Shifting in and out of context: Technoscientific drama as technology of the self

Abstract

Scientific and technological demonstrations are usually used to create credibility for scientific claims or to demonstrate the utility of technical devices. However, they can also function as dramatic instances of boundary work. Drawing on an ethnographic study of the development of an automated video surveillance system, I show how a government-funded, transdisciplinary group of researchers used theatrical practices when communicating to the funding institution, to stage their work as applicable. Their ‘technoscientific drama’ did not primarily produce credibility for their surveillance system’s utility, but more powerfully established the researchers’ credibility as ‘scientist-entrepreneurs’.