![]() |
march 3, 196o - or
"the states of things" "states of things are neither unities nor totalities, but multiplicites. it is not just that there are several states of things (each one of which would be yet another); nor that each state of things is itself multiple (which would simply be to indicate its resistance to unification) " 33 |
| the noun multiplicity designates
a set of lines or dimensions which are not irreducible to
one another. every thing is made up this
way" 34 "in a multiplicity what counts are not the terms or the elements, but what there is between, the between, a set of relations which are not separable from each other." 35 "every multiplicity grows from the middle, like a blade of grass, or the rhizome" 36 "a line does not go from one point to another, but passes between the points, ceaselessly bifurcating and diverging, like one of pollock's lines" 37 "these lines are true becomings" 38 "multiplicities are made up of becomings without history, of individuation without subject (the way in which a river, a climate, an event, a day, an hour of the day, is individualised) 39 we are immersed in the state of things |
|
![]() |
april, 196o - or
"a question of speed" "speed is to be caught in a becoming to be an abstract broken line, a zigzag which glides in between." 4o the middle is a matter of absolute speed to be growing from the middle like a blade of grass, like a rhizome. like a rolling stone |
| "whatever
grows from the middle is endowed with such a
speed
" 41 "but the absolute speed is the movement between the two, in the middle of the two, which traces a line of flight. movement does not go from one point to the other - rather it happens between two levels as in a difference of potential. a difference of intensity produces a phenomenon, releases or ejects it, sends it into space." 42 there are many phenomena: biological, sensations, thoughts many diverse components we have a spontaneous eruption a line of flight something is at work, ceaseless eruptions rhizomatic connections between heterogeneous matter thoughts, ideas, sensations, molecules suddenly we have a consistency we have a single plane of consistency we have order in chaos, "chaos rendered consistent " 43 a circle drawn around a fragile centre we have a home "we require just a little order to protect us from chaos" 44 all relations are exterior all relations are immanent a chaotic mess of diverse components that possesses its own "immanent, intensive resources for the generation of forms from within" 45 an immanent plane of intensities we have a plane of immanence, a plane of immanence made from "variously formed matters, and very different dates and speeds." 46 a melodic landscape of diverse components erupting in a smooth space, erupting in a "nomad space" 47 we have a turner refrain "we lose ourselves without landmarks" 48 we have absolute speed, turners paintings produce speed "astonishing productions of speed " 49 with turners painting we can reach this absolute speed "the speed of music " 5o we are caught in a turner-becoming we are caught in a circulation of intensities we are caught in a turner-becoming, without future or past, turner is full of becomings turner makes us perceive all the differential speeds "absolute speed which makes us perceive everything at the same time " 51 we perform these intensities we perform these infinite speeds "they are infinite speeds that blend into the immobility of the colourless and silent nothingness they traverse, without nature or thought. this is the instant of which we do not know whether it is too long or too short for time" 52 |
|
![]() |
may, 196o - or
"the painting as event" how do we understand time in front of the painting? 1o seconds? a minute? "a work of art must at least mark the seconds its like the fixed plane: a way of making us perceive all that there is in the image." 53 |
| we stand in
front of the painting our eyes discontinuously dart across the canvas we glance across the canvas in an essay called the time of the glance, edward s. casey examines how the perceptual function of the glance can disrupt our concept of a linear, systematic time, where time is divisible into a static past, a given present, and a predictable future 54 the glance brings with it a peculiar, dislocating temporality "what a terrible five oclock in the afternoon!" 55 "the glance takes us out into the world, but it also brings us back to ourselves. it brings us up long and up short at once" 56 "the glance puts us both into and out of time-into an intense momentary time and out of a continuous, distended time" 57 for casey the glance is a moment of time, not an instant the time of the glance is a moment of transition, an intensity, a becoming, a turner-becoming becoming-painting moves us away from the strict meter of time becoming has rhythm "there is rhythm whenever there is a transcoded passage from one milieu to another, a communication of milieus, coodination between heterogeneous space-times" 58 "it is well known that rhythm is not meter or cadence, even irregular meter or cadence: there is nothing less rhythmic than a military march" 59 "meter is dogmatic, rhythm is critical: it ties together critical moments, or ties itself together in passing from one milieu to another" 6o "it does not operate in a homogenous space-time, but by heterogeneous blocks" 61 "rhythm is