P1252109105IBSeL

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actor-network theory machines fdm 20c
introduction to digital media lecture 29.04.2004
warren sack / film digital media department /
university of california, santa cruz
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the near future

• next time midterm
• two weeks from today version 1 of your paper is
  due

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last time

• latours first two rules of method
• latours first principle

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last time

• latours rules of method are means to allow
  outsiders to follow science and technology
• latours principles are summaries of large
  numbers of empiricial facts

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the first two of latours rules of method

1. 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)
2. 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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principle a definition

• a summary of a large number of empiricial facts

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latours first principle

1. 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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outline

• a short history of latours approach
• narrative theory
• rhetoric
• a key point Networks are not just a technology
  they are also a means for understanding media
• some examples of network diagrams designed to
  explain specific media and mediations
• latours definition...
• of a machine
• of an automaton and,
• his refined definition of black box
• latours explanation of translation...versus what
  is commonly called diffusion
• a third principle fourth rule of method

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where does latours approach come from?

• source one the humanities, specifically,
  narrative theory
• question who, or what, can be a character in a
  story? what kinds of character can appear in a
  story?
• vladimir propp, morphology of the fairy tale
• propp was a russian formalist in the 1920s
• algirdas greimas, structural semantics
• greimas was a french structuralist in the 1960s

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where does latours approach come from?

• source two the humanities, specifically,
  rhetoric
• question how can someone or something best
  represent or stand-in for someone or something
  else?

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tropes of rhetoric

• how do we make one thing, or person, represent
  something more, less, or other?
• metaphor
• a figure of speech in which an expression is
  used to refer to something that it does not
  literally denote in order to suggest a similarity
  
• metonymy
• a figure of speech in which an attribute is
  substituted for the whole
• synecdoche
• A figure by which a more comprehensive term is
  used for a less comprehensive or vice versa as
  whole for part or part for whole, genus for
  species or species for genus
• irony
• A figure of speech in which the intended meaning
  is the opposite of that expressed by the words
  used usually taking the form of sarcasm or
  ridicule

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key point

• Networks are not just a technology they are also
  a means for understanding media.
• cf., actor-network theory social network
  analysis etc.
• heterogeneous networks provide us with a way to
  show how people and things are associated
  together and/or stand-in for one another

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example text as network as hypertext
from geneviéve teil bruno latour, the hume
machine can association networks do more than
formal rules?, stanford humanities review,
volume 4, issue 2
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example text network 1
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example text network 2
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example text network 3
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example text networks 1 2 3
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example networks of people (i.e., social
networks)
from Studying Online Social Networks by Laura
Garton, Caroline Haythornthwaite and Barry
Wellman, Journal of Computer- Mediated
Communication, Vol. 3, No. 1., June 1997 social
network before the introduction of a CMC system
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example networks of people (i.e., social
networks)
from Studying Online Social Networks by Laura
Garton, Caroline Haythornthwaite and Barry
Wellman, Journal of Computer- Mediated
Communication, Vol. 3, No. 1., June 1997
social network six months after the
introduction of a CMC system
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example networks of people and articles (e.g.,
citation and co-authorship networks)
this image is from the system ReferalWeb by
Henry Katz et al. at ATT Research http//foraker.r
esearch.att.com/refweb/version2/RefWeb.html
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example networks of words and people
from Warren Sack, Conversation Map,
www.sims.berkeley.edu/sack/cm/
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example networks of technologies(i.e, technical
networks e.g., computer networks)
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networks of people and technologies

• open source software browser visualizing large,
  public collaborations how do open source
  software communities reproduce themselves?
• nicolas ducheneaut, ph.d. dissertation, uc
  berkeley sims, may 2003

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(No Transcript)
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hybridization (of people and technologies) in
action, ducheneaut (2003)
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translation in action
ducheneaut (2003)
nicolas ducheneat, 2003
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how does someone get their ideas accepted?

• latours answer translation
• five kinds of translation
• piggybacking i want what you want.
• seduction i want it, why dont you?
• detour convince them they are cut off.
• reshuffling
• displacing goals
• inventing new goals
• inventing new groups
• drift rendering the detour invisible
• becoming indispensible...i.e., make a machine!

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translation 1 piggybacking i want what you want
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translation 2 seduction i want it, why dont
you?
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translation 3 detourif you just make a short
detour...
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translation 4 reshuffling
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translation 4 tactics

• displacing goals
• inventing new goals
• inventing new groups
• drift rendering the detour invisible

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translation 5 become indispensible...make a
machine
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what is a machine?

• machine A machine, as its name implies, is first
  of all, a machination, a stratagem, a kind of
  cunning, where borrowed forces keep one another
  in check so that none can fly apart from the
  group.

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machine v. tool v. medium

• machine A machine, as its name implies, is first
  of all, a machination, a stratagem, a kind of
  cunning, where borrowed forces keep one another
  in check so that none can fly apart from the
  group.
• tool This makes a machine different from a tool
  which is a single element held directly in the
  hand of a man or a woman.
• Latour, Science in Action, p. 129
• medium A medium is a material, device, or
  process that holds people together or separates
  them apart from one another. I.e., a medium is a
  machine in Latours terms.

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automaton a definition

• machines in which the assembled forces move by
  themselves (p. 130)

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black boxes a refined definition

• black box automaton
• Until it can be made into an automaton, the
  elements that the fact-builder wants to spread in
  time and space is not a black box. (p. 131)

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science v. technology

• science and technology can only be distinguished
  by two moments
• The first moment is when new and unexpected
  allies are recruited -- and this is most often
  visible in laboratories, in scientific and
  technical literature, in heated discussions
• the second moment is when all the gathered
  resources are made to act as one unbreakable
  whole -- and this is more often visible in
  engines, machines and pieces of hardware. (pp.
  131-132)

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black boxes are a result of knitting together
humans and non-humans (p. 139)
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unraveling the sociotechnograms

• think forward to the future e.g., imagine how
  well your computer will work in 20 years, even if
  it still runs
• think backward to the past imagine what your
  computer was like while it was still on the
  drawing board, being designed.

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latours fourth rule of method

• Since the settlement of a controversy is the
  cause of Societys stability, we cannot use
  Society to explain how and why a controversy has
  been settled. We should consider symmetrically
  the efforts to enrol human and non-human
  resources.

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latours third principle

• We are never confronted with science, technology
  and society, but with a gamut of weaker and
  stronger associations thus understanding what
  facts and machines are is the same task as
  understanding who the people are.

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next time

• midterm
• remember the possible questions for the midterm
  can be found on the course website
  dmedia.ucsc.edu/FDM20c/Winter2005/Midterm/possible
  -questions.doc