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.

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.

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).

[pt] Esta monografia tem, como objetivo geral, perceber a articulação entre as relações de poder e a população ao longo de diferentes períodos. Partindo de alguns conceitos clássicos, desenvolvidos pelo filósofo Francês Michel Foucault, como poder de soberania e disciplinar, bem como a noção de sociedade de controle trabalhada por Gilles Deleuze, será feita uma análise dos mecanismos que levam à passagem de uma tecnologia de poder a outra ao longo de diferentes momentos do processo histórico. / [en] This monograph has as main objective to understand the relationship between power relations and the population over different periods. Starting with some classic concepts developed by French philosopher Michel Foucault, as sovereign and disciplinary power, and the notion of control society of control by Gilles Deleuze, is an analysis of the mechanisms that lead to the passage of power from one technology to another over different times of the historical process.

This thesis offers a model for the underlying architecture of the narrative reality in science-fiction works by Philip K. Dick, arguing that Dick's fictional worlds are grounded in the pervasive metamorphosis - the overarching perception of the shifting - of the narrative fabric operating under the conditions of non-rationality and non-reality. The hyphenated coinages conveniently stand for the paradigms of the reality and mental configurations in PKD subverting the seemingly natural dichotomizing oppositions and hierarchies of the real/unreal and the rational/irrational. Bringing in Gilles Deleuze's ontology of difference, this thesis explains the non-rationality and non-reality of Dick's worlds in Deleuzian terms as, firstly, inducing the perception of fictional reality as realizing the innate potential of being by the perpetual becoming of being in multiplicity and, secondly, engendering - in the vein of Deleuzian simulacra - the impossibility of apprehending and categorizing fictional reality unequivocally. The thesis considers and evaluates the underlying assumptions and claims common to various approaches to the subject of reality in PKD's fictions in order to provide the essential context for the following development of the theoretical basis for non-rationality and non-reality shifting....

Den här uppsatsen undersöker experimenterande danspraktiker med ett- och tvååringar i förskolan, praktiskt och teoretiskt, vilket hittills endast studerats i ett fåtal studier och aldrig tidigare i ett empiriskt och praxisnära projekt med förskolans yngsta barn. Syftet är att undersöka hur danspraktiker kan göras möjliga och kommer till uttryck i experimenterande dans tillsammans med de allra yngsta barnen i förskolan när de görs till aktiva deltagare i danshändelsernas processer, utformning och innehåll i förskolan. I den tre månader långa praktiknära, empiriska studien experimenterar forskaren ihop med en grupp barn 1–2,5 år på en förskoleavdelning, vilket dokumenteras med film- och stillbildskameror av forskaren och barnen. Metodologiskt tar genomförandet stöd och inspiration i a/r/t-ografin som är en praxisnära och estetik-baserad forskningsmetod där forskaren använder den egna kroppen som forskningsverktyg. Analyserna av datamaterialet, vilket består av filmer, foton och processanteckningar, är genomförda med stöd av immanensfilosofisk teoribildning, främst med texter från Gille Deleuze och Felix Guattari samt Erin Manning och begreppet som metod, som analysmetod. Resultaten visar att när förskolans yngsta barn får möjlighet att experimentera i dans ihop med en initierad och deltagande forskare blir danspraktiken mycket varierad och dynamisk i sitt förlopp. Den tar även andra uttryck till innehåll, form och rörelse, gruppkonstellation, materialval och tidslängd än vad som vanligtvis beskrivs om dans i litteratur och forskning. Ett ytterligare kunskapsbidrag är att visa hur tillgången till immanensfilosofi kan producera nya sätt att göra och tänka om danspraktiken och den dansande kroppen och alternativa sätt att arrangera dans med förskolans yngsta barn. Studien erbjuder även förskoledidaktiska kunskaper om hur pedagoger i förskolan kan arrangera kreativa danspraktiker för de yngsta barnen i den dagliga verksamheten. / This essay examines experimental dance practices with one- and two-year-olds in preschool, both practically and theoretically, a topic which has up until now only been examined in a few studies and never before in an empirical and praxis-oriented project with the youngest children of preschool. The purpose of the study is to investigate how dance practices can be made possibleand what comes to expression in experimental dance practices with the youngest children in a preschool environment when they are made to be active participants in the content and execution of experimental dance in a preschool environment. During the three months long practice-based empirical study, the researcher experiments in participation with a group of 1-2,5-year-olds at their preschool department. This work is documented with still image and film camera by the researcher and the children. Methodologically, the study has been conducted through support and inspiration from a/r/t-ography, a practicebased and arts-based research method wherein the researcher uses her own body as an instrument of research. The analysis of the data material, which consists of films, photographs and process notes, is carried out using the concepts of immanence-philosophy, mainly through texts by Gille Deleuze and Felix Guattari and of Erin Manning, and the concept as method, as a method of analysis. The results show that when the youngest children are given the opportunity to experiment in dance together with an initiated and participating researcher, the dance practice becomes varied and dynamic during its course of events. The dance practice also shows novel expressions of form and movement, group constellations, and choices of material and duration than what is commonly described of dance when discussed in literature and research. Furthermore, this essay contributes additional knowledge to the field by showinghow the access to the philosophy of Gille Deleuze and Felix Guattari can produce new ways of doing and thinking about dance practice and the dancing body and alternative ways to arrange dance with the youngest children of the preschool. The study also offers didactical knowledge of how teachers in a preschool environment can arrange creative dance practices for the youngest children in everyday activities.

