Techno/Body Assemblages Nick Fox Professor of Sociology University of Sheffield

‘Life is our life’s work.’ Corporate motto of Pfizer Inc. ‘Once the machines are assembled, they have an identity and a life of their own’ (Ballantyne 2007: 23)

Introduction What is an assemblage? Technology and assemblages Pharmaceutical assemblages An ecology of assemblage

A Deleuzian Perspective ‘Assemblages are disseminated effects, no longer properties of an organic body, but emergent features of relationships between bodies and other elements’ (Fox 2012)

Life is lived through assemblages

What is an Assemblage? Assemblages are ‘a kind of chaotic network of habitual and non-habitual connections, always in flux, always reassembling in different ways’ (Potts 2004: 19). Desiring-machines Image: ‘The bride stripped bare by her bachelors, even’. Marcel Duchamp,1923.

The Rabbit Assemblage

Rabbit-Assemblage Don’t think of an entity called ‘rabbit’, but of an ecology of rabbit-ing. food – field – rabbit – other rabbits – warren - predators – my roses – angry human – shotgun I am part of the rabbit-assemblage and it is part of the Fox-assemblage.

Assemblages of Relations Physical (e.g. gravity, food, technologies). Psychological (e.g. pain, stressors). Social-cultural (e.g. institutions, money, norms and values). Philosophical and abstract (e.g. ‘homeland’, religion, democracy).

Examples of Assemblages task – labour-power – money – career mouth – hunger - milk – nipple – mother patient – disease – doctor – biomedicine – health technology canvas – paint – model – cultural beliefs - beauty

My work since VF 1 Health technology and the Internet e.g. online communities, internet pharmacies. Technology assemblages e.g. pro-anorexia and weight loss; Viagra and lifestyle drugs. Health assemblages and ill-health assemblages. Identity assemblages and biomedicine. Creativity and sexuality assemblages.

Technology and Assemblages Technology: knowledge and use of tools, techniques and crafts to enhance and enable bodily action. Technologies incorporate the social relations of their design, and carry these meanings into assemblages (e.g. inhaler and medical science) Technology can both subvert, and be subverted within, assemblages).

The Pro-anorexia Assemblage food – hunger – body-size – biomedicine - re- feeding technology (biomedical) food -hunger – self-esteem – body norms – patriarchy –feminism (feminist) food – hunger – body shape – problems - control – proana – Internet - thinspiration – weight-loss drugs (proana)

Lifestyle Drug Assemblages Lifestyle drugs ‘satisfy a non-health-related goal or (treat) problems that lie at the margins of health and well being’ (Flower 2004)

The Global Pharmaceutical Assemblage Viagra earns Pfizer $1.6 billion per year. Xenical earns Roche £0.5 billion a year. More and more lifestyle products in the pipeline.

Marketing Pharmaceuticals Total direct-to-consumer (DTC) spend was $4.2 billion, rising by 20 per cent per year since Marketing draws bodies into the global pharma- assemblage.

Life and the Pharmaceutical Assemblage Domestic spaces are location for lifestyle pharmaceutical consumption: Acquisition (Internet) Treat personal and private conditions Drugs aimed at activities undertaken in the home (Fox and Ward 2008)

Domestic Technology-Assemblages sex – bedroom –penis – male sexuality – Viagra – identity - consumerism – sex partner - internet - pharmaceutical industry – profit – capitalism food – body shape - kitchen – internet - weight loss drugs – body stereotypes - pharmaceutical industry – capitalism

The Viagra-assemblage Links the private world of the sexual conduct to the interests of global capitalism. Contributes to sexual and health identities. Shapes the experience and expectations of sexuality.

An Ecology of Assemblage Assemblages bring together entities that are organic and non-organic; material and abstract, technological and natural. The unit of analysis should be the ecology of relations, not individuals or bodies. Explore the connectivities within this ecology of assemblage.

Some conclusions Technology increasingly surrounds bodies, and contribute to many assemblages. Assemblages link flesh to the economic and political forces of global capitalism. Look at the ecology, not the ‘body’. Life is not a property of a body, but of its in/organic assemblages.

In the Fox-assemblage Deleuze and Guattari Ansell Pearson Latour Lash De Landa

Techno/Body Assemblages Nick Fox Professor of Sociology University of Sheffield