Assemblage Theory and the Two Poles of Organic Life

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 402-432
Author(s):  
Tano Posteraro
Keyword(s):  
Functional Integration ◽  
Deleuze And Guattari ◽  
Biological Individuality ◽  
Assemblage Theory ◽  
Organic Life ◽  
Contemporary Research ◽  
Biological Context

This paper introduces Deleuze and Guattari's assemblage theory into the contemporary biological context. I begin by laying out at some length what I take to be the defining features of Deleuze and Guattari's theory of assemblage. I consider this to be a worthwhile endeavour in its own right, and so dedicate a large portion of this paper to producing a clear account of what it is that characterises an assemblage. Then I provide a reading of Deleuze and Guattari's critical conception of the organism as a kind of assemblage typified by an especially restrictive, self-regulating form of functional integration. This restrictiveness comprises what I take to be the first pole of organic life. Then I reconsider Deleuze and Guattari's positive comments about ‘non-organic life’ in this context, as a feature internal to the organisation of organic life instead of something to be set against it. I theorise this mostly in terms of symbiosis. I take the significance of symbiosis, consisting in what Deleuze and Guattari call ‘shared deterritorialisation’, to comprise the second pole of organic life. I conclude the paper with a brief discussion of how Deleuze and Guattari's assemblage-based conception of organism might be thought to anticipate and accommodate some of the contemporary research on biological individuality.

Assemblage, materiality, race, capital

2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 194-197 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arun Saldanha
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Deleuze And Guattari ◽  
Assemblage Theory ◽  
Social Sciences And Humanities ◽  
Racial Formations ◽  
The Social

The emphasis on assemblage in the social sciences and humanities of late naturally leads to the problem of race, or of how bodies assemble together into unequally positioned racial formations. This commentary argues broadly in line with Deleuze and Guattari that assemblage theory should investigate more than it has its relationship to other materialisms, especially Marxism, biology and feminism. Assemblage theory has enormous potential to overcome binaries such as nature/culture, but only if it understands what novelty it brings.

Assemblage Theory, or, the Future of an Illusion

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 457-474 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Buchanan
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Deleuze And Guattari ◽  
Assemblage Theory ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Future ◽  
Actual Operation

If the development of assemblage theory does not need to be anchored in the work of Deleuze and Guattari, as increasingly seems to be the case in the social sciences, then cannot one say that the future of assemblage theory is an illusion? It is an illusion in the sense that it continues to act as though the concept was invented by Deleuze and Guattari, but because it does not feel obligated to draw on their work in its actual operation or development, it cannot lay claim to being authentic. That this does not trouble certain scholars in the social sciences is troubling to me. So in this paper I offer first of all critique of this illusory synthetic version of the assemblage and accompany that with a short case study showing what can be gained by returning to Deleuze and Guattari.

From Constellations to Assemblages: Benjamin, Deleuze and the Question of Materialism

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 543-570
Author(s):  
Tanja Prokić
Keyword(s):  
Gilles Deleuze ◽  
Historical Materialism ◽  
The Other ◽  
New Materialism ◽  
Felix Guattari ◽  
Deleuze And Guattari ◽  
Assemblage Theory ◽  
The Past ◽  
The One

This essay investigates the differences and points of contact between Walter Benjamin's concept of ‘constellation’ (developed in various texts written between 1920 and 1940) and the notion of ‘assemblage’ as theorised by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. Both concepts address the entanglement of discourse and matter, bodies and devices, and raise questions regarding the historicity and temporality of different kinds of multiplicity. Presently, the term ‘assemblage’ figures prominently in the context of the new materialism, a theoretical movement which calls for a renewal of materialist ideas, proposing a break with the historical materialism of the past. Against this backdrop, the essay has a twofold purpose: first, by focusing on the notions of constellation and assemblage, it seeks to highlight the differences and analogies between the materialisms of Benjamin, on the one hand, and Deleuze and Guattari, on the other. Second, by examining the new materialism's appropriation of Deleuzian ‘assemblage theory’, it will not only analyse what is ‘new’ about the new materialism, but also underline its conceptual errors and political problems. Eventually, what the essay argues is that our contemporary (‘new materialist’) understanding of assemblages might indeed benefit from a more thorough engagement with the historical materialism of an author like Benjamin.

scholarly journals Framing the startup accelerator through assemblage theory: A case study of an intensive hub in Indonesia

