Bennetta Jules-Rosette, USCD, (American Journal of Semiotics, Vol 6, no 1, 1988-89)

To trace how the chance elements of a personal experience become transformed into a work/document that conforms to the conditions determined by the institutional criteria:

Research and data acquisition take place under chance situations/circumstances
(Article argues the process is aesthetically defined)

Transformation to scientific data through contextualizing experience/data according to other literature in the field

Filtering according to rules/beliefs/language of the specialization (scientific contextualization)

Document/artwork

Specialized audience (control mechanism in the discipline: evaluators, refereeed journals, exhibitions, critics, etc) A filtering process.

Public dispersion to wider audience

Discursive sabotage: intersection of conflicting modalities of action in process of inquiry and written transformation of facts (from source, to collector, to document creation)

Ethnographer forced to reformulate questions (to engage in dialogue)

From inscription to explanation: aesthetics of communication objectification of discourse

Facts of ETH: Process of interpretation based on gathered information which may not be directly accessible

Sharing the original story informally: conveys immediacy of experiences while reflecting critically upon them.

Informal material (in this case) lacks in factual resolution

Both ethnographer and subject wish to transform information into relevant material products.

Shift in narrative from (past tense) hesitant explorer to (present tense) self-assured scientist.

Initial experience translated into preconceived descriptive framework.

Question raised as to "how the researcher transforms everyday discourse into a uniform and univocal account".

How does the process (recording & transcription) modify the initial conversations to communicate the ETH's intent and point of view?

It involves transforming experiences according to accepted forms of language: placed in the context of other literature in the field.

Final analysis: the ETH's evaluation converts the response into a a factual assertion.

The ETH's preconceptions and frame of reference determine relevancy. (anthropological transparencies)

Aesthetics somewhere between cognition and the emotional/feeling

Game: (Eco) working with a set of rules (system) then stretching the rules to produce an unanticipated effect.

Aesthetic expression requires a special interpretive leap: a unique way of communicating about experiences that transcend the banal and the obvious.

Aesthetic distance: intent and point of view implicit in the message as it is communicated and the message as it is received. (critics transform and interpret messages)

Baudrillard: aesthetic value converted into exchange value.

Intermediaries reinterpret (sanitize) the art object for consumption by a larger audience and in the process alter their meanings.