RFID ‘Theatre of the proof’: Product launch and technology demonstration as corporate practices

Abstract

The paper explores the role of demonstration in the contemporary practices of product ‘launch’ by high-tech corporations. The analysis is based on a lengthy ethnographic field study of one such corporation. In this examination of a particular launch as an organizational practice and discursive theme, I focus on participants’ deliberations over the status of the ‘demo’ as a material feature of organizational relations within the corporation, and between it and various audiences. Critically examining earlier STS analyses of demonstrations, I argue that it is crucial to explore practices that accomplish demonstrations virtually — without the technical object being shown in actual operation. To substantiate the argument, I pay close attention to how my informants rendered the technology accountable to me, and, in turn, how I attempted to render it to STS audiences. I also reflect on the implications of the ‘age of non-disclosure’ for recent STS studies of innovation in corporate worlds.