When you will have made him a body without organs,then you will have delivered him from all his automatic reactions and restored him to his true freedom
Antonin Artuad
The notion of Bodies Without Organs (or BwO) was coined by Giles Deleuze, and later developed as a central concept in his collaborative work with Felix Guattari.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_without_organs
In Deleuze's work, the term initially refers to the "virtual" dimension of the body. For Deleuze and Guattari, every "actual" body has (or expresses) a set of traits, habits, movements, affects, etc. But every "actual" body also has a "virtual" dimension, a vast reservoir of potential traits, connections, affects, movements, etc. (a phase space). This collection of potentials is what Deleuze calls the BwO. To "make oneself a body without organs," then, is to actively experiment with oneself to draw out and activate these virtual potentials. These potentials are mostly activated (or "actualized") through conjunctions with other bodies (or BwOs) that Deleuze calls "becomings."
Sunday, 6 December 2009
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