Analytical Experiment: A Snapshot of Mediation

What appears to be a still life (see below) — a wrench, pliers, a battered utility knife, a tube of lubricant — is, in truth, a snapshot of mediation .

This is not a photograph of tools waiting to be used. It is a moment caught mid-network: a constellation of human and non-human actors in temporary stillness, their capacities suspended but not withdrawn. Drawing on Bruno Latour’s Actor-Network Theory, we see that agency here is distributed. These objects are not inert. They are actants , shaping the contours of labour as much as any human hand.

Take the utility knife — improvised, hacked, personalised. It is not a factory product but a constructed device , with its blade wrapped in tape, transforming it into a usable tool despite — or because of — its brokenness or just being at hand. This is repair-as-design , a gesture of necessity and familiarity. It speaks of a person who knows their tools intimately, who responds not by discarding but by adapting.

The pneumatic wrench mediates air into force. The pliers extend grip and torque. The lubricant ensures continuity. Each of these tools translates intention into effect, maintaining a network of function. But it is the knife-as-invention that most clearly reveals the human trace — not just in how it is used, but in how it is made usable again.

The workbench surface, covered in blue and grey splatters, is not mere backdrop. It records past actions — cuts, drips, pauses — a history of negotiation between material, machine, and person. This too is part of the network, holding memory in texture.

What we witness is not just labour, but the infrastructure of doing : improvisation, maintenance, and care. Latour reminds us that the social is not what connects people to people, but what connects actors through actions. This bench, these tools, and their user are linked through ongoing acts of mediation and delegation .

This image is not about stillness. It’s about suspended motion — a network at rest, but never at an end.