Resumen de Organismic spatiality: : Toward a metaphysic of composition
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.
