This paper examines how Gilles Deleuze critically transforms the theory of thought from representation to production, by way of finding thought’s genetic conditions, in his synthesis of time and ideal synthesis in Différence et répétition. I focus on Deleuze’s critique of subject, time, and identity, and on how he tries to establish a purely positive synthesis capable of producing the absolutely new. Lastly, I discuss Deleuze’s own image of thought that rises from his critique, as simulacrum.

The goal of this thesis is the investigation of the narratives of the originally Indian cycle of tales of the Enchanted Corpse (Sanskrit: Vetālapañcavinśati, Tibetan: ro sgrung, Mongolian: siditu' kegu'r-un u'liger) in their translation and cultural transmission to Tibet and Mongolia. Primarily, this work addresses these tales from a theoretical standpoint based on the writings of French philosopher Gilles Deleuze, whose idea of "nomadology" appears highly suitable for investigating the striking differences of all of the various linguistic mutations. In particular, Deleuze's analysis of language, nomadic space, "becoming" (devenir), the body without organs (corps sans organs), speech and silence, can be very effectively applied to the interpretation of these tales in the new cultural environments of Mongolia and Tibet.

The topic of my diploma thesis is a comparison of speculation about a film from two perspectives. Firstly, it deals with the approach of Jan Mukařovský, a Czech structuralist, who was one of the first in the Czech context to explore the time concept in a film. Secondly, it considers the approach of Gillese Deleuze, who was accredited with the new view on the time-image in a film, however, much later than Jan Mukařovský. The aim of the paper is to explain the way the approaches of Mukařovský and Deluze relate to other approaches of thinking about time in films, the influence of other concepts of their time that they both theoretically based their views on, as well as specifying the films that became the starting points of exploring the time in films. The method of comparison is divided into three aspects, as three comparison levels.

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The aim of this thesis is to report on a transdisciplinary approach, regarding the complexity of thinking about human embodiment in relation to machine embodiment. A practical dimension of this thesis is to elicit some principles for the design and evaluation of virtual embodiment. The transdisciplinary approach suggests, firstly, that a single discipline or reality is, on its own, not sufficient to explain the complexity and dynamism of the embodied interaction between the human and machine. Secondly, the thesis argues for thinking of transdisciplinary research as a process of individuation, becoming or transduction, that is, as a process of mediation between heterogeneous approaches rather than perceiving research as a stabilized cognitive schema designed to accumulate new outcomes to the already-there reality. Arguing for going beyond the individualized approaches to embodiment, this thesis analyzes three cases where the problems that appear in one case are resolved through the analysis of the following one. Consisting of three phases, this research moves from objective scientific ¿reality¿ to more phenomenological, subjective and complex realities. The first study employs a critical review of embodied conversational agents in human¿computer interaction (HCI) in a learning context using a comparative meta-analysis. Meta-analysis was applied because most of the studies for evaluating embodiment are experimental. A learning context was selected because the number of studies is suitable for meta-analysis and the findings could be generalized to other contexts. The analysis reveals that there is no ¿persona effect¿, that is, the expected positive effect of virtual embodiment on the participant¿s affective, perceptive and cognitive measures. On the contrary, it shows the reduction of virtual embodiment to image and a lack of consideration for the participant¿s embodiment and interaction, in addition to theoretical and methodological shortcomings. The second phase solves these problems by focusing on Mark Hansen¿s phenomenological account of embodiment in new media. The investigation shows that Hansen improves on the HCI account by focusing on the participant¿s dynamic interaction with new media. Nevertheless, his views of embodied perception and affection are underpinned by a subjective patriarchal account leading to object/subject and body/work polarizations. The final phase resolves this polarization by analyzing the controversial work of Alan Turing on intelligent machinery. The research provides a different reading of the Turing Machine based on Simondon¿s concept of individuation, repositioning its materiality from the abstract non-existent to the actual-virtual realm and investigating the reasons for its abstraction. It relates the emergence of multiple human¿machine encounters in Turing¿s work to the complex counter-becoming of what it describes as ¿the Turing Machine compound¿. / Ministry of Higher Education in the Sultanate of Oman

