Toward a more instrument-centered biography from object agency to object individuality

Abstract

The practice of writing biographies for museum-collected instruments lies at the intersection of the history of scientific instrument and anthropological object biography studies. Current practitioners often downplay object agency, resulting in either impoverished instrument histories or human-centered narratives. Given that the concept of agency primarily focuses on the social significance of objects, often overlooking the functioning of typical technical objects such as scientific instruments, and considering that object biographies initially did not address the agency of objects but rather how objects acquire person-like individuality, this paper proposes a more instrument-centered narrative framework based on Gilbert Simondon's account of technical individuals. Within this genuine “instrument biography,” instruments, like and alongside humans, continually adapt to and shape their milieus according to their unique existential conditions, thereby actively instructing the development of scientific practices and material cultures.