Papers by Audronė Žukauskaitė
Deleuze and the Schizoanalysis of Feminism, eds. Jane Sholtz and Cheri Lynne Carr. London, New York: Bloomsbury Academic, p. . 41-55., 2019
Aberrant Nuptials: Deleuze and Artistic Research, eds. Paulo de Assis and Paolo Giudici. Leuven: Leuven University Press, p. 421-428., 2019
Deleuze, Guattari and the Art of Multiplicity, eds. R. Przedpelski and S. E. Wilmer, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, p. 35-49., 2020
Shared Habitats: A Cultural Inquiry into Living Spaces and Their Inhabitants, eds. Ursula Damm and Mindaugas Gapševičius. Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag, p. 271-292. , 2021
Machinic Assemblages of Desire: Deleuze and Artistic Research 3, eds. Paulo de Assis and Paolo Guidici, p. 297-308. , 2021
Athena: filosofijos studijos, 2022
The notion of immunity, as it was defined in biology in the middle of the 20th century, draws a b... more The notion of immunity, as it was defined in biology in the middle of the 20th century, draws a boundary between the "self " and the "nonself ". In this respect the notion of immunity is the perfect metaphor for biopolitical government: similar to the immune system, which fights everything that it sees as "nonself ", biopolitical power discriminates against what it sees as "different" or "other". However, if we examine immunity not as a metaphor but as a phenomenon viewed from the perspective of contemporary biology, we have to admit that immunity comprises not only a defensive reaction toward an external, contagious element, but also a positive reaction or so-called "tolerance". Thus, the defensive model of immunity should be complemented by a positive one, interpreting immunity as being entangled in its milieu. Alfred I. Tauber suggested that immunity should be seen as an ecological system which not simply reacts toward the external element but opens the negotiations between the "self " and "nonself " within the system. This model of ecological immunology is also a good methodological tool to rethink the notion of biopolitics: instead of seeing biopolitics as the opposition between a sovereign power and an oppressed individual, we can interpret it as a network of sympoietic interactions between individuals, technologies, and nonhuman others.
Problemos, 2018
Straipsnyje analizuojama Gilbert’o Simondon’o ontogenezės teorija, kuria siekiama tyrinėti būties... more Straipsnyje analizuojama Gilbert’o Simondon’o ontogenezės teorija, kuria siekiama tyrinėti būties tapsmą, arba genezę. Simondon’as teigia, jog filosofija turi analizuoti ne substancinius, išbaigtus ir sau tapačius individus, bet individuacijos procesus. Taip Simondon’as sukuria universalią individuacijos teoriją, kurią suvokia kaip perėjimą nuo ikiindividualios būklės prie individą sukuriančio individuacijos proceso, kuris savo ruožtu tampa naujos individuacijos pradžia. Galima teigti, jog Simondon’as ontologijos pagrindu laiko ne tapatybę, bet neatitikimą ir skirtumą, kurie verčia individus pereiti į naują egzistencijos fazę ar lygmenį. Taip individuacijos teorija tampa universalia metodologija, leidžiančia palyginti fizinius, biologinius, psichinius ir techninius individuacijos procesus. Simondon’o sukurta individuacijos,arba ontogenezės, teorija laikytina materialistine metodologija, kuri pagrindžia sąsajas tarp organinių ir neorganinių, žmogiškų ir nežmogiškų individų.
Athena: filosofijos studijos, 2021
In this article, I discuss the theory of organology, which examines the interaction between the o... more In this article, I discuss the theory of organology, which examines the interaction between the organism and the machine. The term “organology” was proposed by Georges Canguilhem in his text “Machine and Organism”. Referring to his predecessors, such as Ernst Kapp, Alfred Espinas, and André Leroi-Gourhan, Canguilhem argues that tools and technologies can be understood as an extension of biological organisms. Thus, organology examines the relationships between organisms and machines as well as redefines machines as organs of the human species. In a similar manner, Simondon examines technical objects as belonging to general ontogenesis, which encompasses both living and non-living beings. Later, this idea is significantly elaborated by Bernard Stiegler who creates his own theory of “general organology” and asserts that human life can be maintained only through the invention of tools and the organization of the inorganic. The notion of “general organology” is taken further by Yuk Hui w...
