Bruno Latour, Aramis, or the Love of Technology, PDF - Dss-edit.com

"That's an interesting theory all right, and it's often come inhandy," Norhert replied ironically. "In fact, that may be exactly whatkilled Aramis. It would give us a pretty good crimina\."[INTERVIEW EXCERPTS]At the Institute for Transportation Research, M. Lievin, affable and sarcastic,is speaking once again:"There's the main difference, I might soy, beMieen Aramis and VAL. VAL, inlille, started small, and gradually got complicated in accordance with localdemands."At first it was referred to as 'the whatchamacallit.' That should give you onideo . I was there when it started up, in 1968-69. Watch it, now, don't goand call me one of VAL's fathers; it already has a lot of fathers.""Yes, it's not like Aramis. There aren 't ony paternity bottles over failures!""Exactly. Okay, so we did the studies and we were dealing with on internaltransportation system in Villeneuve-d'Asq. * Ralite, on engineer from the GeneralCouncil on Bridges and Roods, asked us to do a study; he really took us bysurprise the day he asked us to extend the system so it would go all the wayto the lille station."We were very much influenced by a Swiss mini-train, the Habegger, whichstill exists. Then Ralite gradually presented his project as the beginning of thelille metro."A call for bids was put out; Notebart hod assured us that the urbancommunity would go along."In 1972, when the bids were examined, there were five proposals: Matra ,Bertin, Soule, I can't remember the others. It should all have been automatic."There was a meeting. The Matra bid was offiCially declared the best."At that point Professor Gabillard, from lille, a hyperfrequency specialist,and very active on the local scene, a well-known figure, a Rotarian, sensedthat the university could profit from the situation, and he latched onto the idea .He hasn't let go, either; he's still there. You really have to go see him."He put the Habegger and Matra's proposal together. His ideas have beenMiisted around several times, but he was a very effective stimulus. The papers*Villeneuve-d'Asq was a newly created town on the outskirts of Lille where anew university was being established. A novel transportation system was to be addedto the novelty of the town itself.-S H I l L Y 5 H Alt YIN C; I N r __H-,,[_SE_VE _N __T_I E-'-5 ___ ________ __ _