Coole and Frost (2010) make a distinction between old and new materiality by stating “We discern as an overriding characteristic of the new materialists their insistence on describing active processes of materialization of which embodied humans are an integral part, rather than the monotonous repetitions of dead matter from which human subjects are apart (8). It’s important for us to understand this characterization, as many of our classical assumptions about materiality are based on Descartes beliefs who defined matter as corporeal substances constituted by length, breadth and thickness. This provided the basis for Euclidian geometry and Newtonian physics. The distinction is that new materialisms goes beyond matter as a separate substance and recognizes that phenomena exist in a complex multitude of interconnecting components and invite us to consider new capacities for agency. Coole also discusses the importance of Merleau-Ponty in materiality. Maurice Jean Jacques Merleau-Ponty (1908–1961) was a French philosopher known for his influential work on embodiment, perception, and ontology. She states, “For Merleau-Ponty it is corporeality that introduces meaning or structure into matter because the body literally incarnates material capacities for agency” (101). Merleau-Ponty had several observations that are important to the field of materiality, including pointing out that an object of color triggers an affective change (182). Colors can actually affect our behaviors, as discovered with people with specific motor disturbances react with jerky movements to the color blue vs. smooth movements with the colors red and yellow. This is similar to how people can have affective reactions to words such as stiffening at the mention of the word ‘hard’. Our perception makes the objects as we see them. In fact, to see is to experience ourselves as an object of visibility because the structure of vision incorporates itself into the projection of what it would like to be seen as. “Rizzolatti makes the point: ‘‘the sight of acts performed by others produces an immediate activation of the motor areas deputed to the organization and execution of those acts; through this activation it is possible to decipher the meaning of the ‘motor events’ observed, i.e., to understand them in terms of goal centered movements.” (183). This brings to question the value of items such as vision boards in the material act of running, as if we can envision something coming to fruition, we can achieve it. Our actions are guided by acts envisioned and performed.