[...]edu/='lgc'>~gbowker/actnet.html

...it is easy to get lost in ="ppl">Baudrillard's cool ="trms">memories of simulacra (1990)

at stake='lgc'>: day to day work of building classification ="trms">system

things to learnd from actor-="trms">network approach='lgc'>: (="ppl">="ppl">Latour, Callon > ="ppl">="ppl">Bowker)
="lsts lst1">•regimes of delegation
="lsts lst1">•centrality of mediation
="lsts lst1">•the ="trms">position that ="trms">nature and ="trms">society are not causes but consequences of human ="trms">scientific and tachnical work
='lgc'>--> “="trms">techno="trms">scientific ="trms">societies are powerful precisely because they are so good at delegating and distributing; and that actor-="trms">network theory is well ="trms">position to track and describe the work of delegation and distribution.”

="large lg2" stl="font-size:111%"> fact is a consequence
(Dewey)

(in a way, ='mywrk'>my work and ="trms">interest in ="nms">ajayeb is about ="trms">histories of standards in knowl="trms"nttrm="knowledge,Knowledge">edge production, which, i argue, is key to all ="trms">sorts of other productions) (& the politics of re="trms">membrance ='lgc'>: the politics and philosophy of classifying certain textual/="trms">material activities such that they have a chance of being part of the cultural ='strcls'>*potential='strcls'>* ="trms">memory)='lgc'>-->='lgc'>{Olga, ="frds scrmbld">Hoda, ="frds scrmbld">Sana='lgc'>}
artists are using a lot of standards (of re="trms">presentations or ="trms">materials)
(out of) control standards
="prgrph">-there is a huge amount of standards i am depending on in my hypertext
="prgrph">-="trms">international diplomacy depends on manufacturing and enforcement of standard ="trms">vocabulary ='lgc'>--> how much are we really in diplomatic businesses='qstn'>?

Google='lgc'>: “To organize the ="trms">world's information and make it universally accessible and useful”

standards are often='lgc'>:
="lsts lst1">•making things work together
="lsts lst1">•enforced by legal bodies
="lsts lst1">•have their own (significant) inertia ='lgc'>--> hard to change, and is not about the ="trms">technically superior standards winning ='lgc'>[DOS, VHS, A4, etc.='lgc'>]
standards ='lgc'>--> ='strcls'>*aspect of acting in the ="trms">world='strcls'>* ='lgc'>==> classifications

what are (or have been) the behind the s="trms">cenes, boring, background processes of the “real” work of ="nms">ajayeb (and any ="trms">past and practical politics of knowl="trms"nttrm="knowledge,Knowledge">edge production)='qstn'>? (='lgc'>==> becoming ="trms">interested in a wider scope of ="trms"nttrm="already,spread">reading='lgc'>: ="trms">rhetorics, ="trms">semiotics, objectivity, analysis, architecture,)
="lsts lst1">•="trms">historically creation of the infrastructure
="lsts lst1">•ubiquity and webbed saturation of classifying and standardizing
="lsts lst1">•="trms">materially textured (layered, tangled)
="lsts lst1">•their negotiated ="trms">nature

