Meditações - the clock as a pars pro toto

In short, clocks, bodies, heavens, nature, motion, mathematics, society, navigation, philosophy, politics, religion, and commerce formed a web of loose (and in some cases tight) connections, and the clock was sufficiently prominent in this network to serve as a pars pro toto. Something similar may be said of the other machines at other times. They all were prominent nodes in complex and dynamic cultural networks. Of course, it is somewhat arbitrary to single out machines in preference to other nodes to characterize such a network. They do, however, have certain specific advantages, such as their ability to mediate between society and nature. And, as Harun Küçük aptly puts it, “machines last,” and they are mobile. In my scheme the machine, then, has a multiple role. First, it designates or symbolizes this heterogeneous cluster or discourse as a kind of emblem. Second, it functions as an important node in the web of connections that make up the cluster. And third, in its material manifestations it has been a major agent in the creation of part of this discourse by forging such connections. It is the latter two claims that legitimate the former choice. And it is the former choice that should act as an incentive to study the latter processes.

Frans van Lunteren