Ruptured Spaces: cracking Deleuze and Guattari's lines of flight in contemporary art practice

Abstract

In what ways can a relationship be drawn between contemporary art practice dealing with ruptured/destabilised space and Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s concept of lines of flight? This is the starting point of my thesis. Central to the question is the control of space through mapping, measurement or invention of categories (classification systems) that fulfill a vital pragmatic role of organising, locating and identifying. Postmodern cultural theorists recognise that these categories can also condition and place boundaries on the way we relate to or understand our environment, and for that reason they seek to examine and shake the foundations of Western systems of organisation. For Postmodern theorists the key to alleviating the unwanted symptoms is to identify the locus of power and overturn it. Deleuze and Guattari stand in opposition to an externally imposed system of organisation, however their approach takes into account organisation at a micro level. They developed a toolbox of concepts that could potentially be deployed to bring forth a subjectivity based on creativity rather than control.The focus of my writing is on Deleuze and Guattari’s concept of lines of flight. They propose a way of being and thinking that allows for these creative connections to emerge. These molecular connections have the potential to reconfigure habitual or molar ways of being or imagining. Deleuze and Guattari define space in terms of striated or smooth (space that is interchangeable, and in constant flow). Their spatial approach is indispensable in providing a context for my discussion of lines of flight. Deleuze and Guattari also recognise a social dimension to space that allows for connections to be made between actual (architectural) spaces and socially constructed value systems.In my practice I am interested in how a sense of destabilisation and deterritorialisation can be activated in space via installation to challenge the placement of socially conditioned or self-constructed boundaries. This thesis consists of 25,000 word thesis and 3 DVDs evidencing the creative component of my practice-led research and associated exhibitions. Both the written thesis and creative practice respond to the same question and explore the analytical and pragmatic effectiveness of the concept of lines of flight in relation to contemporary art dealing with ruptured space.