='strcls'>*distribution of ="trms">memory (and distribution of re="trms">presentation)='lgc'>:
X ='lgc'>--> ="trms">historical ="trms">contingencies ='lgc'>--> a ="trms">narrative ='lgc'>--> practical politics ='lgc'>--> standard ="trms">narrative ='lgc'>--> universal ="trms">category ='lgc'>--> erases its own ="trms">narratological ="trms">past, (employed ="trms">internally='lgc'>+externally) deletion of modalities in the development of (="trms">scientific) texts; ='lgc'>[a modality can be deleted in a number of ="trms">different ways='lgc'>: ='lgc'>[='strcls'>*='lgc'>] it might be distributed (held in another part of the organization than in that which produces the text), ='lgc'>[='strcls'>*='lgc'>] built into the infrastructure (the work environment is changed such that the modality is never encountered), etc. ='lgc'>=/= ='at'>#accountability='lgc'>] ='lgc'>==> fact (='lgc'>+ single ="trms">articulation, only one plot of ="trms">data) ='lgc'>--> mobilizing a set of black-boxes='lgc'>-->='lgc'>{="frds scrmbld">Xiri's “queers,” ="frds scrmbld">Eszter's “participants,”='lgc'>: what goes inside these black-boxes and how they look like, is seen as irrelevant for them. ='lgc'>[='lgc'>--> ="trms">translating from the context of storage to the ="trms">present ="trms">situation (one might store a fact for reason X but recall it for reason Y) ="ppl">="ppl">Latour ='lgc'>+ ="ppl">="ppl">Bowker='lgc'>]='lgc'>}
X ='lgc'>--> indeterminacy ='and'>& multiplicity ='lgc'>--> conflict ='lgc'>--> negotiations ='lgc'>--> standard

where to make the cuts in the ="trms">system, for example, down to what level of detail one ="trms">specifies a description of work, of an illness, of a setting, ='lgc'>[of an ="trms">animal, of a queerness, of a subjectivity, and so on.='lgc'>]

residual ="trms">categories ='lgc'>{rest, others, miscellaneous,='lgc'>} are ubiquitous

what are the mismatches between sub="trms">systems in ="nms">ajayeb and Qur'an='qstn'>?
='lgc'>--> “cumulative mess ="trms">trajectory” (="ppl">Strauss) ='lgc'>--> when the ="trms">trajectories become so tangled that you can't return and the ="trms">interactions multiply

we are riding on ="trms">="trms"nttrm="metaph,metamorph,metabol,metal">metaphores to move in a ="trms">densely classified ="trms">world

“There is no way of ever getting access to the ="trms">past except through classification ="trms">systems of one ="trms">sort or another - formal or informal, hierarchical or not” ="ppl">="ppl">Bowker
="lsts lst1">•“in the 14th century” ='lgc'>--> segmentation of time, ="trms">system of calendar
="lsts lst1">•“="nms">Iranian” ='lgc'>--> discourse of national genius only arose in the 19th century
="lsts lst1">•“revolution” ='lgc'>--> our current conception of ‘revolution’ is marked by the ="trms">historiographical work of Karl ="ppl">Marx
="lsts lst1">•(="trms">historiographical traditions)

compare first lines of Halaj's biography in ="ppl">Attar and Wikipedia='lgc'>:
="lsts lst1">•آن فی الله فی سبیل الله آن شیر بیشه تحقیق آن شجاع صفدر صدیق آن غرقه دریای مواج حسین منصور حلاج رحمةالله علیه کار او کاری عجب بود و واقعات غرایب که خاص او را بود که هم در غایت سوز و اشتیاق بود و در شدت لهب و فراق مست و بی‌قرار و شوریده روزگار بود و عاشق صادق و پاک باز و جد وجهدی عظیم داشت و ریاضتی و کرامتی عجب و عالی همت و رفیع قدر بود او را تصانیف بسیار است ='lgc'>[...='lgc'>]
="lsts lst1">•Mansur al-Hallaj (="ppl">Arabic='lgc'>: Abū ‘l-Muġīṭ Al-Ḥusayn bin Manṣūr al-Ḥallāğ; Persian='lgc'>: Mansūr-e Ḥallāj) (c. 858 – 26 March 922) (Hijri c. 244 AH – 309 AH) was a Persian mystic, ="trms">poet and teacher of Sufism ='lgc'>[...='lgc'>]


(at the end it is the colonialism that) decides what a disease is ='lgc'>[='lgc'>=/= other ="trms">system/culture (fragile ="trms">networks) for classifying diseases of the body and spirit, such as ="nms">ajayeb. (for example see how ="trms">schizophrenia is classified and understood)='lgc'>]
='lgc'>--> practical ="trms">ontology
re="trms">presentation of the ="trms">past
sequencing of the ="trms">present
='lgc'>==> making it appear that ="trms">science describes ="trms">nature ='lgc'>--> ="trms">social power

