An experimenter's gotta do what an experimenter's gotta do--but how?

The aim of this essay is to discuss the relation between experimenter and instruments in terms of how they interact: how the instrument requires a particular performance from the experimenter, how the experimenter requires a particular performance from the instrument, how a particular purpose of the experimental procedures requires a particular performance from the experimenter and the instrument, and, finally, how both-experimenter and instrument in their interplay-are subject to standards that can be related to social, political, or epistemological criteria. The author draws on his own experiences in analyzing experiments using the replication method.