1. This is not the deny that there is a tendency in Deleuzian thought towards pure difference and its resounding affirmation but there is also the presence in it o f an opposite te n d e n c y that makes Deleuze appeal constantly throughout his work to writers whose work is unitary/monistic such as Scotus/Spinoza/Bergson.
2. G illes Deleuze - "Différence et répétition" Paris: PUF (1968).
3. G illes Deleuze - "Ciném a 2, L'im age tem ps" Paris: M inuit (1985).
4 Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari - "Qu'est-ce que la philosophie?" Paris: Les Editions d e Minuit (1991).
5. G illes Deleuze and Félix G uattari - ibid
6. G illes Deleuze and Félix G uattari - ibid.
7. G illes Deleuze and Félix G uattari - ibid.
8 The illusion consists o f the notion th a t there is some unifying principle/set o f principle s outside the planes on which discourse occurs that engenders an order and sense, and the major task o f philosophy is to discover that principle/set o f principles.
9 G illes Deleuze and Felix G uattari - op.cit (1991).
10. G illes Deleuze - op. cit (1968).
11. G illes Deleuze - ibid (1968).
12. If d iffe ren ce is offered as the single directive concept then it is difficult to in te rp re t how there could be planes or surfaces. W hat prindple/What reason enables a collection o f points to be regarded as a series, o r several set o f series, the articulation of a plane, if a ll there is is pure difference. Also how can surfaces be developed without their becoming a new principle o f transcendence? Initially it w ould app ear that any principle of unity that is p ro m o te d to explain surfaces must be transcendent, at least to the differences it balances. It is only with the addition o f Spinoza's thought o f the univocity o f being that the above problems m ight be resolved. T h e philosophy of im manence appears from all viewpoints as the theory o f unitary Being, equal Being, common and univocal Being" (Gilles Deleuze "Spinoza et le problèm e de l'expression" Paris: M inuit (1968)).) T his claim is vital if one is to understand how a Deleuzian philosophy of surfaces and differences is to operate coherently. An argum ent with this structure is suggested and elaborated by Todd May (See "Difference and Unity in Gilles Deleuze" in Eds Constantin V Boundas and Dorothea Ofcowski ’G iles Deleuze and the Theatre of Philosophy'' London: Routledge (1994)).
13. G illes Deleuze - "Spinoza et le problèm e de l'expression" Paris: M inuit (1968).
14 G illes Deleuze - Interview with C athe rine Clement "Entretien 1980" L'A rc (rev. e d n , 1980)
BECOMING X (IMPACT)
Using Deleuzian concepts is not like interpreting a plan or utilizing a static definition in
another field o f thought. In order to em ploy Deleuzian concepts it is necessary to
metamorphose the tools that are adopted. The premise suggested is not to embrace a given
vocabulary but to connect with a thought that develops through a virtual unending creation
o f concepts. Consequently Deleuzoguattarian concepts are at once
fascinating/provoking/transient, they ultimately resist any attempt at replication - Deleuze
and Guattari's th o ug h t constantly creates other rhizomes without establishing the concrete
foundations fo r a system atic/static structure of thought.
The process of creation and transformation extends concept to the fringes of other areas of
thought, to which they are then connected. A s Deleuze explained: "To create concepts is to
build a region o f th e plane (of immanence), to add a region to the previous ones, to explore
a new region, to fill in the g a p ” (1).
Deleuzian philosophy concentrates on the quite specific activity of conceptual creation -to
philosophize is to invent new concepts. These are described as “singularities", elsewhere
as lines or intensities, which react upon the flow of thought, forming relays between
artistic, literary o r o th e r practices. Concepts function in assemblages with non-conceptual
modes of thought, form ing rhizomes. Inform ing this viewpoint is an ideal of conceptual
thought and a corresponding choice: the Deleuzian view of concepts implies a commitment to
a certain notion o f conceptual form. It is a m atter of different styles or m odes of conceptual
functioning Specifically, the choice is between a mode o f thought governed by figures of
inferiority and o n e whose essence is exteriority: “une pense dehors".
