In The Fold, Laura U. Marks offers a practical philosophy and aesthetic theory for living in an infinitely connected cosmos. Drawing on the theories of Leibniz, Glissant, Deleuze, and theoretical physicist David Bohm—who each conceive of the universe as being folded in on itself in myriad ways—Marks contends that the folds of the cosmos are entirely constituted of living beings. From humans to sandwiches to software to stars, every entity is alive and occupies its own private enclosure inside the cosmos. Through analyses of fiction, documentary and experimental movies, interactive media, and everyday situations, Marks outlines embodied methods for detecting and augmenting the connections between each living entity and the cosmos. She shows that by affectively mediating with the ever-shifting folded relations within the cosmos, it is possible to build “soul-assemblages” that challenge information capitalism, colonialism, and other power structures and develop new connections with the infinite. With this guide for living within the enfolded and unfolding cosmos, Marks teaches readers to richly apprehend the world and to trace the processes of becoming that are immanent within the fold.

Laura U. Marks is Grant Strate University Professor at Simon Fraser University and author of The Skin of the Film: Intercultural Cinema, Embodiment, and the Senses, also published by Duke University Press, and Hanan al-Cinema: Affections for the Moving Image, among other books.

Acknowledgments  vii
1. Living in a Folded Cosmos  1
2. Soul-Assemblages  38
3. Enfolding-Unfolding Aesthetics: A Triadic Model of the Cosmos  78
4. The Information Fold  99
5. Training Perception and Affection  144
6. The Feelings of Fabulation  164
7. Monad, Database, Remix: Manners of Unfolding in The Last Angel of History  194
8. The Monad Next Door  220
Conclusion: Recognizing Other Edges  243
Notes  253
Bibliography  281
Index  307