Choreographies of co-modification: instrumentizing cod for immunology and the economy

How to make sense of the struggle of scientists in their efforts to answer demands to contribute simultaneously to the advancement of science and the economy? The life sciences are understood to be particularly affected by the increased institutional and political expectations to engender scientific innovations and value creation Fochler et al., (Minerva, 54:175-200, 2016). The expectations are often closely linked to the tools that life scientists work with, such as new sequencing technologies or model organisms that are invested with hopes of novelty. The experimental life of the Atlantic cod, which is our object of study, serves here as an entry point for understanding this significant feature of contemporary life sciences. The paper shows how equipping a species to do experimental work is not necessarily about having it perform only one type of job Clarke & Fujimura (1992) or performing in one, and exclusively one, site. On the contrary, an experimental organism may be promising and interesting due to how it can be put to work to perform both in and for science, and in and for the economy, simultaneously. In analyzing the double entendre of experimental work, this paper draws upon the analytical concepts co-modification and choreography that have been carefully crafted in close empirical studies. The notion co-modification is put to work together with the notion of choreography to delineate both the material and semiotic work that go into the drawing together of the inside and outside of the lab and the material arrangements that shape the rhythm of a disciplined and controlled lab site. Together we refer to this as choreographies of co-modification.