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WJ Clancey — Visualizing Practical Knowledge

each other. This includes reviewing notebooks and showing photographs and video to
help the members reflect on their own practices.

• Work practice modeling: Although not common for anthropologists, formal analysis
and description of observations is helpful to formulate design implications for
computer systems.

An ethnographic study of the Haughton-Mars expedition involves studying activities in
the camp and activities in the field. For example, in the camp, I observed the following
regular activities:

• Pre-scheduled radio calls (“sched calls”; from Resolute airport at 7am and 7pm as
a safety check and to confirm plans)

• Kitchen conversations after meals

• Conversations at the all-terrain vehicles (ATVs; see Figure 2)

• Reading or writing on an ATV

• Using the satellite telephone

• Waiting for transportation (helicopter, ATV)

• Typing up notes in work tent

• Reprovisioning recording equipment

• Washing in the river

Although one might anticipate some of these activities prior to joining the expedition,
most are only visible by observation, and only “obvious” after days of reflection. In
particular, patterns within patterns are only visible perhaps months later, when writing or
talking about one’s experience. For example, when writing my field notes towards the
end of my stay at Haughton, I realized that I was one of the first to have breakfast, and
shared the mess tent with only the same person every day. Through this interaction, I
learned that this person cleaned up the dishes from the night before—a practice that was
invisible to the rest of the participants. In conversation with this person, I learned about
his background and interests—illustrating how circumstantial encounters and being
located together leads to development of interpersonal relations.

Understanding the structure of practices in the expedition is not obvious. It requires days
of observation and reflection, and especially going over one’s notes and photographs
even months afterwards. This is why ethnography emphasizes writing everything

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