Prototyp „Bundle Explorer: Berühren“

The Bundle Explorer: Touch is the prototype of a praxeological research platform for studying situated practices. Its conceptualization draws upon Wittgenstein’s work and his method of grammatical investigation. With its pool of diverse filmic ‘prepared specimens’ from the research project Early Childhood and Smartphone, the tool facilitates a comparative, probing, and contouring procedure that opens up new perspectives on touch practices in digital everyday life. This working paper recounts the context and process of the Bundle Explorer’s development, and outlines how to work with it. Considering grammatical investigation (Wittgenstein), praxeological bundle theory (drawing on Schatzki), and camera ethnography alongside one another, the paper develops methodological proposals for ways to address the following questions: How can a language-game analysis be deployed to study nonverbal practices, and how can bundle theory serve to discern how practices are situated? How can we bring Schatzki’s flat ontology together with Wittgensteinian thought, and to what extent can Wittgenstein’s übersichtliche Darstellung be seen as an experimental field that transcends medial and cultural boundaries? How could presentational grammar work? In this paper, the term ‘touch’ stands as a proxy for changing semantic fields in changing lifeworlds.