To sum up, this investigation set out to explore the potential of collaborative artistic production through the lens of assemblage theory as an organizational structure for co-creation. Our aim was to avoid reactive, hierarchical, and representational dependencies that often shape such workflows. In retrospect, the experiment of the Desire Machine demonstrates that it is indeed possible to apply assemblage theory within a collaborative creative practice. The process offered the team a fresh, unconventional experience—where a combination of set structures and dynamic responses enabled unexpected and emergent outcomes.
At the same time, we do not consider this a finished work, but rather a methodological proposition. It is not prescriptive but iterative and adaptive—repeatable in principle rather than in form. Its central logic lies in assembling heterogeneous elements through their inherent agencies and competencies, rather than through predefined disciplinary roles or constraints. This approach suggests a flexible framework for artistic teams interested in exploring distributed agency, fluid structure, and non-hierarchical collaboration.
Returning to the central research question of the Atlas of Smooth Spaces—namely, what kinds of experiments allow us to describe, communicate, and compose perceptual space—we recognize that the potential for such articulation lies not in singularity but in its interactive and dynamic relationality. While this investigation did not invent a new praxeology, it offered a way of articulating one without reducing experience to the isolated performer. Here, the agency of each participant is not defined solely by the active production of material (movement, code, or sound), but equally by the absorption of influences, and by responsive activations shaped by accumulated knowledge, skill, and embodied repertoire.
Traditionally, praxeology has been articulated through language—a system often rooted in structuralist paradigms. In contrast, the framework of assemblage allowed us to explore praxeology in a nonlinear, dynamic, and relational manner. It foregrounds the agency of each participant while acknowledging the multiplicity of forces, flows, and interactions that co-create the perceptive space of the performer.
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