Problemos, 2020
The article discusses the development of the Gaia Hypothesis as it was defined by James Lovelock ... more The article discusses the development of the Gaia Hypothesis as it was defined by James Lovelock in the 1970s and later elaborated in his collaboration with biologist Lynn Margulis. Margulis’s research in symbiogenesis and her interest in Maturana and Varela’s theory of autopoiesis helped to reshape the Gaia theory from a first-order systems theory to second-order systems theory. In contrast to the first-order systems theory, which is concerned with the processes of homeostasis, second-order systems incorporate emergence, complexity and contingency. In this respect Latour’s and Stengers’s takes on Gaia, even defining it as an “outlaw” or an anti-system, can be interpreted as specific kind of systems thinking. The article also discusses Haraway’s interpretation of Gaia in terms of sympoiesis and argues that it presents a major reconceptualization of systems theory.
Nordic Theatre Studies, 2020
The article discusses the notion of the Anthropocene as a kind of anthropological machine, closel... more The article discusses the notion of the Anthropocene as a kind of anthropological machine, closely related to the regime of visuality. Giorgio Agamben points out that the anthropological machine is always an optical machine, which helps to induce visibility as an essential element of power. Similarly, Nicholas Mirzoeff discusses Anthropocene visuality as a technique which is always hierarchical and autocratic, helping to maintain the visualizer’s material power. Mirzoeff suggests that the biopolitical effects of visuality can be confronted by “countervisuality”, a strategy, which abandons visuality in order to achieve political equality. However, in this article I will argue that Anthropocene visuality should not be abandoned but rather reversed or redirected. In this regard, reversed visuality would mean not the replacement of the aesthetic with the political, but, on the contrary, the replacement of anthropocentric aesthetics with a different kind of aesthetics, which includes a n...
Problemos, 2013
Straipsnyje analizuojamos biopolitikos sampratos, suformuluotos Michelio Foucault ir Giorgio Aga... more Straipsnyje analizuojamos biopolitikos sampratos, suformuluotos Michelio Foucault ir Giorgio Agambeno darbuose. Foucault biopolitiką apibrėžia kaip galios ir gyvybės santykį, kuris istoriškai kinta: suvereno turimą galią pakeičia disciplininė galia, o pastarąją – biopolitika. Biopolitikos atsiradimą Foucault tiesiogiai sieja su kapitalizmo raida ir ekonominiais procesais, todėl politinę teoriją jis siūlo keisti politine ekonomija. Agambenas, priešingai, biopolitiką suvokia kaip kvaziontologinę sąlygą: jo manymu, biopolitinių kūnų produkavimas ir tą produkavimą pagrindžianti išimties būklė apibrėžia tiek senąsias imperijas, tiek šiuolaikines demokratijas. Toks išimtinai negatyvus biopolitikos suvokimas verčia klausti, kaip įmanoma pasipriešinti galiai ir kokios galimos tokio pasipriešinimo formos. Tiek Foucault, tiek Gilles’is Deleuze’as teigia, kad galiai priešinasi būtent tai, ką ji siekia pajungti, – pati gyvybė. Tačiau svarbu suvokti, jog biopolitinė galia ir gyvybinė galia yra ...
