plates) (no, on seconds thoughts, don’t)….. and please, the thought of not being able to speak in anything but thesis at the pub is too depressing for words (not that I go to the pub anymore)…… i’ve been a bit too distracted to come up with witty, interesting, bloggy things to post here, which seems ironic, considering my thesis is finally taking interesting shape. Excuse No.2: I also haven’t been doing much outside of school work. But i miss the blog and it misses me, so i’m back and I will twist other people’s arms to join me.
May 20th, 2008
kat
Filed under: Uncategorized