ARTIFACTUAL AFFORDANCES WITHIN TASKSCAPES

Abstract

A particularly significant aspect of our cognition is organized through the detection of (and in response to) affordances in our interaction with things. Sociotechnical spaces are fundamentally interactive spaces where humans and things meet and are knotted together. In this paper, I will introduce Ingold’s notion of “taskscape”, understood as a complex array of activities, in order to analyze the type of affordances the agents respond to within interactive spaces of artifacts. I am interested in how material artifactual culture ties meaning and matter together by making available affordances within a mutual environment composed of a set
of related activities, the taskscape. Intentional affordances for artifacts are specified as practical landmarks that guide actions and reveal purposes and uses, the core of the meaning of artifacts in culture.