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INV ENTI NG
THE SOCIAL
edited by
noortje marres,
michael guggenheim
and alex wilkie
First edition published by Mattering Press, Manchester.
Copyright © Noortje Marres, Michael Guggenheim and Alex Wilkie, chapters by respective
authors, 2018.
Cover art © Mattering Press, 2018.
Freely available online at matteringpress.org/books/inventing-the-social
This is an open access book, with the text and cover art licensed under Creative Commons By
Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike license. Under this license, authors allow anyone to
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are licensed under the same or similar license. No permission is required from the authors or the
publisher. Statutory fair use and other rights are in no way affected by the above.
Read more about the license at creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
ISBN: 978-0-9955277-5-1 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-9955277-6-8 (ebk)
Mattering Press has made every effort to contact copyright holders and will be glad to rectify, in
future editions, any errors or omissions brought to our notice.
CONTENTS
List of Figures 7
Contributors 11
Acknowledgements 15
1 · Introduction: From Performance to Inventing the Social
Noortje Marres, Michael Guggenheim, Alex Wilkie 17
Section One: Projects
2 · Inviting Atmospheres to the Architecture Table
Nerea Calvillo 41
3 · Incubations: Inventing Preventive Assemblages
Michael Guggenheim, Bernd Kräftner, Judith Kröll 65
4 · Turning Controversies into Questions of Design: Prototyping
Alternative Metrics for Heathrow Airport
Christian Nold 94
5 · Designing and Doing: Enacting Energy-and-Community
Alex Wilkie, Mike Michael 125
6 · Outing Mies’ Basement: Designs to Recompose the Barcelona
Pavilion’s Societies
Andrés Jaque 149
Section Two: Essays
7 · Earth, Fire, Art: Pyrotechnology and the Crafting of the Social
Nigel Clark 173
inventing the social
8 · How to Spot the Behavioural Shibboleth and What to Do About It
Fabian Muniesa 195
9 · The Social and its Problems: On Problematic Sociology
Martin Savransky 212
10 · The Sociality of Infectious Diseases
Marsha Rosengarten 234
11 · Social Media as Experiments in Sociality
Noortje Marres, Carolin Gerlitz 253
Commentaries
12 · Hacking the Social?
Christopher M. Kelty 287
13 · How Can We…? Connecting Inventive Social Research with Social
and Government Innovation
Lucy Kimbell 298
Appendix
14 · Inventive Tensions: A Conversation
Lucy Kimbell, Michael Guggenheim, Noortje Marres, Alex Wilkie 317
6
LIST OF FIGURES
Fig. 2.1 Helium bottles used to inflate the balloons (photo: Nerea
Calvillo) 46
Fig. 2.2 Celebration of the construction of the first arch of the
structure (photo: Nerea Calvillo) 49
Fig. 2.3 Assembling the different domes (photo: Nerea Calvillo) 50
Fig. 2.4 Balloon assembling process (photo: Nerea Calvillo) 51
Fig. 2.5 Practices of embodied material care (photo: Nerea
Calvillo) 52
Fig. 2.6 Firefighters who replaced the smoke detectors, and who, in
the process, took on the role of supervising the exhibition
as well as taking selfies (photo: Nerea Calvillo) 53
Fig. 2.7 Atmospheric attunements inside the Polivagina during a
performance (photo: Nerea Calvillo) 55
Fig. 2.8 Visitors attuning to the balloons and art installations (photo:
Nerea Calvillo) 57
Fig. 2.9 Music fan posing with balloons repurposed as a dress (photo:
Nerea Calvillo) 58
Fig. 3.1 The prevention laboratory at the Department of General
Practice, Charité, Humboldt University (photo: Bernd
Kräftner) 76
Fig. 3.2 Consumption offers at the Department of European
Anthropology, Humboldt University (photo: Bernd
Kräftner) 78
Fig. 3.3 Kit for blood taking (photo: Bernd Kräftner) 79
Fig. 3.4 SEIQoL with soft toys (photo: Bernd Kräftner) 83
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inventing the social
Fig. 3.5 Introductory Poster (image: the authors) 86
Fig. 3.6 Example poster based on flying animals (image: Bernd
Kräftner) 87
Fig. 3.7 Example poster based on blood (image: Bernd Kräftner) 88
Fig. 4.1 Photograph of the ‘I speak your feelings’ prototype (photo:
Christian Nold) 106
Fig. 4.2 Image mock-up of the ‘I display noise publicly’ prototype
(photo: Christian Nold) 109
Fig. 4.3 Photograph of the ‘I make someone responsible’ prototype
(photo: Christian Nold) 111
Fig. 4.4 Photograph of the ‘I turn noise into numbers’ prototype
(photo: Christian Nold) 113
Fig. 4.5 Photo of the ‘I quantify AND broadcast’ prototype (photo:
Christian Nold) 115
Fig. 4.6 Windsor prototype data being used to make a noise complaint
about an off-track aircraft 116
Fig. 4.7 Visualisation of thirteen months of data from the Windsor
prototype. Each day is represented by a vertical line with
yellow indicating many loud episodes above 50dB LAeq2s.
