Hi Terry

I have no rigorous academic foundation for this, but I do have a practical example for you.

If you warrant that emblems and logos are objects, then I think it is possible to see discourses 'in' objects. Most logos contain various elements. By looking at the cultural and design significance of the various elements at the time in which the logo was produced, it is possible to get quite a descriptive view of what was going on for that company at a particular time. Similarly to art history, you can also glean other meaning from how the elements are positioned in relation to each other. For example, the logos of many British colonial companies included local cultural references (from the place in which they trade) mixed with symbols of British rule. The local cultural references often took up more physical space on the logo, but the British reference was, significantly, generally at the top. So you have the individual company logo functioning within various discourses (colonial rule, local trading, capitalist imperialism etc) but also these overarching theme are sometimes played out in miniature within a specific 'object.' The question then is, do you want to call that little story going on in the logo 'discourse,' 'content analysis' or something else?

I'm a graphic designer so my examples are usually visual artifacts. I reckon some product designers would be able to tell you similar stories of decoding or interpreting other objects, Eames chairs or ipods for example. It seems to me an object's ability to channel or tap into a dominant discourse is part of why masses of people fall in love with it.

Best

Katherine

---
Katherine Hepworth
PhD Candidate
National Institute of Design Research
Swinburne University of Technology

144 High Street, Prahran
Victoria 3181 Australia

Telephone +61 401 408 804
Facsimilie +61 3 9521 2665

www.swinburne.edu.au/design

http://members.iinet.net.au/~khepworth/index.html

>>> Terence Love <[log in to unmask]> 23/04/09 5:49 PM >>>
Dear Jurgen,

Just wondering can discourse be 'in' the objects? Foucault has it that
discourse as a system of thoughts can be shaped by the objects, but
discourse 'in' the objects  seems to be a different thing. I'm aware that
this is often assumed. I'm trying to clarify in my head a fine distinction
between 'discourse wholly in the objects' and 'discourse undertaken by
humans using the usual modalities of word-based thought but influenced by
objects' - in the latter, the discourse is located normally rather than
being object-based. In doing this, I'm not presuming that thought,
conceptualisation and being depends on languaging. 

I guess whether discourse 'in' objects is possible  is easy to test one way
or the other. Discourse involves the facility of being able to conduct
reasoning and prediction of future. Assuming that the discourse is possible
'in' objects presumes that this reasoning and prediction of the future can
be done in ways that do not require our usual modality of discourse using
words. 

I'm wondering how one might would make a practical test (usual verification
criteria) to prove that discourse not involving or dependent on words can
happen 'in' objects? Or has this already been done? If so, I'd welcome a
pointer to a paper on the practical experiments.

Best wishes,

Terry

-----Original Message-----
From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related
research in Design [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jurgen
Faust
Sent: Thursday, 23 April 2009 2:14 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: actor-networks Re: Discourse on object level

Thanks to all of you,... I have a lot to think again,... also about ants and
billard balls...

I already started to read more about actor network theory, whether it is
useful or not. It will be anyway useful to expand my writing about design
discourse, also about discourse on object level!

Now my question expanded again:

...what terms could I use to differenciate the various discourse levels,...
discourse media...the media the discourse is conveyed in?

as I stated in the beginning, I am researching the discourse at the level of
objects which get produced to varify other productions...

but we can also see other discourse... in drawings,... images,...
photography therefore I am also looking for an adeqaut term, I also proposed

(discourse) conveyance matter... 

because textual matter which was the original term or object matter...
seems all to be too fuzzy?

Jurgen