Scientific images? How touching!

As contribution to the still rather marginalized study of the visual cultures of the social sciences, this article draws the attention to the visualization of social struc- tures as node-edge diagrams in Social Network Analysis. By going beyond their mere visual dimension, it sets out to explore specific corporeal and sensual dimensions of visualization practices and respective constructions of shared meaning in the social scientific research process. The following questions are addressed: How is knowledge made explicit? How do researchers depict and look at social structures? What corporeal and embodied practices co-constitute and shape their epis- temic vision? Starting from an ethnographic encounter with a print of a network diagram at a research team meeting, this article delves into the context of its production. Taking into account the performative aspects of visual knowledge, the tangibility of depicted social relations, the elaborated metaphorical and colourful visual language, as well as the ergonomic normalizations that come with instrumentation and experience are highlighted. Analyzing knowledge production within the realms of aesthetic practices calls thus for a treatment of the scientist’s body as an active agent and not as an automatism to be blended or as passive precondition. Furthermore, such an approach might broaden the outlook towards a more body-aware scientific reflexivity