The Material Culture of Temperature: Measurement, Capital and Semiotics
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City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects CUNY Graduate Center 2-2021 The Material Culture of Temperature: Measurement, Capital and Semiotics Scott W. Schwartz The Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/4190 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] THE MATERIAL CULTURE OF TEMPERATURE MEASUREMENT, CAPITAL & SEMIOTICS By Scott W. Schwartz A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Anthropology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York. 2021 i The Material Culture of Temperature // Schwartz © 2020 Scott W. Schwartz All Rights Reserved ii The Material Culture of Temperature // Schwartz The Material Culture of Temperature: Measurement, Capital & Semiotics by Scott W. Schwartz This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Anthropology in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Date Alexander Bauer Chair of Examining Committee Date Jeff Maskovsky Executive Officer Supervisory Committee: Thomas H. McGovern Gary Wilder Þóra Pétursdóttir THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iii The Material Culture of Temperature // Schwartz ABSTRACT The Material Culture of Temperature: Measurement, Capital & Semiotics by Scott W. Schwartz Advisor: Dr. Alexander Bauer Temperature was invented in the 17th century. While cosmologists affirm that fluctuations in heat are as old as the universe, the intensive quantified scale marking these fluctuations has a relatively short history. This dissertation analyzes why temperature developed when it did and what temperature does for and to its users. I demonstrate that the ubiquitous and quotidian epistemological artifact temperature epitomizes capitalized methods of seeing, measuring, and knowing. At its broadest, the concern of this dissertation is the material culture of knowledge production among capitalizing populations—those that believe in and practice the perpetually accelerating asymmetrical growth of wealth. In this effort I examine temperature’s history, construction, social and scientific roles, distribution, politics, and economics. In focusing on the material culture of temperatures, this dissertation situates itself most immediately in the field of contemporary archaeology, drawing on the theoretical and methodological tools of this sub-discipline. In addition to archival research and interviews, I utilize theoretical insights from linguistics, science & technology studies, and queer theory to uncoil the material culture of temperature. The dissertation analyzes the socio-material construction of twenty-eight temperatures, tracing the physical process of eliciting meaning from the average kinetic energy of particles (today's definition of temperature) and the resulting semiotic event this produces. The results iv The Material Culture of Temperature // Schwartz reveal that temperatures were not invented simply to ascertain sensible warmth. Rather, temperature developed alongside a burgeoning capitalized epistemology that places value in the amorality of numbers and the ability to mathematize futurity through models, projections, and probability. By investigating the normalization and naturalization of temperatures, this dissertation problematizes the inner workings of capitalized epistemology. I employ a novel method of semiotic stratigraphy based on Charles Peirce's semiosis framework. The aim of semiotic stratigraphy is not to discern what things mean, but how things mean—how significance is materially produced. In this pursuit, I trace the semiotic transformations necessary for the motion of particles (the behavior to which a temperature’s scientific definition refers) to become materially numerated (such as on a billboard that flashes the temperature). Semiotic stratigraphy illuminates the lattice of relationships that unifies the meaning and the matter of a society’s signs. v The Material Culture of Temperature // Schwartz ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Foremost, I would like to thank my dissertation committee for their thoughts, feedback, and encouragement throughout the writing process. I would also like to express gratitude toward my archaeological colleagues and acknowledge the generativity of shared fieldwork experiences, including Frank Feeley, Megan Hicks, Cameron Turley, Elisheva Charm, Sara Levi, Colin Richards, Lilja Björk Pálsdóttir, and Adolf Fridriksson. This work would also be impossible without intellectual interlocutors (anthropological and otherwise) such as Claire DeVoogd, Neil Agarwal, Monica Barra, Lydia Brassard, Devin Reitsma, Will