On the Graphic Representations of Techniques and Embodied Practices: Some Situated Dimensions of the Chaîne Opératoire

This paper focuses on the chaîne opératoire (‘operational sequence’), a research method in graphic form used for the description and analysis of technical activities (and the actors, materials and other elements involved in such activities). Drawing from our respective fields, we propose a comparative analysis that illustrates the multiple and situated dimensions of chaînes opératoires. By reflecting on our respective positionalities, we suggest analytical uses of this method in three different contexts: documenting the fabrication of tools and objects in Southern Morocco, examining biofabrication processes in Chile, and exploring embodied practices in sex work in London. From these diverse ethnographic experiences, we argue that different situations afford different forms or formats of representation and question the effect of this formalisation on interactions during fieldwork and on post-fieldwork analysis. Whilst we assert that the chaîne opératoire offers significant theoretical and methodological potentials within visual social sciences and social sciences in general, we also consider its limitations and provide a critical examination of the extractive logic associated with the chaîne opératoire and other visual methods to translate and communicate knowledge.