[...]characters), promises to make it possible to build in ='strcls'>*a range of genders (not just two), a range of ="trms">writing ="trms">technologies, a range of self-effacing acts, and a range of publics='strcls'>*, while working from a particular place and time

='strcls'>***there are many ="trms">different ="trms">interests creating the ="trms">pasts='strcls'>***, the possible ="trms">worlds...


(="ppl">Leigh ="ppl">="ppl">Star > ="ppl">Katie ="ppl">King > ="frds">Sina) “comparing the incomparable”

="large lg2" stl="font-size:112%"> here i am trying an outline of my ="trms">interrelated research practices in a preliminary character, the ="trms">intersection of which I am just at the beginning to understand


="nms">ajayeb='lgc'>: ="trms">writing ="trms">technologies of the 12th century ="nms">Iran

plain style

soing naked as a sign

dress and address

="trms">ecology of ="trms">writing ="trms">technologies


(="ppl">Katie ="ppl">King='lgc'>:) ="trms">writing ="trms">technologies='lgc'>: ideologies layered in time and space ='strcls'>* under which ="trms">writing has been divided ='lgc'>[also cannot be divided='lgc'>] from other generations of cultural meaning

myriad hybrid forms, commingling in ="trms">material and ideological proliferations
(with ="ppl">Katie ="ppl">King's ="trms">interest in women's ="trms">writing ="trms">technologies)

“="trms">presentist”='lgc'>: a practice of classification and ="trms">categorization to access ="trms">pasts

continuities and local discontinuities ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> is ‘continuity’ (always) a universal abstraction='qstn'>?='strcls'>**


relative universalization

prescrptions for speech and silence


what is gained and what is lost when “tidying up the archive”='qstn'>? (a german problem)

prescriptions for speech and silence

“politeness ="trms">phenomena”

‘plain speech’ for Quakers='lgc'>: rejection of ‘idle’ speech. preaching was another version of sacrificing seld-will, and was appropriate speech.
public preaching in particular was also a challenge to ="trms">social ="trms">relations and ="trms">interaction ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> a challenge to gender, speaking public was a cultural humiliation for individual women ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> the Quaker women practiced preaching as a personal humiliation ="trms">instrumental to their own salvation ='lgc'>[! in a weird way i also did this to my self='lgc'>] ='at'>#becoming woman='lgc'>='lgc'>-->='lgc'>{a liquefying aspect='lgc'>: “womanhood” was used ="trms">="trms"nttrm="metaph,metamorph,metabol,metal">metaphorically to identify those who could not preach, the surrender of (male) ="trms">authority to God by men was “female”
="lsts lst1">•inhibiting woman's prophetic ="trms">agencies
="lsts lst1">•“lack of discipline” becomes discipline ='lgc'>--!='lgc'>='lgc'>--> forms of discipline that appear “undisciplined” or out of control

(="ppl">Katie ="ppl">King > Mack='lgc'>:) “Quakers not only bathed in a sea of poly="trms">morphous sipritual ="trms">nature and ="trms">eroticism; they occasionally wrote as if they had succeeded in floating above gender altogether”

="large lg1" stl="font-size:122%"> “going naked as a sign” (and Quaker's “plain style”) ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> Tasavof, ="nms">ajayeb, and ="trms">communication strategies of the so-called new ="trms">science of the same time (of Quakers)
‘nakedness’ was ="trms">simultaneously ="trms">literally his own, a figure of the ="trms">world, an ='thdf'>example of many others, the abstract principle, and the essential truth of the one addressed
="prgrph">-simplicity, economy, and plainness; to reject all the amplifications, digressions, and swellings of style


preferring ="trms">language of artisans, countrymen, merchants, of wits and scholars


How sin is strengthened 1657
Milk for babes 1661
A message from the spirit of truth 1658


realized eschatology

انا الحق, an-al-hagh
(Damrosch='lgc'>:) the performance of the sign thus entailed a doubly negative aspect='lgc'>: in the person exhibiting it, a conviction of fulfilling a divine mandate in op="trms">position to personal self-="trms">interest; and in those who witnessed it, an offense to ordinary ="trms">social standards that actually served to authenticate it.
='strcls'>*the function of the sign was to bear prophetic witness rather than to get practical results; it fulfilled its purpose simply by being performed='strcls'>*
='at'>#shath, shathiat ='lgc'>==> tazkirat, ='lgc'>-='lgc'>='lgc'>-->='lgc'>{ what the saints of Tasavof (reported by ="ppl">Attar-='lgc'>{his “virtual witnessing” of “awliya” اولیا as a “realized"='lgc'>}, Quakers ='lgc'>[as illegal nonconformist sect='lgc'>]) put together was their own ="trms">writing ="trms">technology infrastructure='strcls'>** ='lgc'>==> ='strcls'>**="trms">routinization of charisma='strcls'>** ='lgc'><='lgc'>-- organizational structure ='lgc'>["advices and queries” نفحات الانس nafahat ='lgc'>~-> rationalized ="trms">systematic intellectualizations='lgc'>]='lgc'>}

pattern of suffering that the believer ="trms">literally and personally relives
(is Tasavof developed ="frds scrmbld"nttrm="Christianson">Christian modality of sacrifice='qstn'>? is ='strcls'>*passivity imported from elsewhere in Islam='strcls'>*='qstn'>?)
a protagonist, like San'an, like an actor in a mystery play, enacting in a deliberately challenging form, ="trms">internalized and lived as a potent sign

