T H E D A R K
P R E C U R S O R
International Conference on Deleuze and Artistic Research
DARE 2015 | Orpheus Institute | Ghent | Belgium | 9-11 November 2015
O P E N - A C C E S S R I C H - M E D I A P R O C E E D I N G S
Edited by Paulo de Assis and Paolo Giudici
T H E D A R K
P R E C U R S O R
International Conference on Deleuze and Artistic Research
DARE 2015 | Orpheus Institute | Ghent | Belgium | 9-11 November 2015
O P E N - A C C E S S R I C H - M E D I A P R O C E E D I N G S
Edited by Paulo de Assis and Paolo Giudici
Claudia Mongini / Andres Vahos / Emiddio Vasquez
University of Paris 8 Vincennes—Saint-Denis, FR
University of Paris 8 Vincennes—Saint-Denis, FR
Independent artist and researcher
Diagrammatic Traits: Scream(s)—Force(s)—Manifold(s)
Day 1, 9 November, De Bijloke Rotonde, 14:00-16:00
Departing from Kant-Deleuze’s notion of synthesis understood as a “rule of construction” by which a complexion of heterogeneous elements is driven to the consistency of a concept, this panel inquires its diagrammatic conditions—that is, its operative potential for the creation of transversal relations. Andres Vahos engages in the operative dimension of the cry—an operation problematising the lien between image and force—by constructing a relation between the sensible “signal” and the invisible or inaudible forces stirring the cry. Claudia Mongini examines the Leibnizian concept of force in terms of its logics: the potential for a synthetic construction of an “architecture of multiplicities.” Force is grasped in its intrinsic relational conditions, as a mechanism of transversal production. Emiddio Vasquez’s intervention departs from a pragmatic problem encountered in his making of art, the presence of “false dualism” between analogue and digital. He proposes to think of this impasse in terms of Riemaniann (and Deleuzian) manifolds. This panel asks whether the operation of synthesis—a factor producing (and problematising) difference in each intervention—can be transposed as a critical point of inquiry between the papers as well, thus opening the point of view of a (problematic) relation between aesthetics, ontology, and artistic practice. Can this strategy be conductive towards the creation of an agencement of artistic research?
« Du cri au sourire » : éléments d'esthétique Deleuzienne
Andres Vahos, University of Paris 8 Vincennes—Saint-Denis
Selon Deleuze, le crissement, le bégaiement et la glossolalie sont des traits de « l’image moderne de la pensée ». Si les deux derniers sont abordés à l’aide de notions issues de la linguistique, le crissement semble moins thématisé. Notre présentation audiovisuelle montre l’importance du « cri » dans la philosophie de Deleuze et problématise cette notion à partir de la dimension critique et clinique des forces qui nous poussent à « crier ». Pour Deleuze, les principes philosophiques constituent des véritables cris, les concepts étant le chant qui module et la signature qui clôture un cri. Deleuze classe souvent les philosophes en fonction des cris qu’ils cherchent à pousser.
Cependant, le cri ne deviendra un « cas spécial » pour Deleuze que dans le cadre de ce qu’il nomme la « schrizophrénisation » de la littérature et l’« hystérisation » de la peinture. Dans la formule d'Artaud, « briser la langue pour toucher la vie », Deleuze voit un procédé actif de désorganisation du langage qui transforme la valeur phonétique des lettres-organes par l’action tonique des « cris-souffles ». Les cris d’Artaud sont les crépitements d’un langage affectif dont le ciment est « fluide » et le corps « a-organique ». Lorsque Bacon affirme qu’il cherche à « peindre le cri, plutôt que l'horreur », son vœu comporte pour Deleuze la déformation des figures par l’exploration amiboïde des « contours » : la « bouche qui crie » devient un organe indéterminé par lequel le corps s’échappe vers un « aplat » matériel « vif et dur ». Si le « fait intensif » du Corps sans Organes permet à Deleuze de rapprocher Bacon et Artaud, il nous semble que le geste du cri invite à les séparer : le cri-souffle est une action qui « plonge » les mots dans la « profondeur » du corps tandis que le cri peint est une opération qui « module » les figures dans la « profondeur maigre » d’un système corps-couleur-plan.
En 1969, Deleuze développe dans son “roman logique et psychanalytique” l’idée d’une genèse de la parole qui suppose une série de transformations énergétiques : des pulsations « physiques » qui deviennent des pulsions « libidinales » pour se transformer ensuite dans l’énergie potentielle d’une « surface » désexualisée. Le système sonore du corps, dont le cri-souffle fait partie, retrouve ainsi son plein usage dans une bouche libérée du bruit, possédée par les voix venues d’en haut et remplie de paroles insolites. Plus tard, en 1981, avec le cri-peint, Deleuze explore la vibration, l’accouplement et la dissipation des figures par une “force sans objet” qui conserve cependant le contour d’un inquiétant sourire. Il faudrait alors distinguer le cri-souffle qui menace “du fond” le corps-langage avec une catastrophe, la “faillite” de l’organisation inappréciable du point de vue logique de la « surface », mais aussi le cri-peint dans la « profondeur superficielle » de la viande où les têtes rencontrent le “chaos” en conservant le sourire.
Further reading
Deleuze, Gilles. 1969. Logique du sens. Paris: Editions de Minuit.
———. 1988. Le Pli: Leibniz et le Baroque. Paris: Editions de Minuit.
———. 2002. Francis Bacon: Logique de la sensation. Paris: Editions du Seuil.
