Working group "Material Cultures of Large Physics Experiments" at the...

Detectors, interferometers, telescopes, laser and proton beams, software programs, institutes, laboratories, caverns, and control rooms comprise, among other things, the material culture of large-scale experiments in physics and astronomy. How do these instruments and infrastructures interact with and sustain theoretical developments and experimental research practices? How are they intertwined with industry and science policy? How is the experimental apparatus designed and evaluated? This working group integrates historical, philosophical, and STS approaches to material cultures of large physics experiments. We will analyze the non-propositional, infrastructural, social, and organizational conditions of experimentation by discussing texts from different scholarly perspectives, qualitative interviews with physicists involved in large-scale experiments, and policy documents, thus bringing forth and contrasting different methodological approaches to studying large physics experiments.