Author ORCID Identifier
0009-0007-2156-8956
Abstract
When clarifying Spinoza’s concept of affect, Deleuze declares, “Hope as such or love as such represents nothing, strictly nothing.” In this paper, I approach the question of love by taking a detour of nonhuman affinity. First, I present this paper as an experimental becoming that weaves through heterogeneous lines of thinking and creating. Second, explicating the Deleuzian-Guattarian notion of “abstract machine” alongside Isabelle Stengers’s figure of “inappropriable unknown,” I argue for viewing the cosmos and art as interconnected abstract machines that foster novel realities and communities. Third, I weave planetary thinking with an interdisciplinary approach to propose a “planetary art machine of Cosmos,” where art and science render invisible life forces visible. The discussions on abstract machines, attosecond physics, quantum theory, and Paul Klee’s art reveal porous boundaries between humans, nature, and the cosmos. Fourth, I take magnetotactic bacteria (MTB) as a model of molecular creativity and follow some interconnected pathways of holobiont magnetotaxis in consortia to illustrate Gaia politics of evolution or living together. Drawing on Gilbert Simondon’s concept of transduction and Vladimir Vernadsky’s notion of life as cosmic energy transformers, I redefine magnetotaxis as a cosmopolitical process. Concluding with an archipelagic framework, I reimagine theory as generative and aligned with the molecular processes of life, offering new possibilities for coexistence and resistance within a planetary noösphere.
Recommended Citation
Chuang, Chun-Mei
(2025)
"Love is a Molecular Island,"
Kritika Kultura:
No.
47, Article 4.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.13185/1656-152X.2180
Available at:
https://archium.ateneo.edu/kk/vol1/iss47/4
Included in
Asian Studies Commons, Critical and Cultural Studies Commons, Literature in English, Anglophone outside British Isles and North America Commons