="large lg1" stl="font-size:149%"> (at the end you see only those actants who are strong enough, and shaped in the ="trms"nttrm="righ,rigo,riga,rigi,trig,rign">right way, to impact)

“='lgc'>[...='lgc'>] the loosest classification of work is ="trms">accorded to those with the most power and discretion, who are able to set their own terms.” ="ppl">="ppl">Bowker 1996

="trms">lingua franca of the medical insurance companies


actor ="trms">network theory='lgc'>: looking in detail at the role of (relatively) black-boxed hybrids ='lgc'>[what ="trms">scientists are actually manufacturing='lgc'>] in creating the discourse of pure ="trms">science (as endpoint)

="large lg3" stl="font-size:110%"> ="trms">science's objective account of ="trms">natural order='lgc'>:
="lsts lst1">•trials of strength
="lsts lst1">•enrolling of allies
="lsts lst1">•cascades of inscriptions
="lsts lst1">•operation of immutable mobiles
='lgc'>--> development of standards

‘Janus face’ of ="trms">science
='lgc'>[Janus, in ancient Roman is the god of beginnings, gates, ="trms">transitions, time, duality, doorways, passages, and endings. a god of ="trms">transitions. having two faces, he looks to the future and to the ="trms">past. (="trms">Greeks had no equivalent to Janus.)='lgc'>]

when your work (artistic/="trms">scientific) can be seen as a direct ="trms">translation of the quest for ="nms">Iranian/French honor after defeat in the battlefield ='lgc'>--> the actors don't see what is ex="trms"nttrm="cluster,club">cluded='lgc'>: they construct a ="trms">world in which that ex="trms">="trms"nttrm="cluster,club">clusion could occur

(="ppl">="ppl">Latour ='lgc'>--> ="trms">according to American ="trms">pragmatist strongholds='lgc'>:) reality='lgc'> = 'that which resists’

="large lg4" stl="font-size:110%"> common ="trms">language ='lgc'>='lgc'>~= standard ="trms">language
(we can't talk about the commons without ="trms">sorting out our understanding of our standard-saturated ="trms">world)


(my hypertext is not ="trms">data-driven ='lgc'>[= a ="trms">system with focus on the acquisition, management, processing, and ="trms">presentation of ‘atomic-level’ ="trms">data='lgc'>] nor a process-driven (or process-sensitive ="trms">system, for example delivering a care), what is it then='qstn'>?) (also not ="trms">systematically storing ='lgc'>[my='lgc'>] “knowl="trms"nttrm="knowledge,Knowledge">edge” for later access, storage of information in such long-term ="trms">memory, no no no)
="prgrph">-is it a support for my various tasks and practices outside the computer='qstn'>? ='lgc'>--> ="trms">excess-driven ="trms">storytellings ='lgc'>=/= minimum ="trms">data set
="prgrph">-a non-="trms">data-driven ="trms">systems in this ="trms">society are named secretive and mysterious in the name of transparency
='at'>#in a way i am building an adequate mode of encounter with the “="nms">Iranian ="trms">scientist”

they draw from their secret='lgc'>[s='lgc'>]

a ="trms">technical issue (for example about how to ="trms">code process) is also a an organizational theory

="large lg5" stl="font-size:114%"> ="trms">social embeddedness of ="trms">scientific truth

(="trms">authors of ="nms">ajayeb approached ="trms">nature not in a way to sketch the boundaries of a discrete ="trms">animal event, therefore, a unit of analysis, (which is very ="trms">natural at 21st century;) rather an infrastructure itself in flux, providing an un="trms">natural hierarchy)='lgc'>--> this is my ="trms">rhetorical ="trms"nttrm="already,spread">reading of ="nms">ajayeb

as long as you/God pays attention to them, they will continue to exist

‘uninventing X’='lgc'>: changing ="trms">society [...]