I SIM therefore I AM

John Law explores the potential of the pinboard to hold artefacts, AND to hold points of tension. This is discussed as a method user friendly for ANT research as it allows the bits and pieces partialy connected, juxtaposed and partial in their disconnection as well. Not a view from nowhere, but allowing for the exploration of difference, ontological difference, as well as of similarities. (One day this might begin to occur as i move objects in or out or trace links through the network, at present the juxtapositioning is enough. But i find myself even finding points of tension as i virtually engage...

John Law describes his own pinboard of data collected where a cartoon sits above the board, this one by Leunig would be mine :)
The view of the Sistine chapel will never be quite the same now i know that it depicts Adam receiving his SIM card from God....
Or that my haunting fears of forgetfulness are less about dementia than my repressed memories stored on my sim...I SIM therefore I am
My memory is almost full; was the jacket cover for a Paul McCartney recent release and is the message my cell phone often provides me with, in my mind such bits of memory deleted randomly and haphazardly ...They are wanted bits as I struggle to find what i have done with the written artefact of students who want to text...
There would be the artefact of txt counselling policy guidelines.
There are the data collect field notes, of the interviews, of some who counsel, some who support the staff who counsel, some who support the technologies of computers .... and the interview fo the CEO and his stories of txting and of change, of policy development...
There would be artefacts of txting: sent and received by the counselling agency, the links internal and external, the ongoing inks to police involvements...
And then there would be censorship.
The less seemly might find space on a blog but not in the normal/formal academic circles as mum mistakes the vibrator for a cell phone ....

There's the actual transcripts of counselling, whats in, or out, as the ethics of anonymity and of confidentiality are negotiated, and of not harming the community or agency, and of participatory research...
Then there's what can/cant be physically pinned: the wmv clip, the links to my itune library for audiofiles made on ipod of interviews of staff.

He describes how practices are written historically with a unidirectional arrow,
that processes look shiny gleaming and streamlined, but that we can be sure we arent understanding them very well if this is what we see. I am reassured. My thinking is a mess, I must be in the right place...or places :)