(Bechwith='lgc'>:) rendered performance of ="trms">religious ="trms">materials both practically impossible and conceptually unthinkable
='lgc'>+ exercises their discipline of the senses and the ="trms">imagination
='strcls'>*undisciplined loss of control in enthusiasm and in this extravagant example='strcls'>*


(="trms">stories of) a small group of powerful and vocal actors
='strcls'>***to attend to the local practices of in="trms">="trms"nttrm="cluster,club">clusion and ex="trms">="trms"nttrm="cluster,club">clusion through which some speak and others are spoken for, some act and others are acted upon='strcls'>***
(='at'>#="trms">ontology)

="large lg3" stl="font-size:112%"> gentlemanly practices ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> (ask) what that legitimacy consisted in and how far it extended='qstn'>?
(wellborn connoisseurs of the new ="trms">science)


leave the work tacit, and it fades into the wallpaper


="large lg4" stl="font-size:112%"> ="lsts lst1">•(="ppl">Leigh ="ppl">="ppl">Star's) ethnography of infrastructure
="lsts lst1">•(="ppl">="ppl">Bowker's) infra-structural inversion
="lsts lst1">•(="ppl">Katie ="ppl">King's) ="trms">ecology of ="trms">writing ="trms">technologies='lgc'>: massive, large-scale infrastructure in dynamic motion, bits changing at ="trms">differential rates across time, made up of layered sub-="trms">systems complexity ="trms">interconnected and animated by distributed ="trms">agencies, in="trms"nttrm="cluster,club">cluding people, ="trms">skills, devices and ="trms">social powers.
the ="trms">translation between (='lgc'>[my='lgc'>] deliberately) ="trms">presentist (="trms"nttrm="metaph,metamorph,metabol,metal">meta-)="trms">language (of cybernetic ="trms">systems) and various local ="trms">languages helps ='strcls'>*to rescale particular objects of study='strcls'>*
(='mywrk'>my research='lgc'>: “="trms">social studies of”) studying ="trms">animal subjectivity ='lgc'>--(changes the way)='lgc'>='lgc'>--> studying infrastructures ='lgc'>--requires='lgc'>='lgc'>--> one to think (explicitly) about scale and range ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> boundaries/connections between one ="trms">system and another ='lgc'>--(what counts as)='lgc'>='lgc'>--> working sub-="trms">systems and various essential forms of “black-boxing” (that describe and use these infrastructures)
="prgrph">-="ppl">Katie ="ppl">King's accounts of black-boxing (that might ="trms">matter in conversations about) 17th century ="trms">writing ="trms">technologies='lgc'>:
="lsts lst2">◦reification='lgc'>: strategic metonymic reduction, kenaye کنایه
="lsts lst2">◦enthusiasm='lgc'>: essentializing identities or ideas
="lsts lst2">◦="trms">members (of Royal ="trms">Society)='lgc'>: ="trms">naturalizing ranges of in="trms">="trms"nttrm="cluster,club">clusion and ex="trms">="trms"nttrm="cluster,club">clusion
="lsts lst2">◦='strcls'>*witnessing='strcls'>* rescales the infrastructure. the “work of witnessing” asserts that rhetoic as an element of witnessing is not a thing, not even a performance, but al="trms"nttrm="already,spread">ready itself a complex set of infrastructural ="trms">systems with animating practices and ="trms">agencies
...="trms"nttrm="already,spread">readers might submit to the illusion of having effectively witnessed an experiment themselves
='strcls'>*virtual witnessing realized an “enactment” in words='strcls'>*


black-boxing is totally neccessary to use/study infrastructures, they produce the “artifactual richness” ='lgc'>[= a kind of archaeological layering of artifacts acquired in bits and pieces over time='lgc'>--(Lucy Suchman)='lgc'>] of ="trms">systems
='strcls'>*black-boxing makes elegant some elements of the ="trms">system/s ="trms">differentially='strcls'>*
each ="trms">author does it='lgc'>:
="lsts lst1">•Shapin black-boxing his range of ="trms">systems to its complexity and elegance
="lsts lst1">•="ppl">="ppl">Haraway appropriating ='thdf'>the idea of modest witness for her own feminist purpose
="lsts lst1">•

three ="trms">technologies for fact-making (that Shapin and Schaffer name)='lgc'>:
="lstsrd">1. ="trms">material
="lstsrd">2. ="trms">literary
="lstsrd">3. ="trms">social

Adrian Johns in The ="trms">Nature of The ="trms">Book='lgc'>: particular ="trms">booksellers could indeed use their ='strcls'>*stewardship='strcls'>* of such heterogeneous spaces to further political ideals and ="trms">interests. behind the s="trms">cenes and up the stairs, an ="trms">interested London ="trms">bookseller became a significant actor in cultural events.

nominal ="trms">agency
actual person
principle architect

="large lg5" stl="font-size:142%">
="trms">systems move in space, time, and process
some archaeological structures (that one uncover) are stable, some in motion, some evolving, some decaying ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ='strcls'>*“there is no way of ever getting access to the ="trms">past except through classification ="trms">systems of one ="trms">sort or another”='strcls'>* (at best) the ="trms">past could be reordered to better reflect multiple constituencies now and then. (="ppl">="ppl">Bowker ='lgc'>+ ="ppl">Leigh ="ppl">="ppl">Star)


(my ="nms">ajayeb research='lgc'>: “="trms">epistemic virtues” ='lgc'>[or powers='lgc'>] of the 12th century encyclopedic ="trms">wonder-="trms">books,) “="trms">epistemological decorum” ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> (to capture) “truth-making practices in action” (Shapin)
='lgc'>==> (my commitment to ="nms">ajayeb='lgc'>:) engendering reflection on the ="trms">natur[...]