[...] 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)

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 lg2" 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


="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">nature of and function of ="trms">categorization itself

a ="trms">wonderful bit of ="trms"nttrm="metaph,metamorph,metabol,metal">meta-="trms">language


The Exhausted Receiver


="large lg1" stl="font-size:119%"> Margaret Cavendish description of a new ="trms">world, called the Blazing ="trms">World, her own brand of ="trms">natural philosophy under the guise of a romance... ="trms">science for ladies='lgc'>{
="lstsrd">1- enthusiasm ='lgc'>==> new ="trms">science
="lstsrd">2- study of ="trms">natural philosophy ='lgc'>==> cardinal virtues of ladies, modesty and ="trms">religious reverence
="lstsrd">3- leisure activity, appropriate ="trms">pasttime
='strcls'>*she participated in discussions central to her life and times='strcls'>* (am i participating in discussions central to my life and times='qstn'>?!)
Cavendish self-consciously produced herself as a fantastic and singular... (='lgc'>='lgc'>--> is that what i wish to produce='qstn'>?)
="prgrph">-Cavendish strangely shared with Quaker women an experimental life of proliferating genders, of dress, of personhood, og ="trms">agency, of ="trms">writing, of personae, but not of this ='strcls'>*enabling collectivity='strcls'>*

hermaphroditical view of things='lgc'>: partly artificial, partly ="trms">natural

status of clothing as a signifier of identity ='lgc'>[='lgc'><='lgc'>-- not always='lgc'>]
crossdressing (='at'>#my sticker period)


="large lg3" stl="font-size:110%"> ='lgc'>[modest witness='lgc'>] (='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ="ppl">="ppl">Haraway's ="trms">literal and ="trms">figurative queering of ="trms">categories)
the ="trms">rhetoric of the modest witness ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> the naked way of ="trms">writing, undorned, factual, compelling='lgc'>: “naked ="trms">writing” ='lgc'>[="trms">crafted in the context of being virtually ="trms">present at a de="trms">monstration, the ‘practice of credible witnessing’ (='lgc'>==> “truth”) in ="trms">techno="trms">science='lgc'>] was a proper reference point for feminist examination of objectivity and its ="trms">relationship to a ="trms">science founded in ex="trms">="trms"nttrm="cluster,club">clusion of women. the new man of ="trms">science had to be chaste, modest, heterosexual man who desires yet eschews a sexually d="trms"nttrm="danger,stranger">angerous yet chaste and modest woman ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ='strcls'>*female modesty was of the body; the new masculine virtue had to be of the mind='strcls'>* ='lgc'>[women's ="trms">presence turns out to disrupt the experiment (of the ="trms">scientist or sufi) altogether='lgc'>] (“='lgc'>[...='lgc'>]best of women, pious, chaste, modest, and compassionate, are rendered unfit for ="trms">science by the very qualities that make them the best of women”)
(="ppl">="ppl">Haraway, why credible witnessing is still at stake='lgc'>:) “this is the culture within which ="trms">contingent facts ='lgc'>[= the real case about the ="trms">world, the object ="trms">world='lgc'>] can be established with all the ="trms">authority, but none of the considerable problems, of transcendental truth. this self-invisibility is the ="trms">specifically ="trms">modern, European, masculine, ="trms">scientific form of the virtue of modesty. this is the form of modesty that pays off its practitioners in the coin of ="trms">epistemological and ="trms">social power. ='strcls'>*this kind of modesty is one of the founding virtues of what we call ="trms">modernity.='strcls'>* ='lgc'>[...='lgc'>] and so he is endowed with the remarkable power to establish the facts.”
="prgrph">-“he ='lgc'>[the civic man of reason='lgc'>] bears witness”='lgc'>: he is objective, he guarantees the clarity and purity of objects, as contestable re="trms">presentations, or as construced documents in their potent capacity to define the facts ='lgc'>=/= queering confidence='lgc'>: enable a more corporal, inflected, and optically ="trms">dense, if less elegant, kind of witness (to the ="trms">matters of fact to emerge in the ="trms">worlds of ="trms">techno="trms">science) ='lgc'>[='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ='thdf'>this is why i was trying to enable that kind of “optically ="trms">dense” and “less elegant” kind of corporeality in our work on ="ppl">Olearius='at'>#='lgc'>]
(="ppl">="ppl">Haraway ='lgc'>+ Potter ='lgc'>+ Shapin ='lgc'>+ Schaffer='lgc'>:) elaboration on ='thdf'>the idea of modest witness in which “modesty” might flip between either two sides='lgc'>:
="lstsrd">1- ="trms">historically masking a masculine solipsism as a preciously unmarked ="trms">category='lgc'>: modest witness ='lgc'>=/= haec vir ='lgc'>: God forbid that the experimental way of life have queer foundations
="lstsrd">2- (working across partialities) to create “a more adequate, self-critical ="trms">techno="trms">science committed to ="trms">situated knowl="trms"nttrm="knowledge,Knowledge">edges”


a nameless sin about which, without describing, he sought counsel

oratory

="large lg4" stl="font-size:110%"> tension between dedication and prevarication (zaban bazi زبان بازی)

(='lgc'>[let's not='lgc'>] being a ="trms">member of) a “class” of those whose truth-telling was privileged
in certain ="trms">sorts of people credibility was ="trms">embodied


="nms">ajayeb.net's style of ="trms">writing ='lgc'>=/= a style of ="trms">writing driven by the needs of ="trms"nttrm="already,spread">readers who are relatively un="trms">skilled (in practical divinity, casuistry, or theology, and so on)


="large lg5" stl="font-size:115%"> ='strcls'>*** what kind of classification work, work of ="trms">historical re="trms">presentation, is necessary now to show over time with greater clarity, in cooperation with more and more ="trms">communities of practice, that in the best of all possible ="trms">worlds, at any given moment, the ="trms">past could be reordered to better reflect multiple constituencies now and then='qstn'>? ='strcls'>***
(="ppl">Katie ="ppl">King ='lgc'>+ ="ppl">="ppl">Bowker ='lgc'>+ ="ppl">Leigh ="ppl">="ppl">Star)

='lgc'>[my ="nms">ajayeb-making is about='lgc'>] partial connections (across time) ='lgc'>==> ="trms">communities


(='lgc'>[my point in work on ="nms">ajayeb:='lgc'>] we need) the possbility of competing and shifting claims on individuals (='lgc'>=/= self-making individual), rather persons with partial connections (across time) and queer ="trms">relations wi[...]