D & G consider 'space' as vibratory blocks of space-time constituting an individual organism that interacts with other organisms (suggesting I think that we each carry our own space-time(s) around with us) and thus these blocks of space-time are by nature, 'heterogeneous' (Deleuze Dictionary, p253). Space is a 'discursive practice of place' (p258) and divided into 'striated' (drawn and riddled with lines of divide and demarcation, that name measure, appropriate and distribute space according to inherited political designs, history and conflict) and 'smooth' (boundless...without border or distinction... affiliated with the unconscious...more a space of affects and sensations than properties...it can be perceived through striated space).
OK I'm not a specialist in these theories, and this risks becoming didactic (not my intention)--the above acts to document my process in addressing Emma's questions.
Each of the interactions Emma mentions: videoconferencing, talking on the mobile phone, communicating by email, on Facebook, on Twitter could be seen as two individual sets of space-time coming into contact with one another (unlike her example of reading a book, to which I add 'daydreaming', both solitary activities--unless of course the book is being read aloud to an audience).
What is important here, I think and, Emma's point is that these 'virtual' interfaces are increasing.
Interestingly D & G also address the 'virtual' and 'actual' as mutually exclusive, yet jointly sufficient, characterisations of the real (p296) but that may be OK for them, how do we as ordinary mortals 'deal' with such obvious different experiences (albeit habituation can probably occur).
Emma asks : How our bodies then relate to space IN time - how can we inhabit? Her answer is to leave traces (evidence of a 'past' presence).
Traces that also exist in our minds as memories (conscious or not) and that affect how we respond when the actual is transposed to the virtual but yet undergo subtle shifts in how we react to that new situation (the use of videoconfencing in business, law or even medicine).
I wonder if you can look it in another way...in terms of a third space, that which develops from the interaction itself allied to but separate from the two that are interacting...if on the phone I do not mark my existence 'there' in place with you, we set up an interstitial space, an inbetween place. 'Actual' in terms of the movement of electrons along the phone wires or microwaves between transmitter and receiver, but 'virtual' in our minds.
By raising theories of 'performance'--Goffman and Judith Butler she is offering me an opportunity to explore an integral aspect of my project--how to 'perform' smooth space. Butler, I have come across but not Goffman. Performance has the potential to take us into that third (inbetween) space which, being inherently unstable, has the potential to open up other connections, other possibilities and the dissolution of boundaries.
As I was about to close down my laptop for the day, I opened the catalog to 'Space Odysseys' (an exhibition at AGNSW in 2001) and came across Mariko Mori's video installation Link (1995-2000) which makes interesting connections with all this! She is quoted as saying:
Space and time capsules attempt to achieve three or four dimensional voyages in space. My approach is to perceive or sense various passages or potential spaces that connect our consciousness to another world. (p15)As Mori is transported to various sites within her 'enlightenment capsule', she transcends space and time, proposing: '...a new kind of enlightenment...a new kind of consciousness'.
So, what has this to do with the project? I'm not sure, as it - the project - exists to date, it is all but a 'scrapbag' of ideas (an example of smooth space??) from which something (hopefully) will emerge!
I am hoping Emma will respond to the ideas I have raised here.
And anyone who reads it will too!
Image: Dyeing the cloth for the quilt 'Reconfiguring The Wall' with plant material from the Callan Park site (2006).
