Abstract
In the chapter 'Postulates of linguistics' in A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia ([1980]1987), Deleuze and Guattari schematize their concept of assemblage as a 'tetravalence' that operates via the conjunction of what I call four dimensional, transversal axes. First is an axis along which the 'machinic assemblage of bodies' and 'collective assemblage of enunciation' impinge on and transform one another. Second is the double movement of forces that effect those transformations: deterritorialization and reterritorialization. I have found this tetravalent model useful for thinking about what happens in musical interaction from a critical posthuman perspective (borrowing Rosi Braidotti's term) that considers relationships between many different kinds of participants: human performers and listeners, instruments and other technologies, spaces and surfaces, pasts and futures. In this presentation I will (1) theorize Deleuze and Guattari's use of 'tetravalence' by drawing on how 'valence' is used in chemistry and emotion studies, (2) carefully clarify what Deleuze and Guattari mean by the four terms that comprise the assemblage in this model, and (3) use this framework to examine a recording that I made, under quite unusual circumstances, in Denmark in 2013. (This presentation is a condensed version of a chapter I am completing for Deleuze and Artistic Research (Orpheus Institute Press, 2020)).
Bio
Chris Stover is a composer, trombonist and researcher at RITMO. He is editor of the new volume Rancière and Music (Edinburgh University Press) and has published articles or chapters in Music Theory Spectrum, Perspectives of New Music, Music Theory Online, Analytical Approaches to World Music, The Open Space Magazine, Media and Culture, Deleuze and Children, The Norton Guide to Teaching Music Theory, and many more. His music can be heard at www.chrisstovermusic.com.