The classical im a g e o f thought, as it is presented in the history o f philosophy, is of
conceptual system s whose relationship to the outside is always mediated by some form of
inferiority (consciousness/concepts) These are centered and hierarchial systems. Precisely
the primary characteristic o f arborescent thought is its organization around a principle of
unity/interiority - th is constitutes the underlying structure/axis in term s of which the
o b je c t in question (language/the unconscious) and its relation to other things m ust be
understood.
In contrast to this im age, Deleuze defends a form o f thought defined by its essential
exteriority. Its potential for multiple and polyvalent relations with an outside. This
Deleuzian alternative is not simply a matter of another image of thought an alternative model
for the elaboration o f concepts. For what would imply a constant form which could then be
reproduced in different domains, whereas exterior thought is characterized primarily by its
inconsistency/variability - interiorized thought/aborescent thought does provide a model,
but there is a fundamental dis-symmetry between the opposing poles in this case - the former
resides completely outside the domain o f the reproducible o f representation, belonging
instead to the world o f the simulacra, where repetition im plies essential difference. “La
pensee du dehors” is a matter of the force which destroys the image and its copies, the model
and its reproductions, all possibilities of subordinating thought to a model of the True/the
Fight/the Law (Cartesian taith/Kantian right/Hegelian law). W hat is recommended is not the
repetition o f some O ther Form of conceptual assemblage, but a process - the opreration of
putting thought into an immediate relation with outside forces.
Thought is essentially nomadic, a thought which refuses any universal subject, attributing
itse lf instead to a particular multiplicity which does not locate itself within some
englobing totality, but is rather deployed in a milieu w ithout horizon, occupying a smooth
space
In “Francis Bacon: Logique la de sensation" Deleuze regards Bacon as engaged in a process to
m ake visible invisible forces, and in this he is addressing a problem common to all the arts,
“il ne s ’agit pas de reproduire au d'inventer des formes, main de capter des forces”. In the
p roceeding sections of this project a consideration o f Deleuze's views on
painting/cinema/literature may suggest how Deleuze extends the problematics offe re e in
This “process” of force might in some sense be termed as experimental affective physics, the
individual arts painting/cinem a/literature, delineating broad areas of re se a rch into the
nature and use o f force.
In Francis Bacon's painting for example, forces of isolation/deformation/dissipation connect
field and figure, force o f coupling bring figures and objects together, a n d forces of
separation convert triptychs into expanses of light infused with the rhythms o f an ametrical
time. Also in m odern cinema the forces that structure the visible and th e sayable are
isolated and intensified, sound and im age diverging into separate strats.
In the "critical postmodern" paintings o f David Salle we observe a mode o f operation that
stresses the invention of new roles and new configurations/assmeblages o f fo rm for painting
in a pictorial/artistic/philosophical gam e. It asks the question “W hat is painting?" in a
direct/uncompromising manner. This mode of experimentation is one which no longer adheres
to the classical aesthetic rules of beautiful/of form /o f w hat pleases, b ut asks itself
constantly through its practice and its relation to tradition, w hat the rules o f art/painting
are. Subsequently the very notion of the aesthetic and its pbject are placed in question by
the postmodern avant garde art.
Each are mode experiem tns with itself, testing its limits by making visible th e invisible,
audible the inaudible, sayable the unsayable. Each art experiements with forces, the various
works of a given art as much inventing as discovering the forces they ca pture. Each art
experiments with the body o f sensation, which for Deleuze is the body without organs, the
unorganzised body-world o f non-form ed-elem ents and anonym ous a ffe ctive forces.
At this point it would appear appropriate to introduce Deleuze's later w ork, w ith o u t Felix
Guattari, to consider how this “perpetuum mobile" (2) developed without a negative effect,
in constant re-configuration/re-reference to the becomings/metamorphoses of th e preceding
books.