The motivating ambition of this thesis is the endeavour to think the subject anthropo-eccentrically, to free it of its conscious-agential overtones and to foreground instead the active organism in all its ecologically entangled, metabolically perspectival glory. I define the subject, in the course of the thesis, as a body productive of its own spatial and temporal fields, a body that lives its own space and time. Ecology is pluralized, made bodily. And the body itself is dynamicized and rendered porous—less an absolute limit than a variable topology separating, uniting, and enfolding organism and ecology, self and other, subject and world. I begin, in Chapter 1, with Deleuze and the rhythmic contractions that define the temporal pole of organismic subjectivity. In Chapter 2, I turn toward the way spaces are configured on the basis of the affective enaction of organismic life. This is organismic spatiality. In Chapter 3, I introduce Deleuze’s distinction between the actual and virtual in order to properly theorize the way organismic abilities and environmental layouts are pre-subjectively related such that actual organismic activity individuates a field of spatiotemporal experience. And as the structure of this relation fluctuates, so too does the framework of subjective experience, the sensorimotor-perceptual affects by which experience is defined. Organismic subjectivity is, as a consequence, both relentlessly dynamic and tied irreducibly to the organization of its own world. To think this entanglement is to think subjectivity as swarm, a concept that opens this theory onto an array of new possibilities—toward, to take only one example among a range of many, a human-technological entanglement that conceives scientific apparatuses in their integration with a collectively human subjectivity. I conclude the thesis with a brief gesture toward the implications carried by the development of such possibilities. / Thesis / Master of Philosophy (MA)

[pt] Os processos de assujeitamento engendrados nas sociedades biopolíticas são a condição subjetiva através da qual os indivíduos são normalizados. As normas sociais e seus valores são estabelecidos em cada relação normalizante fazendo convergir nossa ação na ação incitada pelas relações de poder dominantes. Seria possível resistir a este quadro, se estamos todos em um mesmo emaranhado de saber e de poder que condiciona nossa ação? Deleuze descobre a resistência em Foucault, que encontrava-se aparentemente preso ao poder, na figura da subjetivação. É dobrando a força que podemos criar um espaço de liberdade – não fora, mas dentro do poder. / [fr] Les processus d assujettissement engendrés dans les sociétés biopolitiques sont la condition subjective par lequel les individus sont normalisés. Les normes sociales et ces valeurs sont établies dans chaque relation normalisante de façon à convergir notre action dans l action incité par les relations de pouvoir dominantes. Sera-t-il possible, alors, résister à ce scénario, si nous sommes dans un réseau de savoir-pouvoir qui condicione notre action? Deleuze decouvre la résistance dans Foucault, qui, par sa fois, était apparemment attaché au pouvoir, dans la figure de la subjectivation. Il s agit de plier la force pour qui l espace de liberté soit créé – pas dehors le pouvoir, mais dedans.

