Organismic spatiality: : Toward a metaphysic of composition

• Autores: Tano S. Posteraro
• Localización: Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, ISSN-e 1472-3433, Vol. 32, Nº. 4, 2014, págs. 739-752
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • The task of this paper is the construction of a theory of organismic spatiality. I take as a starting point Gilles Deleuze�s reference in The Logic of Sense to Gilbert Simondon�s concept of the membrane. The membrane is a dynamically topological limit between the organism�s milieus of interiority and exteriority�the first moment of organismic spatiality. It is the foundation of the organism as an entity spatially distinct from its environment. The membrane is discriminatory and asymmetric�a concept, I claim, best understood by way of a discussion of affectivity. To understand how the membrane brings the organism�s interior milieu into contact with the outside requires us to analyze its capacity to affect and be affected by its environment. To appreciate the compositional implications of this affectivity, I bring the concept into conversation with Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela�s work on autopoietic systems theory. Conceived autopoietically, the organism�s activity as a living system constructs its own milieu of exteriority. Just as it pulses to its rhythm of temporality, so too does the organism live its own space: the here, as opposed to the now, of organismic subjectivity.