by Florian Jaton //
There is a logo, the one STS-CH chose to define its visual identity in 2001: a Berlin key. Needless to say, this is also the title and topic of a famous 1993 article by Bruno Latour, which introduced the notion of technical mediation. An STS masterpiece.
And there is a piece of chocolate in the shape of a Berlin key, the one that rewarded Alessandro Maranta and Sally Wyatt, the winners of the prize contest at STS-CH’s first ‘official’ summer school (September 2001), as recounted in the association’s very first annual report and immortalized in a legendary picture. This chocolate Berlin key was certainly an amusing nod to Latour’s text, as well as to the association’s logo, especially as this prize contest was also intended to be funny (in line with the SSK principle of symmetry, right and wrong answers were treated on an equal basis!). But at the obvious risk of over-interpretation, this tease may also have expressed something deeper.
What is it? A trouble, a hesitation about a potentially over-reverent move. With such a logo, isn’t the new association walking under the banner of Bruno Latour? Quite. Isn’t it risky? Not sure, not yet. So, what should we do? An answer, maybe, with all the limitations of offering it from posterity: make it a sweet, fun, and eatable topic. Reverent irreverence as a response to the im-possibilities of walking with an icon, in sum.
NB: Interestingly enough, at the same 2001-2002 moment, Latour was exploring exactly this type of icon-related hesitations in the art exhibition Iconoclash. Damn, is there only a way out?