Deleuze, Gilles, and Félix Guattari. 1991. Qu’est-ce que la philosophie? Paris: Editions de Minuit.
Andres Vahos is PhD candidate in philosophy at the University of Vincennes—Saint-Denis. His research is directed by Eric Alliez (LLCP, Paris 8, and CRMEP, Kingston University) and focuses on the relations between the concept of synthesis and the process of differentiation in Deleuze and Guattari’s “metaphysics.” His research interests include (post)Kantian critical philosophy and a speculative approach to Deleuze’s ontology in its relations with (bio)sciences, politics, and technologies. His recent academic participations include “The Net and the Burrow: Diagrams and Network Strategy in Contemporary Capitalism” (Université Nanterre, Paris-Ouest. June 2013) and “The Coupling Material-Forces in Deleuze and Guattari’s Constructivism” (7th International Deleuze Studies Conference, Istanbul, 2014).
Email: aavahos@gmail.com.
On the Logics of Force in Deleuze-Leibniz
Claudia Mongini (University of Paris VIII Vincennes—Saint-Denis, FR)
Departing from the problem of the relation between the one and the many from which Deleuze, in his book on Leibniz, constructs the singular relation between the sensible and the intelligible, I will introduce the concept of force, in terms of a fold of matter. I take into particular account the process of synthetic construction, in its double aspects of genesis and production, which Leibniz developed in a series of geometrical studies.
The first problem to be addressed consists in the delineation of the character of Leibniz’s constructivist logic. This is expressed by the potential of creating real entities—that is, both concrete objects and abstract relations. Thereby, I will carefully analyse the combinatorial facets from the point of view of their “technical criteria”: I will enter into the complex relation subsisting between the concept of invention understood as expression of singularity and the project of construction of a “logical architecture of multiplicities.” Within this frame of reference, the concept of logic comes to constitute the trait d’union between the project of a generative metaphysics (onto-logics) and an epistemological one. I will proceed with the examination of the concept of force, by placing the question of the role of physics within the onto-epistemological dimension delineated before. By taking into consideration Leibniz’s essays written from 1690 (the essays on mechanics and the 1692–98 essays on dynamics), I will focus on two problems: the question of experience and that of genetic construction out of a supra-geometric entity.
Two movements of thought will be articulated: an a posteriori one, which takes into account the effect produced by force, and an a priori one, which considers instead force from its generative conditions—space, time and action. I will then address the concept of derivative force in its relation to contingency—that is, in relation to the specificity of concrete chains of entities. Out of this description I will problematise the concept of force in its intrinsic relational (and thus transversal) conditions. I will articulate this question on the two levels examined before: on the ontogenetic level, by following the question of how the movement of force comes to generate a minimal condition within nature; and on the epistemic level, by outlining the problem of the relation between matter and dynamics before the cuts produced by the disciplinary division of knowledge have taken their effect. This level of problematisation allows the problem to shift from matter-force to force-brain, and thus raises the aesthetic question of an autoplastic reconstruction of the machinic complex of nature. Can this level be considered in terms of a knot where philosophy is intimately tied up with art as process?
Claudia Mongini is a researcher based in Vienna and Paris. She first studied physics at the University of Turin, wrote a PhD about chaos theory and neuroscience, and engaged in philosophy and fine arts in Vienna. Since 2001 she has been dealing with scientific-artistic crossovers, both within her artistic practice and her theoretical research. Her current project consists of a philosophical reconstruction of the concept of force between Leibniz and Kant from the point of view of Guattari-Deleuze. It is realised in collaboration with the department of Practiques et Théories du Sens at the University of Paris 8, where she is enrolled on a PhD.
Homeomorphic Sound
Emiddio Vasquez (independent artist and researcher)
Taking as a point of departure Deleuze and Guattari’s thoughts in What is Philosophy? on the inseparability of sensation from the material conditions of any art form’s medium, one cannot help but ask, What are we to make of digital art, and in particular digital sound? It is all too simple to dismiss the battered dualism of analogue versus digital reproduction of sound, but the resurgence of analogue synthesis along with the ever-expanding industry of digital sound synthesis invites us to explore further these two domains. From an ontological perspective, these two domains correspond to the two types of multiplicities (discrete and continuous ones) that Deleuze imposes on Bergson’s philosophy by referring to physico-mathematician Bernard Riemann. The latter defines music as being a rare case of a continuous manifold that we can experience in everyday life, which in return necessarily problematises its digital or discrete reproduction.
This problem invites us to rethink the means by which the smooth and striated fuse with one another, as Deleuze and Guattari put it. I would like to elaborate on a possible approach borrowed from topology: homeomorphisms. With this criterion in mind, I would like to discuss some of the techniques that validate this fusion and critically engage with ones that do not. I propose this critical discussion in relation to particular cases concerning the analysis of musical samples as well as problems encountered in my own experience of making music. The idea of synthesis will thus be explored in respect to a multilayered set of levels: on the level of disjunction between analogue and digital and on that of ontology and mathematics, as well as within breaks occurring in practice.
Emiddio Vasquez was born in the Dominican Republic (1986), raised in Cyprus, and divides his time between philosophy, sound, visual art, and mathematics. His interests are particularly devoted to concepts of continuity in various domains/forms and the ontological “many.” Vasquez has taught on Riemannian manifolds in workshops held at the CAAD ETH in Zürich and at Normalcy in 2014. His sound and video work has been presented in various exhibitions.