GOVERNING SOCIETY WITH REFERENCE TO THE NATURAL - Making Sense of Nature - page 72

representations with equal ease because we situate it in the context of the
style. We 'know', almost unconsciously, how we 'should' respond to both
genre and content in any given case (even if we choose to respond oth-
erwise). This is because we've been socialised into expecting there to be
different communicative genres from an early age. We're also well accus-
tomed to different modes of representation (and communication more
widely) within and between these genres. By modes I mean the ensem-
ble of media in and through which representations are communicated. For
instance, we've come to expect that a museum of natural history will con-
tain lots of objects to be viewed or handled: specimens, models, drawings or
video films - most with some 'serious' written or spoken text. Likewise, we'd
be surprised if someone researching the unique anatomy of a deep-water fish
species published their findings as a YouTube audio-visual clip rather than
as a peer-reviewed academic paper in a journal like Science .
Study Task: This topic observes the conventions of academic writing.
Itemise a few of these conventions. How often, if at all, have you ques-
tioned them during your education? What sort of 'power' do you think
these conventions exert on you and other students? Would you take this
book's contents seriously if I chose to communicate them using a mode of
representation such as a coloured picture book?
Undertaken in conjunction with reading Box 3.1 , the study task is
designed to highlight the arbitrariness , but also the social force of differences in
communicative genres and modes. From time to time, we encounter cases
of genre blending or hybridisation. For instance, as a child I recall being
given a field guide to British birds which combined 'accurate' ornithologi-
cal descriptions with beautiful watercolour paintings of each species printed
on glossy paper . 2 In other cases, we see cross-genre collaborations, as in so-
called 'Sci-Art', in which scientists work with artist partners to see what each
community can gain. 3 In still other cases, we're confronted by innovations
that redefine a genre from within, but these crossover and paradigm alter-
ing cases do not render moot the genre differences they blur or redefine.
In each case, we're disposed to interpret representations in definite ways
because we're so au fait with the genres and modes in question.
This is not the same as saying that we're each of us equally attentive
to, or affected by, the whole spectrum of genres and modes. In part, this
is because it's conventional to regard certain genres and modes as decid-
edly 'optional' for us (such as the innovative 'body art' of Gunther von
Hagens, creator of remarkable plastinated exhibitions of human and non-
human corpses relieved of their skins). They fall outside our daily habits
and routines to the extent that they strike us as almost alien. Moreover,
because many genres and modes are strongly associated with certain sections
of society (e.g. 'high art' is typically seen as the preserve of a sub-group of