Article,
Digitizing lizards: The topology of 'vision' in ecological fieldwork
Social Studies of Science, 29 ((c) 2002 Inst. For Sci. Info): 719-764+ (1999)
Abstract
In this paper, we describe and theorize the topology of 'vision' in field ecology, a domain considerably different from laboratory work in the physical sciences, and discuss the temporal extension of data-collection practices. Data collection in this field is characterized by widely varying measurements, measurement dimensions and temporal extension of data collection. We present the ecologists' field laboratory as a perceptual machinery with a heterogeneous and heteromaterial topology as it pertains to measures, precision, replication and other material practices. Because of the complexity of ecological fieldwork, considerable coordination and articulation work is necessary. Here, tables, tags and labels are central tools to achieve coherence of inscriptions. We topicalize the work that digitizes measurements conducted on lizards and their habitats, and that therefore imposes signs that lend themselves to mathematical and statistical processes. It is only through these digitizing processes that lizards become visible to other (interested) ecologists, most of whom have not seen this particular animal species in person. We thereby contribute in new ways to discussions of the topography and topology of scientific vision, to the relation of measurement to practice, and to the 'adequation' of nature and mathematics.
