Machinic Assemblages

There is no such thing as a simple machine. Rather, every machine is simultaneously a unit or individual entity in its own right and a complex or assemblage of other machines. In short, machines are composed of machines. As Harman writes, “. . . a universe [is] made up of objects wrapped in objects wrapped in objects wrapped in objects” (Harman 2005: 85). What Harman here says of objects can be said of machines. Here we cannot fail to think of a beautiful passage from Leibniz’s Monadology, where he writes, “[e]ach portion of matter can be conceived as a garden full of plants, and as a pond full of fish. But each branch of a plant, each limb of an animal, each drop of its humors, is still another such garden or pond” (Leibniz 1991: 78). Matter teems with machines and each machine itself swarms with other machines. My body, for example, is both a machine in its own right, but also an assemblage of machines composed of various organs. Those organs, in their turn, are composed of other machines, or cells. And those cells, in their turn, are composed of yet other machines. Whether or not there are any fundamental or elemental machines – what we would call “atoms” in the Greek sense – is a question I leave open to be decided empirically.

As a consequence, Harman continues, “[e]very object is both a substance and a complex of relations” (Harman 2005: 85). Every machine is both a unit or autonomous entity in its own right, and a complex of relations among the machines that compose its parts. Here we must proceed with care, lest we confuse two different types of relations. Often machines must be coupled to other machines in order to operate or function. A television, for example, must be plugged into an electric socket in order to operate.