Firstly neither "Cinéma 1 : I'lm age-M ovem ent" or “Cinéma 2: l'Image - Tem ps" (3) can be
regarded as direct applications/illustrations o f previous work. In these two books Deleuze
does not use directly the concepts he produced with Guattari but creates many others. The
works on cinema never constrain his previous work in a closed system, the two books open
Deleuze's form er work o n to new becomings.
“The configuration of m y concepts as I was handling them pushed me towards cinema. For me, at
that point, a time had oom e when my wort< was revolving around the problems of space and time,
thanks to Bergson, and I told myself: cinema people have already understood this in their own
w ays“
(Gilles Oeleuze) (4)
Accordingly, all of Deleuze’s w orks produced after “Mille Plateaux" can be interpreted as
d iffere n t unfoldings o f s o m e “ becomings" o f previous designs in the areas of
painting/cinem a/literature/philosophy. In spite of this variety of subject, Deleuze
develops the fundamental lines o f work characterized by his preeceding programme. T o
summ arize the point made previously concening “Mille Plateaux" concepts are in constant
m etam porphosis.
“Concepts are not stagnant one must perpetually modifythem and the more one remodifies them
the more they become coherent. One must invalidate the concepts, confirm them, refute them....“
(G illes Deleuze) (5)
Both o f the works on c im e m a illustrate Deleuze's project for inventing classifications of
im ages, signs and concepts.
“The question of signs alw ays preoccupied me. I have always envisioned the problem of signs as
being non-linguistic F or m e signs have alw ays been an indication that there is a discourse
different from the “Logos" It's m y deep hatred fo r too rational a discourse Signs exist and
this is a mark of violence a n d o f the involuntary. I believe that we only do things pushed by
violence and involuntarily"
(G illes Deleuze) (6)
signs act, how they connect to each other - producing/cutting/capturing or circulating pre
individual flows These flows (light/desire/un-formed m atter) attract or repel each other
inducing the power of what Deleuze terms a “Chaosmos"(7). From and through these various
inter-relations o f forces, configurations are introduced whcih structure/shape a
fragile/tem porary stable representation o f reality - with its shaped m atter and signifying
form s - from which various inerpretations can be constructed.
Deleuze utilizes the Bergsonian notion o f "duration” to define the “tim e” in which desiring
flow s/"the p le a tT im a g e s-tim e /” im ages-m ovem ent7”the figural" will evolve Deleuzian
thought develops with Bergsonian duration (internal succession without exteriority) as the
background (8). The Deleuzian project can be conceived as Bergsonian in two fundamental ways:
in his notion of time and movement, and his consistent linking o f science and the necessity
fo r a new representation of reality in its perpetual metamorphosis.
In consequence the m ost recent additions to the Deleuzian programme are not closed systems,
like “ Mille Plateaux” they offer multiple possibilities/contingencies.
Regarding the various interpretations o f “ Le Pli" (“the pleat") (9), there are at least fo u r
available readings: a book about the Leibnizian system/an analysis of the baroque/an
explanation of the concept o f “Le Pli" as integrated within Liebniz's work/an elaboration of
a general theory of “ Le Pli” (10). From “Mille Plateaux”, through a reflection on tim e and
cinema, Deleuze was led to an investigation of Foucault’s work and to various systems o f signs
arranged within the three areas of knowledge/power/desire. (11). This process of analysis
confronted Deleuze with a new conception of what Foucault and Blanchot considered as the
thought of the “outside" In the final section of “Foucault”Deleuze exemplifies how the “line
o f the outside” folds itself, creating a “zone of subjectivation" which allows for w hat the
poet Henri M ichaux called “la vie dans les plis". In this way “ Le Pli” is the first stage o f
a new thought process that examines/re-defines life/humanity/thought itself, based on a
dynam ic representation o f reality progressively revealed by the totality of Deleuze's
programme In a sense Deleuze wrote “Le Pli" within a Leibnizian framework in order to unfold
into the infinite pleats o f his own project.
