Multiplicity and ontological instability in nonhuman hearts

Abstract

This paper reflects on the relationship between biological bodies and technological artifacts, based on ethnographic research on the development of circulatory assist technologies, known as artificial hearts. To understand the embodiment that such mechanical devices help to produce, we aim to characterize two types of bodies enacted from medical practices and biotechnologies designed for patients with advanced heart failure. The immunological bodies, produced from heart transplantation, will be contrasted with the bionic bodies, composed of the assembly with artificial hearts. We propose that it is necessary to consider each of these technologies as co-produced with different natures, supported by specific materialities, practices, moralities and assumptions. The attention given to practices and materiality will allow to highlight the various material-semiotic intertwinings. Tracing the development trajectory of this field will allow exploring the imagination from which such interventions emerge and the transformations that have occurred, emphasizing the link to the body-machine woven in the biomedical scope.