Dividuations

This book offers an epistemological critique of the concept of the individual and of individuality. It argues that because of our bio(techno)logical entanglements with non-human others, billions of microorganisms and our multiple (in)voluntary participations in socio(techno)logical processes, we have to conceive of ourselves no longer as individuals, but as dividuations. This dividual character which enforces simultaneous and multidirectional participations in different spheres is also apt for other living beings, for entities such as the nation state, for single cultures, production processes and works of art. The critique of individuality in the book is also elaborated in critical re-readings of classical philosophical texts from Plato up to today; the new concept of dividuation is a modified and semantically enriched version of certain concepts of the French philosophers Gilbert Simondon and Gilles Deleuze.

 

Translated from German:

“Ott introduces the term dividuation into the debate on new subjectivations. This diverse overview of various different social areas in bio(techno)logical, socio(tech)nological, and aesthetic/artistic analyses undoubtedly emphasises the relevance of the arguments presented by Michaela Ott. Herein lies the innovative character of her work.” (Julia Preisker, e-Journal für wissenschaftliche Rezensionen Institut für Theater-, Film- und Medienwissenschaft an der Universität Wien, rezenstfm.univie.ac.at, (1), May 2017)

“A bold and wide-ranging investigation of the hinterland between the ‘I’ and the ‘we’; one that explores the conditions for radically redefining forms of subjectivity and collectivity in ways that can positively embrace the dividuations that make us so much more than the individuals we sometimes think we are.” (Iain MacKenzie, Director of the Centre for Critical Thought, University of Kent, UK)

“Ott takes on a particularly weighty task, to redefine our ‘becoming-world’ in the face of demands imposed by modern revelations of the most manifold ‘interpenetration relationships’ and novel modes of subjectivation. She offers her readers the new term dividuation for this. Ott’s promotion of the term dividuation is coupled with an impetus to diagnose our era. Today, she argues, subjectivation is no longer to be understood as individuation, but as dividuation.” (Bernd Bösel, Professor in Media Theory and Media Studies, University of Potsdam, Germany)

Michaela Ott is Professor of Aesthetic Theories at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste (Academy of Fine Art) Hamburg, Germany. Her main publications include Deleuze: Zur Einführung (2005), Affizierung (2010), Timing of Affect: Epistemologies of Affection (2014), edited with Marie-Luise Angerer and Bernd Bösel and Dividuationen: Theorien der Teilhabe (2015).