Machine Breaths: Assembling the Mechanical Ventilator Body

Abstract

In his study of the effects of speed, Paul Virilio articulates a theory of the “accident” that locates the destructive side effects and loss produced by and immanent to technoscientific development across transportation, communication and medical technologies. This paper considers this thesis through an analysis of the nexus formed between the body and the mechanical ventilator, mobilising the framework of Bruno Latour and actor-network theory to argue the body is not discrete, but continuous with a heterogeneous range of materials and technologies. This approach exposes the accident to a range of ambivalences and possibilities, broadening it beyond Virilio’s limited and negative definition. The accident, then, is not simply something that happens to bodies, but rather is something that is integral to the body.