6/9/22, 10:18 AM Connected by extension - How paying connects old regimes and new isolations - Allegra Lab “close contact with hundred [sic] of different people” (MNA 2020) in card payments, but not with cash? His remarks are sparse and I will have to compliment them with my own observations, illustrated by chaînes opératoires, visualised operational sequences of techniques (compare Lemonnier 1992). (https://allegralaboratory.net/wpcontent/uploads/2020/11/chaineoperatoire1.png) Chaîne opératoire 1: Paying by credit card in a supermarket in Yangon; customer left, cashier right. The credit card (green circle) given to the cashier and, together with clipboard, pen and receipt (cross), returned to the customer. They hand back the clipboard with pen and signed receipt (red crosses). To my initial surprise, when paying by card in Yangon supermarkets, ① the cashiers usually took the credit card out of my hand over the counter ( in chaîne opératoire 1). After typing the amount into the reader, they put the card on or into it ( in chaîne opératoire 1), prompted me to enter my PIN or, more often, handed me back my card with a receipt and pen ( in chaîne opératoire 1). I would ② ④ ③ then sign the receipt and hand it back ( in chaîne opératoire 1; receipt version depicted only). If I paid in cash, however, I would give money to the cashier ( in chaîne opératoire 2). They would check the amount ( in chaîne opératoire 2), ② ① ③ in chaîne opératoire 2) and hand it over in a take the change out of the register ( https://allegralaboratory.net/corona-connected-by-extension-how-paying-connects-old-regimes-and-new-isolations/ 7/12