The red line indicates the noise trend 118
Fig. 4.8 Detail of the ‘Prototyping a new Heathrow Airport’ sound
installation 119
Fig. 5.1 The Energy Babble (photo: Alex Wilkie) 134
Fig. 5.2 The Energy Babble, held by project member Matthew
Plummer-Fernandez, as featured in the November 2013
issue of Reepham Life (Reepham Community Press) 140
Fig. 6.1 Barcelona Pavilion, above and below ground (photos and
composition: Andrés Jaque, 2012) 148
Fig. 6.2 Broken piece of tinted glass in the basement of the Barcelona
Pavilion (photo: Andrés Jaque, 2012) 149
Fig. 6.3 Broken travertine slabs and remaining pieces of Alpine marble
stored in the basement of the Barcelona Pavilion (photo:
Andrés Jaque, 2012) 153
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list of figures
Fig. 6.4 Fading velvet curtain stored in the basement of the Barcelona
Pavilion (photo: Andrés Jaque, 2012) 154
Fig. 6.5 Hoses, Kärcher machine, vacuum cleaner and mop in the
basement of the Barcelona Pavilion (photo: Andrés Jaque,
2012) 154
Fig. 6.6 Fanny Nole (photo: Andrés Jaque, 2012) 155
Fig. 6.7 Niebla’s cat space in the basement of the Barcelona Pavilion
(photo: Andrés Jaque, 2012) 155
Fig. 6.8 Niebla, the cat of the Barcelona Pavilion (photos and
composition: Andrés Jaque, 2012) 156
Fig. 6.9 Filtering system in the basement of the Barcelona Pavilion
(photo: Andrés Jaque, 2012) 157
Fig. 6.10 Removed plexiglass cladding in the basement of the Barcelona
Pavilion (photo: Andrés Jaque, 2012) 157
Fig. 6.11 Broken door in the basement of the Barcelona Pavilion
(photo: Andrés Jaque, 2012) 158
Fig. 6.12 Events equipment in the basement of the Barcelona Pavilion
(photo: Andrés Jaque, 2012) 159
Fig. 6.13 Phantom. Mies as Rendered Society (photo: Andrés Jaque,
2012) 162
Fig. 6.14 Phantom. Mies as Rendered Society (photo: Andrés Jaque,
2012) 162
Fig. 6.15 Phantom. Mies as Rendered Society (photo: Andrés Jaque,
2012) 163
Fig. 6.16 Phantom. Mies as Rendered Society (research and drawings:
Office for Political Innovation; graphic design: David Lorente
and Tomoko Sakamoto) 163
Fig. 6.17 Comments in Dezeen reacting to Phantom. Mies as Rendered
Society 165
Fig. 8.1 A usual rendering of society (adapted by the author from a
quick online search) 198
Fig. 8.2 The little dotted agent 199
Fig. 8.3 Scientific estrangement 200
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inventing the social
Fig. 8.4 Von Foerster’s Conjecture 200
Fig. 8.5 Chimeric scientism 201
Fig. 8.6 The behavioural configuration 203
Fig. 8.7 Performative entanglement 203
Fig. 8.8 The juristic damper 204
Fig. 11.1 Top twenty most active users based on tweets and mentions
(created by Stefania Guerra) 266
Fig. 11.2 Interactive users (fragment of a visualisation created by
Gabriele Colombo) 268
Fig. 11.3 Devices used to send tweets (created by Allessandro
Brunetti) 271
Fig. 11.4 Automated activity pattern (created by Carlo De Gaetano
(unfinished)) 272
Fig. 11.5 Neologisms associated with #privacy (fragment of a
visualisation created by Carlo De Gaetano) 275
Fig. 11.6 Associational profile of #security (created by Carlo De
Gaetano) 277
Fig. 11.7 Associational profile of #tech (created by Carlo De
Gaetano) 277
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