Religija ir kultūra, 2012
Straipsnyje analizuojama Jacques'o Rancière'o aptarta sąsaja tarp nereprezentuojamos meno dimensi... more Straipsnyje analizuojama Jacques'o Rancière'o aptarta sąsaja tarp nereprezentuojamos meno dimensijos ir nemąstomos politikos dimensijos. Paradigminiu tokios sąsajos pavyzdžiu Rancière'as laiko Claude'o Lanzmanno filmą Shoah. Nereprezentuojamumo sąvoka įtraukia mus į diskusiją su kantiškąja didingumo samprata ir tos sampratos modifikacijomis Jeano François Lyotard'o filosofijoje. Lyotard'as perkelia didingumo sampratą į moderniojo meno kontekstą, apibrėždamas jį kaip negatyvios prezentacijos meną. Šis negatyvumas reiškia tiek nereprezentuojamą dimensiją moderniajame mene, tiek nemąstomą tam tikrų politinių įvykių, pavyzdžiui, holokausto, dimensiją. Priešingai šiai didingumo adoravimo strategijai Giorgio Agambenas ir Georges'as Didi-Hubermanas teigia, kad nereprezentuojamumas sukuria patogų alibi, kuris atpalaiduoja nuo būtinybės gilintis į politines šių reiškinių priežastis. Knygoje Vaizdai nepaisant nieko Didi-Hubermanas provokatyviai atmeta formalius Lanzmanno filmo Shoah sprendimus ir atkakliai teigia būtinybę kurti ar prezentuoti vaizdus "nepaisant nieko". Straipsnyje ši prieštara sprendžiama pasitelkiant Michaelio Haneke's filmą Baltas kaspinas, kuriame įžvelgiama argumentų abiem ginčo pusėms. Pagrindiniai žodžiai: didingumas, vaizduotė, reprezentacija, nereprezentuojamumas, holokaustas. * Straipsnis parengtas pagal projekte "Filosofiniai kino meno tyrimai: teorinės prielaidos, metodai, uždaviniai" atliktą tyrimą, finansuotą Lietuvos mokslo tarybos (sutartis Nr. MIP-115/2011).
Subjectivity, 2017
The essay questions the notion of political and biological identity as the main premise of biopol... more The essay questions the notion of political and biological identity as the main premise of biopolitical philosophy. Foucault, Agamben, and Esposito demonstrated that modern biopolitical theories rest on the distinction between self and non-self, propriety and impropriety, immunity and contagion. In order to confront these biopolitical distinctions, the essay seeks to question the notion of identity and replace it with that of multiplicity or assemblage. Following on from Deleuze and Guattari’s ideas on multiplicity and Esposito’s notion of affirmative biopolitics, the essay seeks to redefine subjectivity as a process of individuation and differentiation, which can accept the elements of non-self. The essay discusses specific examples in bioart and biomedicine which reveal the body as a fusional multiplicity where different molecular populations interact. This interface, or the affective dimension of the body, is understood as an instance of affirmative biopolitics and a positive way to encounter the other.
Theatre Research International, 2017
intellectuals and political activists. The book is encyclopedic in its coverage and is helpful in... more intellectuals and political activists. The book is encyclopedic in its coverage and is helpful in distilling key events, plays and artists into a coherent narrative without oversimplifying the complexity of this task. The topic areas of the book are diverse, with chapters focusing broadly on theatre histories before and after the upheavals of war and independence. Two chapters on Japan look at the theatre at the beginning of the twentieth century, the era of Japanese militarism, the occupation of 1945–52, and the 1960s and beyond. Examples include representative figures from the 1950s to the 1990s, including Abe Kōbō and Mishima Yukio, and ‘underground’ (angura) luminaries such as Suzuki Tadashi and Terayama Shūji. The discussion concludes with a brief mention of contemporary playwright–director Okada Toshiki. Two chapters on Chinese drama outline developments prior to and after the formation of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1949, with a third chapter focusing on developments in Taiwan and Hong Kong (e.g. Taiwan’s Festival of Experimental Plays and Danny Yung in Hong Kong). As shown here, modern drama is sometimes at variance with state politics, and an ‘apolitical’ entertainment industry has also been encouraged, such as a commercial theatre of musicals in China. The final major case study, Indian theatre, is examined in two chapters from the perspective of cosmopolitan modern drama (with an exceptionally long history dating from 1821) and activist theatres post-independence. While the book triangulates around these modern theatre histories, and most of the detailed discussion is to be found in the chapters dealing with this material, there are also chapters and sections on Korea and South East Asia. The account of South Korea offers a succinct history of the developments of modern drama prior to and after the end of military rule in 1987. It also describes the popularity of mass spectacles in North Korea as a highly rehearsed, doubtless obligatory, display of passionate amateurism. The final chapter is a bare-bones survey of modern South East Asian drama with longer sections for Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia and short entries for other countries such as Cambodia and Thailand. Modern Asian Theatre and Performance 1900–2000 is to be commended for its wealth of detail and clarity of expression. It is an effective teaching text while also being a good point of reference for specialists who often do not know about theatres adjacent to their own area of expertise.
