Papers by Dominic J Williams
This thesis investigates Interstitial and attempts to develop it as a concept beyond its basic us... more This thesis investigates Interstitial and attempts to develop it as a concept beyond its basic use as an adjective qualifying space or time. While I accept that at an elementary level it can be understood as a gap between established series, it appears that the evental quality of art that is able to flourish in this gap is suggestive of an operation or process of Interstitial. I proceed here to accept this as axiomatic and explain a speculative method of thinking Interstitial as a verb and a noun. I proceed upon this conceptual construction in three movements. In Movement One I look at a way of thinking Interstitial as a noun without regarding it as an object or a thing. This involves a double process of accepting it as an individual in the sense of haecceity and preserving it as a non-static process. Following this, I proceed to present Interstitial using the DeleuzoGuattarian and Deleuzean machinic principle as a type of function it performs as a verb.
In Movement Two of this thesis I refine the concept of Interstitial with regards to the event. This involves modifying the Badiouan theses of the 'void' and the 'event' in order to instantiate the Deleuzean and DeleuzoGuattarian theses on imperceptibility, infinite, and the Event. This follows a decision to build a metaphysical image of reality that enables Interstitial a functional and processual nature between mostly finite series (disciplines, societies, etc). To do so, I have developed a composite of theory on event and Void between Deleuze, with and without Guattari, and Badiou. In Movement Two I claim that there are gaps in series, which can be understood as lacuna, and these gaps present a Void to the series. As such, I suggest that it is the Void that governs Interstitial rather than simply the gaps. Finally, I claim that Interstitial can be understood as the resonance of disjunctive elements on Void capable of producing creative novelty. This entails machining elements from a series and exiling them into Void to monitor how new configurations are produced.
In Movement Three of this thesis I deploy the theory of Interstitial I have created in the previous movements in an experimental and creative production. This is performed by machining elements from China Miéville's novel Embassytown and placing them into resonance with elements from Alain Badiou's works and the conceptual develops of this thesis. The result of this is what I call the Voidcraft. It is capable of interacting with worlds on Void and initially behaves as an aesthetic presentation of Interstitial. Beyond this elementary function, the Voidcraft demonstrates a way of thinking Interstitial between philosophy and speculative literature. The Voidcraft produces an affect, which can be identified in its primary series as a reading, through its resonance with Badiou's elements. Finally, I show how the Voidcraft and Interstitial can be re-deployed on Void in the production of creative novelties that attest to the possibility of infinite configurations beyond finite series.
Thesis Chapters by Dominic J Williams
It is my claim that Gilles Deleuze’s expressionism allows for a new theory and praxis... more It is my claim that Gilles Deleuze’s expressionism allows for a new theory and praxis of reading called Immanent Reading, different from both his own Schizoanalytic praxis and the referential and ontological theories informing Literary Theory. Immanent reading, I propose, following Colebrook’s readings of Deleuze, offers an ethics of reading emphasising the pure immediacy of relations, including those expressed by life. It is upon this primary vector that this thesis progresses: the broad articulation and creation of a theory of Immanent Reading. To achieve this, I claim that the expressionist metaphysics exposed by Deleuze in Spinoza and Leibniz is altered by Deleuze in his own conceptual creations (as with becoming and immanence) and persists as a properly Deleuzian expressionism. The degrees of expression I propose belong to immanent reading are, without necessary order, the written-body, the reader-body, and a milieu of becoming that composes them together and transforms their affective and perceptive compositions. The written-body distinguishes itself as a creation of percepts and affects in writing, the reader-body through its involvement of pliable perceptions and affections, and becoming through its transformative capacity on these affective and perceptive complexes. The concept of immanence subtends this expressive composition, drawing reading into pure immediacy while articulating it as a process of unnatural encounters for “a Life”. To avoid representations of life in demonstrating the praxis, this thesis engages with speculative literature. Deleuze has made use of speculative writers, such as Lovecraft and Asimov, to create his (with and without Guattari and Parnet) concept of becoming. Here I engage with Le Guin, McCarthy, and Stanley Robinson amongst others. The consequence of composing an encounter with speculative literature for immanent reading is multi-fold, with this thesis theorising an expressionist logic in the creation of speculative sensations and the becomings they herald.
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Papers by Dominic J Williams
In Movement Two of this thesis I refine the concept of Interstitial with regards to the event. This involves modifying the Badiouan theses of the 'void' and the 'event' in order to instantiate the Deleuzean and DeleuzoGuattarian theses on imperceptibility, infinite, and the Event. This follows a decision to build a metaphysical image of reality that enables Interstitial a functional and processual nature between mostly finite series (disciplines, societies, etc). To do so, I have developed a composite of theory on event and Void between Deleuze, with and without Guattari, and Badiou. In Movement Two I claim that there are gaps in series, which can be understood as lacuna, and these gaps present a Void to the series. As such, I suggest that it is the Void that governs Interstitial rather than simply the gaps. Finally, I claim that Interstitial can be understood as the resonance of disjunctive elements on Void capable of producing creative novelty. This entails machining elements from a series and exiling them into Void to monitor how new configurations are produced.
In Movement Three of this thesis I deploy the theory of Interstitial I have created in the previous movements in an experimental and creative production. This is performed by machining elements from China Miéville's novel Embassytown and placing them into resonance with elements from Alain Badiou's works and the conceptual develops of this thesis. The result of this is what I call the Voidcraft. It is capable of interacting with worlds on Void and initially behaves as an aesthetic presentation of Interstitial. Beyond this elementary function, the Voidcraft demonstrates a way of thinking Interstitial between philosophy and speculative literature. The Voidcraft produces an affect, which can be identified in its primary series as a reading, through its resonance with Badiou's elements. Finally, I show how the Voidcraft and Interstitial can be re-deployed on Void in the production of creative novelties that attest to the possibility of infinite configurations beyond finite series.
Thesis Chapters by Dominic J Williams
Available on request
In Movement Two of this thesis I refine the concept of Interstitial with regards to the event. This involves modifying the Badiouan theses of the 'void' and the 'event' in order to instantiate the Deleuzean and DeleuzoGuattarian theses on imperceptibility, infinite, and the Event. This follows a decision to build a metaphysical image of reality that enables Interstitial a functional and processual nature between mostly finite series (disciplines, societies, etc). To do so, I have developed a composite of theory on event and Void between Deleuze, with and without Guattari, and Badiou. In Movement Two I claim that there are gaps in series, which can be understood as lacuna, and these gaps present a Void to the series. As such, I suggest that it is the Void that governs Interstitial rather than simply the gaps. Finally, I claim that Interstitial can be understood as the resonance of disjunctive elements on Void capable of producing creative novelty. This entails machining elements from a series and exiling them into Void to monitor how new configurations are produced.
In Movement Three of this thesis I deploy the theory of Interstitial I have created in the previous movements in an experimental and creative production. This is performed by machining elements from China Miéville's novel Embassytown and placing them into resonance with elements from Alain Badiou's works and the conceptual develops of this thesis. The result of this is what I call the Voidcraft. It is capable of interacting with worlds on Void and initially behaves as an aesthetic presentation of Interstitial. Beyond this elementary function, the Voidcraft demonstrates a way of thinking Interstitial between philosophy and speculative literature. The Voidcraft produces an affect, which can be identified in its primary series as a reading, through its resonance with Badiou's elements. Finally, I show how the Voidcraft and Interstitial can be re-deployed on Void in the production of creative novelties that attest to the possibility of infinite configurations beyond finite series.
Available on request