The Berlin Key

"The Berlin key or how to do words with things" is an essay by sociologist Bruno Latour, that originally appeared as La clef de Berlin et autres lecons d'un amateur de sciences, La Découverte, in 1993. "The Berlin key or how to do words with things" was later published as the first chapter in P.M. Graves-Brown's Matter, Materiality and Modern Culture. Latour argues that while an object's purposefully designed material nature may recommend or permit a highly controlled set of functional purposes, it may also offer a broad range of valuable possibilities.

The Berlin Key

"The Berlin key or how to do words with things" is an essay by sociologist Bruno Latour, that originally appeared as La clef de Berlin et autres lecons d'un amateur de sciences, La Découverte, in 1993. "The Berlin key or how to do words with things" was later published as the first chapter in P.M. Graves-Brown's Matter, Materiality and Modern Culture. Latour argues that while an object's purposefully designed material nature may recommend or permit a highly controlled set of functional purposes, it may also offer a broad range of valuable possibilities.