Abstract
The three concepts of milieu, territory and atmosphere are examined here as spatialisations of knowledge production sites. The methodology of the chapter is situated in the writings of Gilles Deleuze, as well his work with Felix Guattari. The chapter begins in the middle (the milieu), namely without introduction but immersed already in the high velocity of the knowledge milieu. The milieu of the volume is seen here precisely as the space of the middle, which resists centrality, origin or hierarchy. The various milieus organise themselves in a spatial formation that can be called territory, itself organised by the emerging notion of refrain, namely the creative motif that streams throughout the spatial/territorial formation of the milieus. Refrains are open to the new, constantly changing yet informing of a particular knowledge variation, risky in that they might dissolve in the new combinations in which they throw themselves, yet displaying an order which is consistent rather than hierarchical. With this, the text reaches the point of atmospheric diffusion of the refrain. Atmosphere is a creative practice needed in order in turn to create the right conditions for further creativity. The text ends with a self-observation of its three ‘passages’ (from individual to collective, from conscious to non-conscious, and within space) and their effects on the notions used.
we require just a little order to protect us from chaos
Deleuze and Guattari (1994, p. 201)
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
Although Deleuze and Guattari specifically write that the rhizome cannot be overcoded. See Michulak (2008).
- 3.
This is what Deleuze and Guattari call hacceity, namely a departure from the limiting and fixing qualities of traditional identity politics, for a sort of identity of difference that “consists entirely of relations of movement and rest between molecules or particles, capacities to affect and be affected” (1988, p. 262). Hacceity is an understanding of identity as a hybrid collectivity that does not focus on the individual but on the connection of the individual with other bodies in the broader sense of the term.
- 4.
See my work on globalisation in Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos (2007).
- 5.
“Atmospheres are made available as total settings of attractions, signs and contact opportunities” (Sloterdijk, 2004, p. 180).
- 6.
- 7.
Marshall and Marshall’s (1879), work on industrial atmospheres points to a historicisation and post-facto assessment of atmospheres, without, however offering the tools to reproduce them.
- 8.
See however Choy (2011).
- 9.
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Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos, A. (2016). Milieu, Territory, Atmosphere: New Spaces of Knowledge. In: Cusinato, A., Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos, A. (eds) Knowledge-creating Milieus in Europe. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-45173-7_5
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