›Materialprobe‹ 1

Data Storage – Writing and Drawing as Processes of Recording

Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin, May 24-25, 2007

Our first colloquium will focus on the performance of writing and drawing processes for obtaining and transferring data of every kind. The subjects of interest are thus all kinds of »primary records« (Hans-Jörg Rheinberger), from the sketch of a wavy water surface, to the drawing of a microscopic specimen, the depiction of an archeological find, the log of introspective observations of a test person, all the way to excerpts from files or books. Primary forms of recording are correspondingly determined by their function. They include all processes in which the products of writing and drawing secure the object of investigation, or perhaps even make it available as a separate object. So what kind of data are obtained by the process of recording? How does the object of the recording relate to the recorded phenomenon? To what framing conditions and considerations is the object of investigation subjected in the process? Can a logic of the method be described? And finally: Which individual circumstances result in the fact that »by-hand methods« enjoy a privileged status as primary forms of recording (as opposed to any conceivable technical recording processes)?

With contributions by Brigitta Bernet, Jan von Brevern, Erna Fiorentini, Christoph Hoffmann, and Johannes Rössler.

Contact: Christoph Hoffmann, hoffmann|at|mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de

Venue: Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin