> The gaze and the unfamiliar texts may or may not be filtered out, and
> the meaning that is shared may or may not be shared with a whole
> group. I see that particularly for youth and young adults that the
> lack of familiarity with travel or an awareness of surveillance may
> lead to a dis-identification -- a disconnection -- because a lack of
> meaning or an awareness of power differences creates its own meanings.
> Still, I'm not comfortable with talking about this as a constraint of
> the text because it does not prevent discussion; it simply fails to
> promote discussion. I think an important question is what effect do
> the artifacts/tools/signs always have on the activity and what do they
> simply make possible.
>
>
>
> Hi all,
> it is easy to slip into a discourse that separates tools and artifacts
> from other things, which happens here, too. We then think in terms of
> "effects" that one thing has on another--but effects imply causal
> relations, which are quantitative rather than qualitative, which they
> need to be if they mediate. . .
>
> Tools are tools because of their implication in specific activities
> rather than because they are tools in themselves. A piece of wire may
> be a coat hanger in one activity and an electrode in
> another--different tools! I cannot talk about a tool independent of
> the activity of which it is a constitutive part.
>
>
> Cheers,
>
> Michael
>
>
>
>
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>
>
Yes, effect was the wrong word. I guess that my question is: What ROLE
does, can, and must a tool have in an activity?
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