[Xmca-l] Re: Reflective Discourse on XMCA

[Alfredo Jornet Gil]

Henry, all,



I am at this moment going through a video database on design work in a software development company, and, observing a discussion between two developers who talk about features of the software that are not yet developed, but which could be, ??the insight came upon me that, to possibly create anything together (and there is no other way to do it since one alone has not the tools/competence to do it), they had to name it. So, the developers were talking about something that does not yet exist but which nonetheless needs to be referred to in order for them to even begin working on it. And naming something that does not yet exits does not happen immediately, because they do not have a name for it. Naming it takes time and space, that is, work. So, I think the notion of "displacement" that you mention, if it captures this work that talking does to the imagining, very relevant to what I am witnessing in my data. And, given the salience of "place making" in the thread, the term "disPLACEment" may be timely here.


Alfredo

________________________________
From: HENRY SHONERD <hshonerd@gmail.com>
Sent: 13 October 2015 23:34
To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
Cc: Alfredo Jornet Gil; Rolf Steier; Geoffrey C. Bowker
Subject: Re: [Xmca-l] Re: Reflective Discourse on XMCA

Mike,
In your original post on Oct 10, you  suggested that we might "...come up with a deeper understanding of the interlocking issues involved". As you say, each chatter will have their own response to that. Mine is that I can relate the three issues to displacement, which is arguably the most important property of language as a semiotic system. It is the ability of with language to refer to and construe aspects of the world removed in time and place (from the here and now) and to the "make believe" ("irrealis").  I was reminded of this on re-reading an article by Bruno Latour on Interobjectivity that Greg Thompson posted back on Aug 18. Most people, if asked, think of language primarily as something for communication. Animals communicate, but, as far as we know, do not displace. (Though It might be argued that animals do a better job of communicating than people.!) I would like to emphasize the importance of the temporal domain, as well as the spatial, with displacement.

Henry