PowerPoint Presentation Lecture

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actor-network theory literature fdm 20c
introduction to digital media lecture 27.04.2004
warren sack / film digital media department /
university of california, santa cruz
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last time cscw

• winograd and flores
• the language/action perspective of work
• a diagram of a conversation for action
• keypoint Every digital media technology has an
  architecture that can be used to transform work,
  play and governance.
• using diagrams to compare physical architectures
  with digital architectures
• agre
• the surveillance model
• architectures of surveillance
• the capture model its relation to winograd and
  flores

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outline

• latours first two rules of method
• latours first principle

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rule of method a definition

• a means to allow outsiders to follow science and
  technology

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principle a definition

• a summary of a large number of empiricial facts

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the first two of latours rules of method

• We study science in action and not ready made
  science or technology to do so, we either arrive
  before the facts and machines are blackboxed or
  we follow the controversies that reopen them.
  (Introduction)
• To determine the objectivity or subjectivity of
  a claim, the efficiency or perfection of a
  mechanism, we do not look for their intrinsic
  qualities but at all the transformations they
  undergo later in the hands of others.
  (Chapter 1)

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latours first principle

• The fate of facts and machines is in later
  users hands their qualities are thus a
  consequence, not a cause, of collective action.
  (Chapter 1)

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black box a first, rough definition

• ...black box is used by cyberneticians whenever
  a piece of machinery or a set of commands is too
  complex. In its place they draw a little box
  about which they need to know nothing but its
  input and output. (pp. 2-3)
• in latours description a black box can take at
  least two forms and can be either
• a fact, or
• a machine
• this definition will be refined as we progress

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latours first rule of method

• We study science in action and not ready made
  science or technology to do so, we either arrive
  before the facts and machines are blackboxed or
  we follow the controversies that reopen them.
  (Introduction)
• So, what does it mean to arrive before the facts
  and machines are blackboxed?

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first rule of method the comic strip
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an explanation of the first rule of method

• ...picture the previous comic strip we start
  with a technical sentence which is devoid of any
  trace of fabrication, construction or ownership
  we then put it in quotation marks, add to this
  speaking character another character to whom it
  is speaking then we place all of them in a
  specific situation, somewhere in time and space,
  surrounded by equipment, machines colleagues
  then when the controversy heats up a bit we look
  at where the disputing people go and what sort of
  new elements they fetch, recruit or seduce in
  order to convince their colleagues then, we see
  how the people being convinced stop discussing
  with one another situations, localizations, even
  people start being slowly erased on the last
  picture we see a new sentence, without any
  quotation marks, written in a text book or
  technical manual or piece of software etc.
  similar to the one we started with in the first
  picture. (p. 15)

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compare latour to winograd and flores

• note that the conversations and discussions that
  latour describes are arguments and controversies
  latour is interested in storytelling and rhetoric
  -- the art of persuasion
• note that the conversations for action
  described by winograd and flores are not
  controversies but requests, actions and
  negotiations it is assumed that no one gets mad
  or emotional winograd and flores are interested
  in what is classically called dialectic -- the
  art of dialogue and a means to resolve conflict
• but, sometimes dialectic rhetoric storytelling

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on modalities and the blackboxing of facts

• New Soviet missiles aimed against Minutemen silos
  are accurate to 100 meters.
• Positive Modality Since new Soviet missiles are
  accurate with 100 meters this means that
  Minutemen are not safe any more, and this is the
  main reason why the MX weapon system is
  necessary.
• Negative Modality Advocates of the MX in the
  Pentagon cleverly leaked information contending
  that new Soviet missiles are accurate within 100
  meters. (p. 22)

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another negative modality

• The undercover agent 009 in Novosibirsk whispered
  to the household maid before dying that he had
  heard in bars that some officers thought that
  some of their missiles in ideal test conditions
  might have an accuracy somewhere between 100
  and 1000 meters or this is at least how the
  report came to Washington.

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negative modalities a definition

• We will call negative modalities those sentences
  that lead a statement in the other direction
  towards its conditions of production and that
  explain in detail why it is solid or weak instead
  of using it to render some other consequences
  more necessary. (p. 23)

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positive modalities a definition

• We will call positive modalities those sentences
  that lead a statement away from its conditions of
  production, making it solid enough to render some
  other consequences necessary. (p. 23)

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the form of a fact or black box

• A fact is stated, and a black box is used, in a
  form that is devoid of any trace of ownership,
  construction, time and place.
• Consider a fact, like water is a molecule of
  hydrogen and oxygen. We can just write H2O
  without stating that this was Lavoisiers
  discovery.
• Similarly, to use a computer as a black box, does
  one need to know the writings of Turing?

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fact an etymology

• Latin factum, from neuter of factus, past
  participle of facere
• facere act, do, make, perform
• Latours first rule of method allows us to see
  how facts are acted, done, made or performed

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fact a definition

• ...a fact is what is collectively stabilized
  from the midst of controversies when the activity
  of later papers does not consist only of
  criticism or deformation but also of
  confirmation. (p. 42)

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how are facts made?

