Synthetic bodies are ever-changing bodies in the constant process of synthesizing and becoming. The figuration of synthetic bodies refers to biochemical and chemical synthesis involved in the compositional processes of our bodies. Chemical synthesis performed in a laboratory is a complicated but regulated process of producing new molecules, involving human actors, chemically active substances, chemical reactions, catalysts, protocols, and techniques. The concept of synthetic bodies connects the molecular level of chemical reactions with the macro world of organisms, acknowledging the increasing amount of industrial chemicals involved in the constitution and functioning of our bodies.

The term synthesis originates from the Greek word σύνθεσις [synthesis], combining the prefix syn-, meaning together, along with, or jointly, and the verb τιθέναι [tithenai], meaning to put or to place. In keeping with this original meaning, synthesizing involves combining, composing, mutuality, collectivity, and togetherness. The prefix syn-, along with similar prefixes sym- and sy-, gives rise to expressions that mostly have positive connotations, such as synergy, symbiosis, symmetry, symphony, and sympathy. However, the words syndrome and symptom also share this prefix. In this exposition, I mainly focus on these unwanted and unwelcome manifestations of coexistence with synthetic chemicals produced by capitalist industry. The experience of a synthetic body is thus rich and varied but also painful—a synthetic fusion with the world around us, irreversibly marked by human action.

synthetic bodies are intra-acting bodies 

Feminist theorist Karen Barad developed the concept of intra-action in their reconceptualization of the conventional notion of interaction. While interaction relies on the existence of pre-established entities that engage with each other, the neologism intra-action signifies the mutual co-constitution of entangled agencies. It is through intra-action that distinct agencies emerge. The boundaries and properties of intra-acting agents become determinate and meaningful through their intra-actions, and these agents are continuously constituted and reconstituted in each intra-action that occurs. Intra-actions constitute the boundaries between humans and nonhumans, and between culture and nature, making it clear that these causal (but nondeterministic) processes need not involve humans. Additionally, we must recognize that human bodies, like all other bodies, do not possess inherent boundaries and properties but acquire them through the dynamic and open-ended process of intra-activity.

synthetic bodies are cyborg bodies

The figure of the cyborg was introduced by Donna J. Haraway, a multispecies feminist theorist, in her landmark essay A Cyborg Manifesto, published in 1985. Her essay sparked a paradigm shift in feminist theory, paving the way for material/posthuman feminisms. The concept of the cyborg challenges static, essentialist notions of identity and dismisses rigid boundaries separating human from animal and human from machine. The cyborg is a hybrid creature—half machine, half biological organism. By collapsing the divide between human and animal, as well as between organism and machine, the cyborg signifies the breakdown of troubling dichotomies perpetuated by Western humanist traditions—namely, those of nature/culture, self/other, mind/body, male/female, civilized/primitive, agent/resource, active/passive, right/wrong, total/partial, and God/man. As a being uncoupled from organic reproduction and the idea of community based on the model of the organic family, the cyborg rejects connections established by genealogical origin in favor of coalitions formed through affinity. The world of cyborgs described by Haraway is a vibrant place populated by cyborg monsters and chimeras, where kin-making replaces reproduction, and cyborgs engage in unruly and unexpected multispecies collaborations and fusions.

synthetic bodies are transcorporeal bodies

Transcorporeality is a concept developed by ecocultural researcher Stacy Alaimo to acknowledge that all creatures, both human and nonhuman, are entangled with the material world, which in turn crosses through them, transforms them, and is transformed by them. Transcorporeal bodies emerge from this movement across human and nonhuman nature. Transcorporeality dissolves the boundary between humans and the environment, highlighting the environment within us—the environment as the very fabric of ourselves. Transcorporeal subjects are generated from multiple horizontal crossings, transits, and transformations across biological, technological, economic, social, and political processes and systems. Mapping these interchanges across bodies and environments informs transcorporeal ethics and politics, encouraging us to rethink the nature of the permeable surfaces between human bodies, environmental systems, and political action.

synthetic bodies are posthuman bodies

Philosopher and feminist theorist Rosi Braidotti describes the figure of the posthuman as representing the convergence of posthumanism and postanthropocentrism. The posthuman challenges the centrality of the humanist ideal of Man as the measure of all things and the primacy of anthropos as the privileged species. The posthuman subject blurs traditional distinctions between humans and nonhuman others, being no longer a singular, self-governing individual but rather an assemblage of organic matter and technological artifacts. Braidotti develops the concept of the posthuman as a navigational tool to grasp the complexities, challenges, and crises of contemporary existence, marked by accelerated technological development, climate change, environmental degradation, and capitalist extractivism. The concept of the posthuman calls for the creation of new ways of knowing and being in the world, necessitating the replacement of old systems predicated on hierarchies and sovereign individualities with a more inclusive, all-embracing approach to existence that favors heterogeneous more-than-human multiplicities and transversal convergences.

synthetic bodies are bodies of water   

To conceptualize our bodies as watery beings, as hydrofeminist Astrida Neimanis proposes, is to acknowledge that our existence is situated within myriad relations with other human, nonhuman, and more-than-human bodies. For Neimanis, water, more than any other element, entangles human bodies with more-than-human worlds. Since two-thirds of the human body is composed of water, we inhabit and thrive in watery milieus. In many ways, we are water, and we depend on water for our survival. Examining the philosophical and ethical implications of where our water comes from, where it goes, and what happens to it along the way is key to hydrofeminism—a posthuman feminist phenomenology and ethics that Neimanis develops. Hydrofeminism considers the stakes of the intense interdependency of bodily and planetary waters, investigating what it means to be connected, indebted, and accountable to other planetary bodies of water with which we come into contact. Moreover, it addresses acute planetary water crises, such as clean freshwater scarcity, floods and droughts, groundwater contamination, and ocean acidification, from the perspective of our wet constitution.

synthetic bodies are alterlife

Alterlife is a figuration of chemical exposure developed by technoscience studies scholar Michelle Murphy, focusing on collectivities of chemicalized existence entangled with capitalism and its colonial manifestations. Like other figurations of material/posthuman feminisms, alterlife refers to life beyond the individualized body and responsibility. Drawing from colonial and capitalist pasts and presents, and moving toward differently imagined futures, alterlife encompasses life already altered by the capitalist production, as well as life open to further alterations—life with the potential to become something else. Alterlife embraces impure and contaminated forms of life, affirming their capacity to recompose and recombine within and against infrastructures of violence.

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