the living thought of gilles deleuze

philosophy, aesthetics, politics

international conference

copenhagen, november 3-5, 2005

The goal of this conference is to bring together a wide range of perspectives on some of the hotly debated topics in the international research associated with the writings of Gilles Deleuze. One such prominent topic is the notion of thinking as being alive. Thinking is conceived as an affirmation of life, and life itself is affirmed by thinking. The double affirmation in Nietzsche et la philosophie (1962) is revolving around such an affirmative relationship between life and thinking. This relationship is further elaborated in the books on Proust et les signes (1964) and Le bergsonisme (1966), in which Deleuze explores the affirmative relationship between life and thinking through the lense of temporality. In Différence et répétition (1968) Deleuze presents us with a conception of life as a multitude of differential relationships, and thinking in the affirmative mode is described as temporal syntheses and repetitions. The collaboration between Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari introduces an experimental and subversive dimension. The critique of psychoanalysis in L’Anti-Œdipe (1972) encompasses a specific critique of a certain French psychoanalysis in the early 1970s and a more general critique of a mode of thinking that domesticates life. In Mille plateaux (1980) the authors present us with a number of critical models, ranging from the rhizome to the nomadic machine, all of which contain a potential for an affirmative and experimental thinking. The books on cinema, while returning to a number of earlier themes in the writings of Gilles Deleuze, attempt to articulate the experience of living images in terms of thought: an empiricism of the cinema. In Qu’est-ce que la philosophie? (1991) the authors further elaborate the understanding of living thought by describing it as a creative thinking: philosophy as creation of concepts, science as creation of functions, art as creation of affects and percepts. Such an understanding of thinking as a creation is a direct continuation of the nietzschean notion of a double affirmation between life and thinking.

The conference on The Living Thought of Gilles Deleuze is held on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the voluntary death of Gilles Deleuze. However, it is not our intentions to simply commemorate the death of a philosopher, but more importantly to explore and celebrate the thought of Gilles Deleuze as very much alive today.

Organisers:

• The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts – The School of Visual Arts

• Copenhagen Business School – Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy

• University of Copenhagen – Department of Arts and Cultural Studies

• Copenhagen Doctoral School in Cultural Studies, Literature, and the Arts

For further information, please contact the organisers: Martin Fuglsang at  fuglsang@cbs.dk or kimsu@hum.ku.dk