Art and Philosophy

Explores the concept of multiplicity in Deleuze and Guattari’s work and its relevance to artistic practice

Provides a series of philosophical encounters with the concept of multiplicity
Points to the potentialities circulating in various media for social change
Decolonialises our thinking about art by bypassing the mediation of the traditional western-centred art history
Contributors include Mieke Bal, James Williams, Laura Marks, Gary Genosko and Eugene Holland
This collection of essays from a range of philosophers and art practitioners offers tools through which we can action change across art and philosophy, across a range of media and across the theory/practice divide.
Including insights from digital apps to Indigenous ritual art and from feminist and queer art to refugee performances and talismanic magic associated with Islamic Neoplatonism, this collection will decolonise your thinking about art – subverting the traditional Western-centred art history.
The first section includes theoretical essays on the concept of multiplicities, on affect and politics as well as the thought of Raymond Ruyer and Gilbert Simondon – 2 key influences on Deleuze and Guattari.
The second section includes applied essays on specific art practices including the plastic arts, theatre, architecture, music and folk performances.


    Przedpełski and Wilmer have brought together a remarkably wide-ranging collection of essays by top-notch scholars that explore both the philosophical trajectory of Deleuze’s concept of multiplicity as well as its ramifications in domains such as art and politics The volume will become a standard reference work for anyone interested in the complexities and implications of Deleuze’s philosophical concepts.
    – Daniel W. Smith, Purdue University

    Pulsating, vibrating and intensive, this collection does not just discuss the concept of multiplicity but also enacts it through the rich array of its multidisciplinary contributions. With topics ranging from film, theatre and sculpture through to Indigenous ritual, talismanic magic and Eastern European neo-avant-garde, it offers a significant contribution to the philosophy of creativity, while itself becoming a work of art.
    – Joanna Zylinska, Goldsmiths, University of London

Notes on Contributors

Mieke Bal, cultural theorist, critic, video artist and occasional curator.
Burcu Baykan, Bilkent University, Turkey.
Gary Genosko, University of Ontario, Institute of Technology in Toronto, Canada.
Barbara Glowczewski, National Scientific Research Center, Collège de France, EHESS, France.
Eugene W. Holland, Ohio State University, USA.
Adi Louria Hayon, Tel Aviv University, Israel.
Laura U. Marks, Simon Fraser University, Canada.
Radek Przedpełski, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland.
Daniela Voss, University of Hildesheim, Germany.
James Williams, Deakin University, Australia.
S. E. Wilmer, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland.
Audronė Žukauskaitė, Lithuanian Culture Research Institute, Lithuania.

Mit dem Begriff des „Paradigmenwechsels“ prägte Thomas S. Kuhn 1962 die Diskussion über Prozesse des Wandels in den Wissenschaften wegweisend. War der Begriff ursprünglich als ein rein deskriptiver konzipiert, so hat er inzwischen in den Geistes- und Kunstwissenschaften diskursstiftende Zugkraft entwickelt. Disparate Konfigurationen des Paradigmatischen in epistemischen, ästhetischen und medialen Gefügen fordern zu einer präzisen Untersuchung der je unterschiedlichen Funktionsweisen des Terminus heraus. Welchen Status und welche Legitimität kann er für sich beanspruchen? Wie werden Paradigmen erzeugt und ausgerufen? Der Band greift diese Debatten aus interdisziplinären Perspektiven auf, um die Paradigmatizität von Denk-, Handlungs- und Wahrnehmungsstilen in den Künsten und Geisteswissenschaften offenzulegen.

The circle and the sphere, in philosophical speculations, exist as symbols of perfection, as metaphors of divinity, as models of eternity as well as approximations of essential properties of cognitive acts. Their geometry is also an excuse for visual speculations of an artistic nature. In this article, we discuss some chosen metaphors based on the circle and sphere which refer to both ontological and epistemological issues pertaining to various models of knowledge and the cognitive process.