Experimental modes of ethnographic data generation in STS

In this talk, we explore how ethnographic data is generated and transformed for STS analysis and offer a typology of different experimental modes of ethnographic data generation in STS. Enacting our own STS ethnography’s data involves a range of performances of “decisions”, explicit and implicit assumptions and politico-normative inscriptions, contingent unfoldings and clashes with, potentially unruly, humans and non-humans; we have to “manage” our data as much as our relations within the research assemblages. Interestingly, however, STS have not yet developed a strong tradition for studying how our own collaborations are shaping the generation and transformation of our ethnographic data. How does the enactment of ethnographic collaboration construct, structure, or configure empirical data? Recent contributions in STS literature point to an increasing interest in experimental modes of collaboration. STS ethnography often entails a form of experiment in terms of ways how researchers and (human and non-human) collaborators work and think with each other. What are the specifics of experimentally produced data, how are different experimental modes of doing data performed, discussed and what kind of data do they produce? We, therefore, take a closer look at various approaches and offer a typology of different experimental modes of STS ethnographies.