Elkins, Jeff Benjamin, Matthias Neumann, and Catherine Grace Rehwinkel. I must also thank my Mom for perpetual love and support. I am grateful to the help and insights into contemporary meteorology offered by Kevin Lowrie at NOAA, methods of mass spectrometry offered by Dr. Braddock Linsley at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, and thermal oceanography offered by Dr. Rebecca Cowley and Dr. Franco Reseghetti. I would also like to thank representatives of advertising companies Outfront Media and JCDecaux for helping identify the provenience of their electric signage. Portions of the dissertation have been published as journal articles, including: Schwartz, Scott W. 2017. "Temperature and Capital: Measuring the Future with Quantified Heat.", Environment and Society 8 (1): 180-197. Schwartz, Scott W. 2019. “Measuring Vulnerability and Deferring Responsibility: Quantifying the Anthropocene.” Theory, Culture & Society 36 (4): 73–93. Finally, I would like to thank the entire CUNY system for harboring my intellectual ambitions for a good chunk of the past two decades. vi The Material Culture of Temperature // Schwartz TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1. Introduction 1.1 Dissertation Scope 1 1.2 Dissertation Layout 3 1.2.1 Population of Study 4 1.2.2 Geographic & Temporal Overview 7 1.2.3 Objects of Analysis 9 1.2.4 Social Relevance 11 1.2.5 Theoretical Overview 13 1.2.6 Historical Overview 17 1.2.7 Methodological Overview 19 1.3 Research Questions 21 Chapter 2. Relevant Previous Research & Theoretical Framework 2.1 Introduction 22 2.2 Contemporary Archaeology 22 2.3 Historical Archaeology & The Archaeology of Capitalism 26 2.4 Science & Technology Studies 28 2.5 Theoretical Developments in Archaeology Interpretation & Meaning 31 2.5.1 Past the Processualisms 31 2.5.2 The Realist-Materialist Turn 33 2.6 Theoretical Framework 36 2.7 Peirce & Semiosis 38 vii The Material Culture of Temperature // Schwartz 2.7.1 Categories of Being 40 2.7.2 Semiosis 42 2.7.3 Previous Application in Archaeology 45 2.8 Semiotic Stratigraphy 47 2.8.1 Construction & Form 48 2.8.2 Relevance & Utility 56 2.8.3 Theorization & Wider Application 60 Chapter 3. A History of Heat: Measurement & Temperature 3.1 Introduction 65 3.2 Perspectives on Measurement 65 3.2.1 Taking Measure 65 3.2.2 History 67 3.2.2.1 Isomorphism 68 3.2.2.2 Quantification 69 3.2.2.3 Mathematization 71 3.2.2.4 Induction & Deduction 72 3.2.2.5 Aesthetics 72 3.2.2.6 Money 74 3.2.3 Extensive & Intensive Properties 75 3.2.4 Contemporary Problems 78 3.2.5 Contemporary Solutions 80 3.3 Assessing Heat 86 viii The Material Culture of Temperature // Schwartz 3.3.1 Archaic Observations of Heat 87 3.3.1.1 Combustion as Measure 90 3.3.1.2 Fuel as Measure 90 3.3.1.3 Ovens & Kilns as Measures 91 3.3.1.4 Metallurgy as Measure 92 3.3.1.5 Architecture as Measure 93 3.3.1.6 Thermoscopes as Measures 94 3.4 Thermal Science 95 3.4.1 Temperature is not Heat 101 3.4.2 Heat, Work, Energy 102 3.5 Inventing Temperature 104 3.5.1 Bits & Pieces 104 3.5.1.1 Isolating Heat 104 3.5.1.2 Mercury & Glass 105 3.5.1.3 Scales 107 3.5.1.4 Numbers 113 3.5.2 Fitting Temperature into Physics 115 Chapter 4. Methodology & Data Collection 4.1 Introduction 118 4.2 Typology System 120 4.2.1 Type A - Present Temperatures 121 4.2.2 Type B - Near-future Temperatures 125 ix The Material Culture of Temperature // Schwartz 4.2.3 Type C - Archaic Temperatures 130 4.2.4 Type D - Deep-Future Temperatures 132 4.2.5 Type E - Anomalous Temperatures 137 4.3 A Note on Visualization 138 4.4 Conclusion 139 Chapter 5. Temperature Analysis: Material & Discursive 5.1 Introduction 140 5.2 Type A Analysis 141 5.3 Type B Analysis 173 5.4 Type C Analysis 193 5.5 Type D Analysis 215 5.6 Type E Analysis 230 Chapter 6. The Epistemology of Capital 6.1 Introduction 252 6.2 Definitions & Parameters 254 6.3 Epistemic Values 256 6.4 An Ahistorical Universe 257 6.5 Privileging Output 262 6.6 Prediction & Projection 267 6.7 Quantification & Numeracy 272 6.8 Chance & Probability 276 x The Material Culture of Temperature // Schwartz 6.9 Epistemic Transformations 281 Chapter 7. Discussion & Conclusion 7.1 Introduction 285 7.2 Significance of Results 287 7.2.1 Analysis of Semiotic Stratigraphy by Types 287 7.3 Future Directions 295 7.3.1 The Archaeology of Numbers 295 7.3.2 Semiotic Stratigraphy 299 7.4 Repercussions & Ramifications 301 7.4.1 Climate Change 301 7.4.2 The Violence of Capital 305 Appendix 307 References 337 LIST OF FIGURES 2.1 Artifact <001>, Yves St. Laurent 51 2.2 Harris Matrix for artifact <001> 58 3.1 Google Ngram, usage of the word “reality” over the past 500 years 73 3.2 Early temperature scales with textual descriptions