This dissertation synthesizes concepts from three different realist philosophies in order to understand stabilities that structure scientific practices and the historical transformations in our capacities to exert power over matter through technologies. I explore the impacts tools and techniques have on the evolution of selves and society and I direct specific attention to technologies of writing and composition. I present archival material from poets and artists formerly and currently incarcerated that shows the power of poetry and artistic expression to resist forms of social control that harm persons’ abilities to thrive and exist. This dissertation shows how groups of knowers can collectively activate agency in order to navigate structures that function capture and eliminate, and it provides recommendations for those seeking to abolish the social function of carcerality.
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