T he them es articulated by Deleuze in the late sections of his design h ighlights an
encompassing technique that traces a continuation o f lines o f conception instigated by
“Mille Plateaux". Deleuze’s later work remains consistent with both a unique and multiple
pretext. W hile "Mille Plateaux" centralized notions o f space/time/the sign, “Logique de la
sensation", “l'Image - Movement”, “l'Image - Temps" analyse how painting and cinem a enable
us to re-think/re-concieve these notions by creating the concepts of “the figurai” o f “ image
time" and “image-movement'. Deleuze describes various systems of signs while keeping his
w ork independent from linguistics/psychoanalysis.
W ith "Foucault', Deleuze develops his research about time and signs while characterizing
various "régimes de visibilité" and "regimes d'énonciabilité", organized around th re e axes.
This study brings him to the lim its o f the classical representation o f reality, to w a rd s a
"thought of the outside" and new m odes o f subjectivation in the pleats formed by th e line of
the "outside",
"Le Pli" affords the beginnings o f a general conception o f the pleat that req u ire s a re
reading o f "Mille Plateaux" in o rd e r to consider how it is possible to re-invent a "Life in
BECOMING X (IMPACT)
NOTES
1 Gilles Deleuze - "Sur le philosophie" Pourparlers Pahs: Minuit (1990) (Interview with Raymond Bellour and Francois E w a ld originally published in "Le magazine littéraire 257" Sept (1988)).
A concept, for Deleuze, h a s three determinations: it is a fold on a plane of immanence; it is a m ultiplicity o f elem ents; a n d it is em bodied in a conceptual person/personae.
The concept "significant fo rm " recurs frequently throughout the discussion of aesthetics - the task of philosophy in art is to create aesthetic concepts. The concept may be described as a specific fold on a plane o f immanence, as an event on a horizon - (a particularly appropriate characterization for a concept based on the opposition between figure and background). The word "form" is the term for the p lan e of immanence, folded in various ways in the course of a venerable philosophical tradition. T h e word "significant" in the concept is the term for the m ultiplicity of elem ents that m ake it up and which m ay be sum m arized along three oppositions: emotional/expressive/ intellect/expression/impression and form/representation. Significant form is em otional/expressive and non-representative. The concept, additionally, is embodied in the two conceptual p e rso n a e of the artist whose emotions are translated into form, and the audience which re-creates the emotion out of the form - two personae engaged in what could be described as a pragm atic exchange. Thus reconfigured, the phrase "significant form " is a concept, reorganizing the plan e o f immanence producing effects o f knowledge and truth. This illustrative model dem onstrates that in a Deleuzo-guattarian scheme a concept is the pedagogy o f terrirorialization: tria n g u la tin g the field through a network o f oppositions th a t will end in a correlation - D eleuze's philosophical style is based on the exploitation o f correlations, e g. a series of parallel oppositions, both within philosophy and outside of it. Ultimately, however, one cannot trian gulate Deleuze and Guattari's enterprise - the text deterritorializes itself according to its ow n lines o f flight. The other of the concept is called the "figure", and w ith this another c o rre la tio n is produced (figure/concept, transcendent/imm anent, deterritorialization etc.)
2 On the concept of "perpetuum mobile" and its use by Deleuze, see "Logique du sens" Paris: Minuit (1969).
3. Gilles Deleuze - "Cinem a 1 : l'Image - M ovement" Paris: Minuit (1983). "Cinéma 2: l'Image - Tem ps" Paris: M inuit (1 9 8 5 ).
4 Gilles Deleuze - In te rvie w in "Libération" 3 O ctober (1983).
5. Gilles Deleuze - ibid (1 9 8 3 ).
6. Gilles Deleuze - ibid (1 9 8 3 ).
7. For an elaboration of the "C haosm os" concept see: André Pierre Colom bat "Deleuze et la littérature" Paris : Peter L a n g (1990).
8. Gilles Deleuze - "La d u re e com m e donnée im médiate" in "Le Bergonism e" Paris: PUF (1966).