Bruno Latour (b. 1947, France)
Reassembling the Social, 2005

I don’t really need another theoretical platform than Actor-Network Theory. Whatever I may need I can derive from that basis.

ANT is my cosmological LEGO. The most grounded, most value-neutral way to conceptualise the world of social interactions, breaking them down to small building bricks that then can be reassembled to whatever that may need to be modelled. Modelled not in a normative way, but as a way of controlling complexity, reducing it to a manageable scale that retains the main qualities of the complex thing that I am interested in. And that is exactly the vehicle I need for my exploration of the world. I am not looking to change the world; I am trying to make sense of it – which inadvertently leads to change anyway. But then it is not a change just for change, it is the same sensemaking only viewed from another perspective. And why the sensemaking is so important? I don’t really know, it’s just where my energy comes from.

I’ll leave it at that.

No, I won’t. I’ll also mention that Latour has been looking specifically into interaction between art and science – something I am also keen on. He co-curated Iconoclash at KZM and was awarded Nam June Paik Art Center Prize… OK, enough namedropping. He is good. Brilliant.