located between two milieus, or between two intermilieus, on the fence, between night and day, at dusk, twilight, haecceity" 62 haecceity as individuation which is not that of an object, nor of a person, but rather of an event-wind, river, day or hour of the day "haecceity = event" 63 being with turner as an event a stroll with turner as event adrian is moved by this turner which he discovers and which runs through him; would he be moved if he was not himself an haecceity which runs through turner? "a thing, an animal, a person are now only definable by movements and rests, speeds and slownesses (longitude) and by affects, intensities (latitude). there are no more forms but cinematic relations between unformed elements; there are no more subjects but dynamic individuations without subjects, which constitute collective assemblages" 64 de landa describes deleuze's theory of individuation as a theory of intensive processes of becoming involving spatiotemporal dynamisms 65 a turner-becoming "it is not the moment, and it is not the brevity, which distinguishes this type of individuation. a haecciety can last as long, and even longer than, the time required for the development of a form and the evolution of a subject. but it is not the same kind of time: floating times " 66 |
|
![]() |
june 1, 196o - or
"mi grandads gone into the hospice" by the time i finish this piece of work my granddad will probably be dead this thought occurred to me last night in bed "drying up, death, intrusion have rhythm" 67 newspaper falls on mat body falls from plane |
![]() |
june, 196o - or
"hardy and world-becoming" "its not a question of being this or that sort of human, but of becoming inhuman, of a universal animal becoming- not seeing yourself as some dumb animal, but unravelling your bodys human organisation, exploring this or that zone of bodily intensity, with everyone discovering their own particular zones, and the groups, populations, species that inhabit them." 68 |
| hardy fuses, he
melds makes turbulent mixes he builds machinic assemblages makes connections across space and time gas clouds he creates a space where there is no subject or object only individuation, the event: hardy builds machines with thoughts, memories, landscapes, weather, inorganic, organic, rocks, history, personality, myth, memory, genetics, fantasy and reality all manner of things all manner of bodies states of things at the dinner table jocelyn learns of the death of avice the first; "by imperceptible and slow degrees the scene at the dinner-table receded into the background, behind the vivid presentment of avice caro, and the old, old scenes on isle vindilia which were inseparable from her personality. the dining room was real no more, dissolving under the bold stony promontory and the incoming west sea. the handsome marchioness in geranium-red and diamond became one of the glowing vermilion sunsets that he had watched so many times over deadmans bay, with the form of avice in the foreground the crannied features of the evergreen society lady shaped themselves to the dusty quarries of his and avices parents, down which he had clambered with avice a hundred times. the ivy trailing about the tablecloth, the lights in the tall candlesticks, and the bunches of flowers, were transmuted into the ivies of the cliff-built castle, the tufts of seaweed, and the lighthouses on the isle. the salt airs of the ocean killed the smell of the viands, and instead of the clatter of voices came the monologue of the tide off the beal." 69 here we have vibrations between milieus there are rhythms between the past and the present memory and reality subject and object an in-between an intensity hold the holding note of a cello but it may disappear at any time along a line of flight as milieus vibrate into other milieus to find other homes other machines hardy wrote; "a field-man is a personality afield; a field-woman is a portion of the field; she has somehow lost her own margin, imbibed in the essence of her surrounding, and assimilated herself with it" 7o what does it mean to lose your own margin? this is becoming-world external and internal milieus in vibration a whole variety of milieus in vibration the act of being in the world as a human the act of being in the world as a posthuman a way to think how i am in the world becoming-world like the pink panther, imitating nothing, reproducing nothing, painting the world its colour, pink on pink "this is its becoming-world, carried out in such a way that it becomes imperceptible itself, asignifying, makes its rupture, its own line of flight, follows its own aparallel evolution through to the end" 71 a world of exterior milieus all of what we are all that is organic or inorganic as part of a state of things immersed in a state of things painting is immersed in this world i want to think about this in relation to looking at a painting becoming-painting being with a painting a painting-becoming to think art without subject and object when we look at a painting we lose our own margin like jocelyn at the dinner table in the clore gallery as i look at a painting i lose my margin vibrations come into play rhythms between milieus a vast cosmos of milieus memories, ideas, thoughts, chemicals, microbiologies at these paintings of turner at these blocs of sensation at these sites of intensity |
|
return - to the top