Artifact Projects are attempts to teach and learn about the embeddedness
of objects in the world and the world in objects. The emphasis is on details
and non-obvious connections, as well as on the many dimensions with which
we can analyze -- the world in artifacts
( symbolic, labor, professional,
material, technological,
political, economic,
textual, bodily, historical)
-- the artifact in the world ( context,
educational, political,
mythological, symbolic,
labor, professional,
material, technological,
economic, textual, bodily).
Artifact: Artifact as an "it." What is
it? (This is an exercise in specificity). How can it be conceptualized?
What is it to different groups of people and individuals? How is it situated
in the world and how is the world situated in it?
Here is a hastily put-together, quite incomplete, yet apparently excessive
list of possibly relevant aspects of any artifact (whether it be a grain
of rice, a mouse, a mouse pad, an ad about a mouse, you, a fact of life,
a book, a statistic, an event, a story...).
At the end of each set of potential questions is: How do these help
constitute it? This question means, how do the answers to these questions
matter to what kind of artifact this is? These are only hints, but remember
that almost any answer provides a cluster of new artifacts (try not to
go more than three levels down). The object of this project is to explore
the real complexity of "specificity" and "situatedness".
These words only mean something in the context of knowledges and matter,
and in contests over what matters. In these contexts they allow us to get
at the world in an effective and affective way; they help show us how the
world matters and how it might be otherwise.
How is the world in the artifact?
Symbolic dimensions (What
are the many different ways in which it can be taken as a symbol? What
parts of it can be taken as symbols? How do these symbols mean in the world?
Where do they mean? What are the histories of these symbols? To what have
they been attached?
Labor dimensions (Where was
it produced? How was it produced? Are there stages in its production? Where
has it traveled to and from? Who produces it? What are the histories of
its production?
Professional/Epistemological
dimensions (How is knowledge of the artifact and its production
demarcated and professionalized? What kind of professionals are involved
in making expert decisions regarding its development, production, and dissemination?
In funding each of these stages? In projecting its future use? What kinds
of controversies of this knowledge are happening? Who is involved? In what
kinds of institutions do they work? What are the political-economic histories
of this?
Material dimensions (What
materials are involved in these production processes? Where have these
materials come from? What are the labor dimensions of their production?
What are the global, economic, and political dimensions of their use? What
are the histories of these materials? How do these help constitute it?
Technological dimensions
(What kinds of technologies and machines enable it to be produced? What
kinds enable these other dimensions to be sustained? What sorts of information
technologies are involved? What are the political, economic, bodily, labor
and historical dimensions of these technologies? How do they help constitute
it?
Political dimensions (What
sorts of politics are these dimensions involved in? What kinds of local,
national and international bodies claim jurisdiction over it? In approving
it (e.g. lobbyists, patents, corporate sponsorship, etc.)? What are the
histories of regulations concerning it? How do these regulations help constitute
it?
Economic dimensions (How
is it involved in a world marketplace? What kinds of capital, debt, credit,
and labor relations are involved in producing, marketing, and acquiring
it? What is the history of those relations? Who is involved at each stage
and how are differences in power situated? How do these help constitute
it?
Textual dimensions (What
texts are involved in the production of it? What texts refer to this process?
What kinds of texts? Who produces them and who reads them? Where and in
what institutions? What are the histories of these texts? What kinds of
textual associations can be made?
Bodily/organic dimensions
(How are our bodies related to it? Are there particular ways in which we
think of ourselves that also involve or sustain this artifact? What kinds
of bodies and bodily relations are involved in producing it? How are these
bodies and relations gendered? Are there racial markings or other group
identifications which help construct these bodies? What are the histories
of all of these relations? How do these help constitute it?
Historical dimensions
(What concepts refer to it? What are the histories of these concepts? Was
it invented, when and by whom? Are there different and competing versions
of its histories? Who tells these histories? How has it traveled historically?
Repeat the above dimensions for each aspect of its history. How do these
help constitute it?
How is the artifact in the world?
Context and situatedness
(Where does it appear in the world? How does it appear and next to what
or in what? What activities or ways of life enable one to come across it?
What kinds of audiences are it addressed to? Who is excluded in these addresses?
When can it appear? What is the rhythm of its appearance? How does this
matter?
Educational dimensions
(How does it appear in our socialization? When do we learn about it in
school? In the rest of life? What kinds of people/bodies get to learn about
it? How much do we learn about it? What aspects of it are avoided? What
are the histories of teaching about it? How does this matter?
Political dimensions
(How is it understood in terms of political positions in the world? How
can we articulate the ways it is understood with political discourses?
How is it hegemonic (in what ways can we see it as marshaling our consent
to dominant orders? What kinds of legislation affect it? How do political
considerations make use of it? What are the political positions as seen
through the lens of this artifact (they often vary by artifact and moment)?
How does this matter?
Mythological dimensions
(What roles does it play in fantasies? What kinds of national narratives
make use of it? How does it appear in entertainment? What other grand narratives,
stories and strong associations involve it (e.g. progress, risk, joy, fear,
science, militarism, success, decline, horror, self-improvement, financial
security, nuclear family, motherhood, fatherhood, independence, adolescence,
democracy, origin stories, stories of difference, privilege, death, pornography,
sports...)? How do these matter?
Symbolic dimensions (How
does this object serve in symbolic systems? What kinds of metaphors is
it involved in? What sorts of ideas, metaphors, movements, ideologies,
etc., are associated with it? For whom are these relevant , to whom do
they matter, what contests over meaning are they involved in? What are
the histories of these meanings and contests over meaning? How do they
matter?
Labor dimensions (How is
it used? What forms of labor and work is it associated with? What forms
of labor and work incorporate it or make use of it? Is it used up? If not,
how is it passed on, transferred, communicated? What routes do these processes
take? What kinds of actors (human and non-human) are involved and what
kinds are excluded?
Professional/epistemological
dimensions (What kinds of knowledge count in talking about it? How
does emotional attention fit in? What forms does knowledge about it take
(e.g. journalism, academic papers, commonsense, tabloids, computers, etc.)?
What facts can we tell about it? What discourses of authority claim competence
over them? How is it articulated by medical , legal, governmental, religious,
psychological, engineering, military, economic, academic, new age, and
educational professionals?
Material dimensions (How
do the materials of the object appear? How are they disposed of? What hazards
are considered among these materials? What are the historical, scientific,
and political dimensions of these materials?
Technological dimensions
(What technologies are joined with it? What sorts of machines does it work
with? What kinds of machines are articulated to it? Who has access to these
machines and technologies? What are the histories of them?
Economic dimensions (The
artifact as commodity: how is it marketed, purchased, consumed? Where and
by whom? What are the economic statuses and positions of those who are
associated with it? Who sells it? How are costs calculated? How are risks
calculated? By whom and when? How do these matter?
Textual dimensions (What
texts refer to it? What kinds of textual associations are involved? Who
produces and who reads these texts? What kinds of institutions are involved
in these processes? What are the histories of these processes and institutions?
How are these texts funded? How does this matter?
Bodily/organic dimensions
(What kinds of bodies and bodily relations make use of it? How are these
bodies gendered, racialized and differently abled? What kinds of ways of
life are involved? How do these matter?
How can the artifact be divided
up? What are the parts of it? Treating each part as an artifact,
repeat the above analysis...
Revised Assignment