[pt] O Maio de 68 francês foi um movimento que propôs nova maneira de pensar o poder, segundo a qual não haveria mais distinção entre arte, saber e política, representando dessa forma o acontecimento da crise em toda sua potência, como espaço de imaginação e de criação. O cineasta brasileiro Glauber Rocha trabalha em afinidade com esta proposta, questionando esteticamente as instituições clássicas: ele põe em cena uma câmara em transe e personagens que explicitam a crise em seus discursos. Observa-se como os filmes de Glauber, representados neste ensaio por Terra em transe, Câncer e A idade da terra, ao apresentarem episódios desalinhados, desordenados, incongruentes, arrebentam com as formas tradicionais de contar uma história. Tal explosão da linguagem cinematográfica clássica, presente no imaginário coletivo, arranca o público de sua posição passiva de espectador, convidando-o a uma experiência transformadora. E é nesse processo de desestruturação que Glauber, utilizando dinamismos espaços-temporais, se articula com a prática filosófica dos movimentos antiautoritários do Maio francês e do pós-68. Desenvolvido e divulgado no âmago do embate crítico, o pensamento do filósofo francês Gilles Deleuze constitui o fundamento teórico que sustenta esta experiência de leitura da performance de uma revolta popular em contraponto com a construção da arte-pensamento de um cineasta. / [fr] Mai 68 a été un mouvement qui a proposé une nouvelle manière de penser le pouvoir politique, selon laquelle, il n y aurait pas de distinction entre art et politique, représentant ainsi l événement de la crise dans toute sa puissance, de la crise comme lieu d imagination et de création. Le cinéaste brésilien Glauber Rocha utilise esthétiquement cette proposition soulignant la crise des institutions traditionnelles: il met en scène une caméra dans un état de transe et des personnages qui explicitent cette crise dans leurs discours. Ainsi, notre intention est de montrer comment Glauber dans ses films, représentés ici par Terre en transe, Câncer et L âge de la terre, avec des scènes sans logique, non-ordonnées, incohérentes, bouleverse les manières traditionnelles de raconter une histoire. Il fait exploser le langage cinématographique classique, présent dans l imaginaire collectif, et arrache le public à sa position de spectateur passif, l invitant à une expérience de l imagination. Et c est dans ce processus de déstructuration que Glauber, employant dynamismes d espace et de temps, s articule avec la pratique philosophique des mouvements contre l autoritarisme du Mai 68 et post cette époque, étant le fondement théorique qui soutient cette thèse est la pensée du philosophe français Gilles Deleuze.

Making Sense of Things is a piece composed through consideration of the relationship between music, meaning, and materiality. The piece, written for voice, flute, percussion, and live electronics, explores topics of the "sensible" and "nonsensical" in music, moving through a variety of sonic episodes that feature different notational approaches, electronic textures, technical instrumental practice, and theatrical elements in order to explore a variety of expressive possibilities while unified around the central musical ideas of scratching sounds and metal bars. The critical essay examines the relationship between the piece and the theoretical writings which inspired it. Reading through the work of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, I examine the relationship between Making Sense of Things and new materialist discourses, affect theory, and semiotics.

Within the field of cinema studies, the question of visual representation is a fundamental pillar. An immense volume of theoretical work has been written on the subject, with various academic approaches such as feministic, postcolonial and gay/lesbian. Yet there is a large social group that seems to have been overlooked within the representational discourse: the elderly. This group of people appears to be a blind spot on the multicultural retina, too often neglected within the area of cultural studies. But as the baby boomer generation, who has always redefined the different stages of life (youth, adulthood, middle age), is entering old age, things are slowly changing. Utilizing a post-structural framework, this essay investigates the visual representation of elderly within the cinematic landscape of the western world. Since the subject is somewhat uncharted territory, a broad interdisciplinary approach is necessary where modern social gerontology meets the field of cinema studies. In a cultural context, social grouping based on age implies a distinct position versus the normative, compare to other types of minorities. Changes of sex, skin colour or sexual preference are uncommon, whereas changing age is the fate of every human being. The elderly as the “the Other” is thus every man’s future destiny. This rather unique position carries an immanent paradox since the only way to avoid the periphery in question is death. As a philosophical counterpoint to this rather dystopian outlook, Gilles Deleuze’s theory of becoming is brought into the discussion. The theoretical part of the essay ends with the ontology of age, a historical review of the field of gerontology and the concept of ageism. After a descriptive section, where contemporary examples of film and other media with old age as a main theme are identified, the analytical part of the essay ensues. With the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu as a theoretical frame of reference, a close reading of the films Avalon (Axel Petersén, 2011), About Schmidt (Alexander Payne, 2002) and RED (Robert Schwentke, 2010) are performed, emphasising aging identity and imposed age-normative behaviour. The semiotics of the aged body is discussed through Jacques Lacans mirror stage and Julia Kristevas abject theory, exemplified by the works of Donigan Cumming. The final part of the essay concerns the great eternal questions within film philosophy: life, death, time and memory, which for the elderly are not merely philosophical concerns but rather notable existential realities. Using Deleuze as a philosophical toolbox, these grand topics are illuminated with examples from The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (David Fincher, 2008), Amour (Michael Haneke, 2012) and Ingmar Bergmans classical works, such as Smultronstället (1957), Saraband (2003) and Gycklarnas afton (1953).