ABSTRACT This paper makes the case that an operation whose function expresses subjectivity can be formalised outside of identity stipulations. This operation is best characterised by poetic computation: a function that maps modes of expression to their respective contexts of application, i.e. from a domain of selection to one of composition. This move, I feel, eludes the failings endemic to the presuppositions required by and that undergird traditional logics of identity: one-to-one correspondence between name and thing, regardless of context. This expressive mechanism, indicative of the activity of the subject in itself, is non-representational. This framing accounts for how its operation goes on to produce the various ‘representations’ that are identified as, but not interchangeable with, that subject. These expressions are dependent upon the multitude of contexts that subject inhabits. I ask, how is it possible to present a theory of subjectivity without a reliance on identity? My hope is to show how something non-representational can be understood by way of the representations it produces.