Thanks for the post Jeffrey.
As I’m just setting out on my explorations of ANT, my musings are likely to rather naïve, so please forgive any shortcomings in my understanding … and for posing a bunch of questions, rather than any answers.
My initial thoughts lead me to thinking about the other actants contributing to the actor-network of which the symbol is a part. There’s the coin which carries the symbol – is this an actant or a mediator? Does the symbol act differently and exhibit differing degrees of agency depending on the artefact which carries it – a flag, government documents, newspaper, uniform? And is that agency, powerful though it may be, different depending on the particular views of the human actors it enrols?
I was also minded to think about the part played by the white tape covering; part of the actor network or not? The act of hiding perhaps sets the mind of the viewer on a different path than if it had not been there. Would you have noticed the coin and been provoked into considering an ANT perspective had the symbol been visible and consequently widening the network to include me and the other commenters? (If that is, we are indeed part of the network?)
Thanks for helping me think.