This essay examines the dance pedagogical method Dance a Book together with a group of children aged four to five in preschool. The purpose is to investigate and make visible children's expressions when dance and words meet, based on children's agency in rhizome-based learning. Methodologically, this study is based on a/r/tography, which is a practical and aesthetically based research method where the researcher, through the body and own participation, can stay close to what has been investigated. Sequential analysis was used as the analysis method, which meant that analysis took place in the moment when the researcher gave instructions to the children to lead the work forward. Other documentation was logbook notes. The research results are analyzed with inspiration from some concepts in Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari's philosophy of immanence. Child agency was also a concept that was consistently present in the studies. The results showed, when the children have opportunities to be creative in the dance pedagogical method Dance a Book, the children express themselves with variety both verbally and physically. Through improvisation and own creativity, not only children's development in dance was made visible, but also children's acquisition of the language and understanding of the book. The creative moment also led to joyful learning. Furthermore, this essay contributes additional knowledge to the field for showing a changed way of thinking, based on the philosophy of immanence that can create new ways of doing and learning in dance practice. / Den här uppsatsen undersöker den danspedagogiska metoden Dansa en bok tillsammans med en barngrupp i fyra till femårsåldern i förskolan. Syftet är att undersöka och synliggöra barns uttryck när dans och ord möts utifrån barns aktörskap i rhizomsikt lärande. Metodologiskt tar denna studie avstamp från a/r/tografi som är en praxisnära och estetik-baserad forskningsmetod där forskaren genom sin kropp och sitt egna deltagande kan hålla sig nära det som undersöktes. Som analysmetod användes sekventiell analys vilket innebar att analysen skedde direkt i forskningsstunden där forskarens instruktioner i växelspel med barnen ledde arbetet framåt. Övrig dokumentation skedde via loggboksanteckningar. Forskningsresultatet är analyserat med inspiration från några begrepp av Gilles Deleuze och Felix Guattaris immanensfilosofi. Även barns aktörskap var ett begrepp som genomgående var närvarande i studien. Resultatet visar att när barnen får möjlighet att vara kreativa i den danspedagogiska metoden Dansa en bok uttrycker sig barnen med variation både verbalt och kroppsligt. Genom improvisation och eget skapande synliggjordes inte bara barns utveckling i dans utan även barns tillägnande av språket och förståelse av boken.  Den kreativa stunden ledde även till ett lustfyllt lärande. Ett ytterligare kunskapsbidrag i denna studie är att visa hur ett förändrat tänkande utifrån immanensfilosofi kan producera nya sätt för görande och lärande i danspraktiken.