Theorizing media art in light of STS: Factura of ephemeralities

Throughout history, and particularly in recent decades, art has developed unique media-specific characteristics to address the impact of the techno-scientific paradigm on culture and society. Parallel reflections have occurred in the social sciences, especially within science and technology studies (STS). Some of its most influential methodological insights and concepts – such as actor-network theory, nonhuman agency, boundary objects, trading zones, and material heterogeneities of knowledge – share a focus on the performative rather than representational aspects of scientific practice, on the epistemology of networks and actions rather than on the ontology of substances. The performative aspect of science, for instance, comes to the forefront with Andrew Pickering’s concept of “mangle of practice” (1995), characterized by ongoing interactions between machines, instruments, people, facts and theories that are “mangled” together, shaped by the contingencies of time, space, and culture. The movement between these agents consists of continuous observations, adjustments, and gestures; it is a “dance of agency” (1995, 21) – iterative and recursive, occurring between humans and nonhumans. Although these interactions take place in the laboratory, where phenomena are displaced from the world into the lab with the aim of producing knowledge, the dance of agency anchors scientific practice to the world.