Abstract

This paper lays some of the philosophical groundwork for my other writings on the increasingly intimate relations between humans and machines and the impact of this relationship on our sense of self/selves. 'Affecting Bodies' engages with some conceptions of the body in such a way as to welcome this intimacy and the subjective liquifiations it promotes. Dealing with concepts from Spinoza, Deleuze and Guattari, and with practices such as Capoeira, body modification and design, this paper provides an argument that bodies understood not in terms of form and function, but rather in terms of their affective capacities, their speeds and slownesses can lead to forms and practices of liberation.