The leitmotif of this paper is the act
of bridging gaps between the conceptual, methodological and experiential. Foremost it is an attempt to fuse
aspects of the abstract philosophy of Deleuze and Guattari with anthropological
understandings of Global Assemblages (Ong and Collier 2005) through
incorporation of theory into everyday life.
Here,
we describe our journey exploring Deleuze and Guattari's conceptual Rhizome. It was an experiment, undertaken in
order to bring new ideas to bear on our current and future ethnographic
research relating to bioethics, clinical trials and the complexities of
international science collaborations in Sri Lanka. In working to bridge a perceived gap between Deleuze and
Guattari's philosophy and our familiar anthropological canon, we made real the
abstract rhizomatic thinking they describe, through interaction with a physical
rhizome, or plant root.
In
this paper we introduce BLAD, the Double Articulated Lobster Body (BLAD,
acronym, in reverse) which acts as the focus of the narrative of the journey:
how BLAD came to live in our house in a vase, how BLAD got 'its' name, how BLAD
is a rhizome, a lobster and a deity, and how we subsequently replanted it. We suggest that just as a root of the
rhizomic plant needs to be close to the surface to flower, so does rhizomatic
thinking need to be present in daily life to affect thought. It is a tool most effective when
personally incorporated. The story
we tell in this paper is just one way in which the gap between the physical
rhizomatic root and the conceptual tool has been bridged. The method described is as much creative
as it is destructive. In order to
'live' the theory as commanded, the tool has been woven into thought as far
more than a metaphor. For this to
occur, a physical root has served as the means for breaking prior (arborescent)
templates of thought, clearing the path for the thinking of new thoughts,
extension of ideas and hopefully a fuller understanding of the productive
relations between Deleuze-Guattarian Rhizomes and anthropological
analysis.
Contents contributed and discussions participated by Wildcat2030 wildcat
1More
Toward a Post-Human Political Theory: Deleuze, Guattari, and Disability Studi... - 2 views
1More
Deleuze and the Internet « Learning Change - 1 views
Cary Wolfe.Com | Posthumanities - 1 views
John Protevi's Research Papers - 1 views
1More
Faces, Interfaces, Screens: Relational Ontologies of Framing, Attention and Distraction... - 1 views
A Short List of Gilbert Simondon's Vocabulary « Fractal Ontology - 2 views
The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics - 1 views
1More