Methodology

Zonographic Methods

The concepts and procedures used by the Zonographic Society are adopted from the different realms of everyday live, importing additionally from science, art, philosophy, literature as well as various types of ideology. They are rearranged in an own open system. For instance, in the past Zonographers have expressed interest in grounded theory , phenomenology (link here), the sociology of science (link here). On a particularly cloudy day the Zonographers may even draw on the studies of psychology though obviously with due care and just for the sake of analysis. They maintain a difficult relationship with the field of psychoanalysis.

A favourite zonographic method is to take a number of “theoretical” or academic texts on a given subject matter as source material, haphazardly mix elements of these texts with observation, recordings and discussion in the life world (the empirical part), interweave these interim results with various pre-existing narratives and in the end come out with a materialisation of the now transformed theoretical, or what remains of it after the discussion and theorizing process that goes on within the Zonographic Society (- in exchange with others). … And to then actually go back to another round of theorizing and repeat the process (unsurprisingly).

“The snapshots” or materialisations which normally are presented in various types of media are the heart of the whole process. For the Zonographic Society this is when theory becomes corporal again and is given back its touch so that a different kind of comprehension sets in. They have the function of anchoring the rather evasive theoretical world and connect it with the sometimes equally evasive life world.