This essay formalizes a mode of inquiry called "transdiscursive material practice" based on the communication theory of Niklas Luhmann. Technologies are understood to be in the environment of discourse, and thus amenable to an indeterminate number of disciplinary investigations, which are articulated within the operational closure of communication systems. This mode of inquiry begins with material practices which are refracted through any number of discursive lenses that are brought to bear on the prototype through the process of the methodological pivot.