ENGL 4010: Non-Representational Research Methods (SP23)

Non-Representational
Research Methods
New media writing

signs/symbols
Greek σύμβολον mark, token, ticket, ‘tessera’, < σύν sym- prefix + root of βολή , βόλος a throw

Farside, Gary Larson.

Chauvet Cave paintings.

But what truly distinguishes the non-representational
Vannini
research from others is a different orientation to the
temporality of knowledge, for non-representationalists
are much less interested in representing an empirical
reality that has taken place before the act of
representation than they are in enacting multiple and
diverse potentials of what knowledge can become
afterwards (12).

After
Before
After

esearch methods:
procedures for
collecting material

esearch strategies:
procedures for the
treatment of data

esearch
methodologies: the
bodies of knowledge
that shape the above
two

7 principles
1. Life is movement
2. Anti-biographical and pre-individual
3. Practice, action and performance
4. Relational materialism
5. Animates rather than reports
6. Affective capacities of bodies
7. Ethics built on the craftsmanship of everyday life

1
life is
movement

Brian Brettschneider
@Climatologist49:
“Drone footage of ice
moving through Turnagain
Arm near Anchorage
(Beluga Point in the
distance). The drone is
hovering. The tide
current is moving at 4
knots. Video is not sped
up.”

2
antibiographical
[preindividual]

“Mould Time-lapse”
The Great British
Year: Episode 4

3
practice, action,
performance

Medium Design
Q u a n t i t i e s ,
expiration dates,
cooking times, the
mood and and hunger
of the intended
recipient, and
thousands of other
factors are thrown
into the calculations
until the cook
arrives at a meal
that is often
mistakenly treated as
a relatively simple
outcome.
Keller Easterling
WGBH, “Happy
Birthday Julia Child!
A Rocking Tribute
To A Cooking
Legend.”

4
relational
materialism

Seeker, “Your Gut
Microbes Are
Controlling Your
Mind, Here’s What
You’ll Do For Them”

5
animates rather than
reports

@Ruben_Fro,
“Dissolving Realities
Vietnam #1.” “Slices of
street life, captured with
360 cameras in only a
couple of seconds, and
brought to life by a
proprietary Unity shader
in real time, specifically
created to render point
clouds in a cinematic
and immersive way.”

6
affective capacities
of bodies

ozzzafly,
“Surprised Kitty
(Original)”

7
ethics built on the
craftsmanship of
everyday life

Medium Design
There might be messages that incite
or calm, but without having to make
declarations or organize
confrontation, the designer might
also operate like the parent with
squabbling children. The parent does
not try to parse the content of the
argument but swiftly changes the
disposition of the context. They
lower the temperature of the room,
move a chair into the light, increase
the blood sugar of one child, or
introduce a pet into the arms of
another so that the chemistry of the
room no longer induces or supports
violence.
The most resourceful, practical cooks know how to
triangulate between the contents of their
refrigerator, their pantry, and the food
preferences of those for whom they wish to cook.
Rather than cooking from a recipe, the mind clicks
through hundreds of possible combinations between
half a cup of milk that will only last one more
day, two eggs, frozen peas, baking soda, cilantro
leaves, hot sauce, a half stick of butter, a
cheese rind, tomato paste, a tin of sardines, and
two bananas. Quantities, expiration dates, cooking
times, the mood and and hunger of the intended
recipient, and thousands of other factors are
thrown into the calculations until the cook
arrives at a meal that is often mistakenly treated
as a relatively simple outcome.
Keller Easterling

There might be messages that incite or calm, but without having
Easterling
to make declarations or organize confrontation, the designer
might also operate like the parent with squabbling children.
The parent does not try to parse the content of the argument
but swiftly changes the disposition of the context. They
lower the temperature of the room, move a chair into the light,
increase the blood sugar of one child, or introduce a pet into the
arms of another so that the chemistry of the room no longer
induces or supports violence.
Medium Design

Vannini
By animating lifeworlds non-representational research
styles aim to enliven rather than report, to render rather
than represent, to resonate rather than validate, to
rupture and reimagine rather than to faithfully describe, to
generate possibilities of encounter rather than
construct representative ideal types (15).

This is what it means to live in the
Latour
Anthropocene: “sensitivity” is a term
that is applied to all the actors capable
of spreading their sensors a little
farther and making others feel that
the consequences of their actions
are going to fall back on them, come
to haunt them (Facing Gaia 141).

Non-Representational
Research Methods
New media writing