On the topic of affordances and tools, Eugene and I had a conversation in
Chicago that was very helpful to me, but which I think bears further
exploration in terms of the relations among not only AT and Gibson, but also
mediated action.
I had been entertaining notions which discuss the "affordances of particular
cultural tools" for this or that kind of activity in terms of a mediated
action account. In Jim Wertsch's terms, this has in part to do with possible
"spin-off" effects of cultural tools as they are appropriated in activity.
Cultural tools inevitably get used in ways that diverge from their "home
activity" or the activity for which they were designed. In part, I was
thinking this could be explained in terms of the "affordances" of the tools
for different kinds of activity.
Eugene shifted the frame a bit for me to suggest that mediation _overcomes_
affordances in the activity setting. In other words (and correct me if I'm
misinterpreting), affordances have to do with object-activity or
activity-environment gestalts, and that mediation overcomes affordances by
transforming what particular actions different activity settings "afford."
I am obviously still trying to understand this notion, but it seems an
important one for those of us concerned with how tools are transformed in
activity ("affordances of tools" perspective) and also how tools/mediation
transforms activity ("mediation overcomes affordances"). Any thoughts?
Bill Penuel
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PreventionInventions
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