2021 ◽  
pp. 135485652110549
Author(s):  
Jandy Luik ◽  
Jonathan Hook ◽  
Jenna Ng
Keyword(s):  
Fund Raising ◽  
The Other ◽  
Deleuze And Guattari ◽  
Assemblage Theory ◽  
End Point ◽  
Seed Funding ◽  
Assemblage Analysis ◽  
Organizational Principles ◽  
Form Of Expression

This article presents how assemblage theory, as taken from Deleuze and Guattari, can be used to understand the intensive approaches of startup accelerators in supporting startup companies. Through a study of a startup accelerator in Jakarta, Indonesia, we present three snapshots to exemplify manifestations of what we argue as the accelerator’s “ seed accelerator” form of content and “ seed funding” form of expression as well as their reciprocal presupposition to demonstrate the multiplicity of assemblage as the organizational principles of the accelerator. Employing the tenets of formalization and territorialization from assemblage theory to analyze the results, this article shows that the “ seed accelerator” form of content is manifested by way of how the accelerator’s bodies of its human elements, activities, events, and infrastructure relate and interconnect throughout the accelerator’s 12-week program towards its end point, that is, fulfilling the stakes for the Final Demo-Day, while, on the other hand, the “ seed funding” form of expression is manifested by way of the usage of terms related to fund-raising, expressions of worry, and the expectations of the hub management and the VC in preparing the startups for the next level of funding. Moreover, we argue that the formalized function of the accelerator assemblage is to intensively seed scalable startups. This assemblage analysis thus offers an interrelational perspective regarding startup accelerators, and demonstrates the value of formalization and territorialization in assemblage theory to understand the programming arrangements in a startup accelerator.

PHAX-SCAN: Functional integration of a Scanning Electron Microscope and an energy-dispersive x-ray analyser

1989 ◽  
Vol 47 ◽  
pp. 56-57
Author(s):  
Marc H. Peeters ◽  
Max T. Otten
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscope ◽  
Scanning Electron Microscope ◽  
High Speed ◽  
High Performance ◽  
Functional Integration ◽  
Energy Dispersive ◽  
X Rays ◽  
X Ray ◽  
High Speed Analysis ◽  
Scanning Electron

Over the past decades, the combination of energy-dispersive analysis of X-rays and scanning electron microscopy has proved to be a powerful tool for fast and reliable elemental characterization of a large variety of specimens. The technique has evolved rapidly from a purely qualitative characterization method to a reliable quantitative way of analysis. In the last 5 years, an increasing need for automation is observed, whereby energy-dispersive analysers control the beam and stage movement of the scanning electron microscope in order to collect digital X-ray images and perform unattended point analysis over multiple locations.The Philips High-speed Analysis of X-rays system (PHAX-Scan) makes use of the high performance dual-processor structure of the EDAX PV9900 analyser and the databus structure of the Philips series 500 scanning electron microscope to provide a highly automated, user-friendly and extremely fast microanalysis system. The software that runs on the hardware described above was specifically designed to provide the ultimate attainable speed on the system.

The Common as Body Without Organs

2010 ◽  
Vol 4 (supplement) ◽  
pp. 46-63
Author(s):  
Vidar Thorsteinsson
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
Fundamental Importance ◽  
Recent Book ◽  
Social Production ◽  
Deleuze And Guattari ◽  
Political Thinking ◽  
Conceptual Apparatus ◽  
Body Without Organs ◽  
Social Factory ◽  
The Common

The paper explores the relation of Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri's work to that of Deleuze and Guattari. The main focus is on Hardt and Negri's concept of ‘the common’ as developed in their most recent book Commonwealth. It is argued that the common can complement what Nicholas Thoburn terms the ‘minor’ characteristics of Deleuze's political thinking while also surpassing certain limitations posed by Hardt and Negri's own previous emphasis on ‘autonomy-in-production’. With reference to Marx's notion of real subsumption and early workerism's social-factory thesis, the discussion circles around showing how a distinction between capital and the common can provide a basis for what Alberto Toscano calls ‘antagonistic separation’ from capital in a more effective way than can the classical capital–labour distinction. To this end, it is demonstrated how the common might benefit from being understood in light of Deleuze and Guattari's conceptual apparatus, with reference primarily to the ‘body without organs’ of Anti-Oedipus. It is argued that the common as body without organs, now understood as constituting its own ‘social production’ separate from the BwO of capital, can provide a new basis for antagonistic separation from capital. Of fundamental importance is how the common potentially invents a novel regime of qualitative valorisation, distinct from capital's limitation to quantity and scarcity.

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