• Facts are made collectively isolated people
  build claims, not facts cf., Latours first
  principle
• The fate of facts and machines is in later
  users hands their qualities are thus a
  consequence, not a cause, of collective action.
  (Chapter 1)

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where are facts made?

• look for the controversies ...when we approach
  the places where facts and machines are made we
  get into the midst of controversies (p. 30)
• but, what does a scientific controversy look
  like? ...when controversies flare up the
  literature becomes technical (p. 30)
• so, the most controversial literature is the most
  technical!

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scientific controversies and rhetoric

• scientific controversies are conducted in a
  scientific and technical rhetoric that includes
  these forms
• bringing friends in (i.e., arguing from
  authority), p. 31
• referring to former texts (i.e., citing other
  texts), p. 33
• being referred to by later texts (i.e., being
  cited by other texts), p. 38
• see figures on pages 34, 38, 40 and 41

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scientific rhetoric v. ordinary rhetoric

• The difference ... between technical and
  non-technical literature is not that one is about
  fact and the other about fiction, but that the
  latter gathers only a few resources at hand, and
  the former a lot of resources, even from far away
  in time and space.

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latours metaphors and analogies

• sometimes latour is difficult to follow because
  he mixes metaphors and analogies
• technoscience is war (e.g., gathering allies)
• technoscience is sports (e.g., reading science
  is like watching tennis)
• technoscience is storytelling (e.g., it has
  heroes, the heroes have trials)
• technoscience is weaving (e.g., tying, untying
  and raveling claims
• technoscience is construction (e.g., writing an
  article is like building a stone hut or like
  building a dam)
• technoscience is like electronics (e.g., opening
  a black box, closing a black box, connecting
  elements, etc.)

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reading versus writing technical texts

• also note how latour moves back and forth from
  the perspective of the reader of a scientific
  text and the perspective of a writer of a
  scientific text

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how are scientific papers constructed?

• they are stratified The text is arranged in
  layers. Each claim is interrupted by references
  outside the texts or inside the texts to other
  parts, to figures, to columns, tables, legends,
  graphs. Each of these in turn may send you back
  to other parts of the same texts or to more
  outside references. (p. 48)
• recall Engelbarts discussion of the construction
  of an argument (using index cards) and the idea
  of hypertext

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how are scientific papers constructed?

• their layers and elements (text, figures, graphs,
  etc.) are stacked How does one go from a few
  snippets of evidence to the largest and wildest
  claims? (see. figure 1.7 on p. 51)
• stacking rules
• never stack two layers exactly on top of one
  another
• never go straight from the first to the last
  layer
• prove as much as possible with as little as
  possible
• (p. 51)

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how are scientific papers constructed?

• by staging and framing, the authors describe
  themselves, their intended readers, the heroes
  and trials of their described subjects (pp.
  52-54)
• Latours point It is hard to popularize science
  because it is designed to force out most people
  in the first place. (p. 52)

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how are scientific papers constructed?

• captation the subtle control of the objectors
  moves How does one make it more difficult for
  the reader to go in all directions outwards, from
  the text? By carefully stacking more black
  boxes, less easily disputable arguments. The
  nature of the game is exactly like that of
  building a dam. (p. 57 see also figure 1.8 on
  p. 58)
• When such a result is attained...a text is said
  to be logical. (p. 58)

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latours second rule of method

• To determine the objectivity or subjectivity of
  a claim, the efficiency or perfection of a
  mechanism, we do not look for their intrinsic
  qualities but at all the transformations they
  undergo later in the hands of others.

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taking our bearings

• our point of departure is science in the making
  and specifically a claim in dispute
• look to see who is trying to make the claim more
  of a fact and who wants it to be less of a fact
• check to see which direction the claim is pushed
  by the opposite actions of these two groups of
  people (up the ladder or down? see figure 1.6)
• measure the distance (i.e., the drift) from the
  original claim and the new claim
• thereby find the line of controversy (figure 1.9)

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reading fact-writing versus fiction-writing

• the reader is limited to three responses to
  fact-writing
• give up
• go along or,
• re-enact everything the authors went through
• (p. 61)

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why is technoscience so uncomfortable to read?

• ...the scientific text is chasing its readers
  away whether or not it is successful. Made for
  attack and defence, it is no more a place for a
  leisurely stay than a bastion or a bunker.
• notice how the metaphors of war and constructed
  are blended together here in latours words

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scientific (new) rhetoric v. old rhetoric

• The difference between the old rhetoric and the
  new is not that the first makes use of external
  allies which the second refrains from using the
  difference is that the first uses only a few of
  them and the second very many. This distinction
  allows one to avoid a wrong way of interpreting
  this chapter which would be to say that we
  studied the rhetorical aspects of technical
  literature, as if the other spects could be left
  to reason, logic and technical details. (p. 61)

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next time

• actor-network theory machines
• bring your book to class so that we can read some
  of the latour together
• also, later this afternoon, a list of potential
  midterm questions can be found here
  dmedia.ucsc.edu/FDM20c/Spring2004/Midterm/possible
  -questions.rtf
• midterm exam will be held one week from today,
  next tuesday