The work takes a list, written by Isaac Newton in the mid 1600s, as a starting point to consider how systems of categorisation reflect particular, changing world-pictures and conceptions of human nature.

Newton is an emblematic figure of enlightenment science, representative of a period that involved systematic attempts to understand the universe and to subject everything in it to universal laws. Yet to contemporary eyes his list: 'Of Man, his Affections, & Sences' seems strangely illogical, alphabetically juxtaposing physical body parts with emotions and personal qualities.

Re-categorising the list for the present day, the work aims to question how our understanding of self has shifted historically, influenced by technologies from writing to computing, and to ponder the enduring philosophical conundrum of the relationship between body and mind.