Deleuze Studies, 2012
In Essays Critical and Clinical, Deleuze argues that Beckettian characters usually strive towards... more In Essays Critical and Clinical, Deleuze argues that Beckettian characters usually strive towards becoming imperceptible. This statement immediately poses another question: what is becoming imperceptible and where does it lead? How can we rid ourselves of ourselves? Paradoxically enough, Deleuze states that becoming imperceptible is life. The literal and self-evident meaning of life seems somehow incompatible with the image of dissolving and decaying characters in Beckett's works. Contrary to this self-evidence, the notion of life in Deleuze and Beckett should be interpreted as pure potentiality which opens both the potential to be (or do) and the potential not to be (or do). Beckettian characters together with other figures, such as Bartleby, let us think of a life in its potential not to be. The life of the individual gives way to impersonal and singular life: a life of pure immanence. Such a life can be immanent to a man who no longer has a name, though he can be mistaken for...
Baltic Screen Media Review, 2013
The essay discusses Deleuze and Guattari’s notion of becoming-imperceptible and raises the questi... more The essay discusses Deleuze and Guattari’s notion of becoming-imperceptible and raises the question to what extent it can be interpreted in terms of feminist politics and seen as a specific strategy for new media arts. Although the notion of becoming-imperceptible was condemned by second wave feminists, recent post-feminists representing the third wave argue not for politics of visibility but for politics of invisibility. Examining the practices of Lithuanian feminist media artists, the essay argues that becoming-imperceptible in new media arts means not an escape from visibility or a drive toward annihilation but a new conceptual strategy: becoming-imperceptible creates the potential for social and political change. This new conceptual strategy can be related to the new quality of the image: in this regard there is a close affinity between Deleuze and Guattari’s notion of becoming-imperceptible and the notion of the crystalline image which appears in Deleuze’s film theory: both not...
Books by Audronė Žukauskaitė
Life in the Posthuman Condition, 2023
This article is based on an interview with Steve Wilmer and Audrone Zukauskaite about their new b... more This article is based on an interview with Steve Wilmer and Audrone Zukauskaite about their new book Life in the Posthuman Condition: Critical Responses to the Anthropocene
Edinburgh University Press, 2023
Discussing different aspects of the philosophy of Gilbert Simondon, Raymond Ruyer, Gilles Deleuze... more Discussing different aspects of the philosophy of Gilbert Simondon, Raymond Ruyer, Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, and including some contemporary thinkers, such as Catherine Malabou, Bernard Stiegler, Bruno Latour, and Donna J. Haraway, Audronė Žukauskaitė argues that all these threads can be seen as precursors to organism-oriented ontology.
Rather than concentrating on individuals and identities, contemporary philosophy is increasingly interested in processes, multiplicities and potential for change, that is, in those features that define living beings. Žukauskaitė argues that the capacity of living beings for self-organisation, creativity and contingency can act as an antidote to biopolitical power and control in the times of the Anthropocene.
Life in the Posthuman Condition: Critical Responses to the Anthropocene, 2023
This new edited collection embodies its posthumanist ambitions through sheer disciplinary diversi... more This new edited collection embodies its posthumanist ambitions through sheer disciplinary diversity. The collected essays, edited by S.E. Wilmer and Audronė Žukauskaitė, constitute a trans-disciplinary assemblage of divergent artistic, scientific, and philosophical reflections on what it means to be human in a more-than-human world. The essays are organised into three sections, the first dealing predominantly with climate change and eco-activism, the second with interspecies translation and boundary crossing, and the third with ontologies of life and the human.
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Papers by Audronė Žukauskaitė
Books by Audronė Žukauskaitė
Rather than concentrating on individuals and identities, contemporary philosophy is increasingly interested in processes, multiplicities and potential for change, that is, in those features that define living beings. Žukauskaitė argues that the capacity of living beings for self-organisation, creativity and contingency can act as an antidote to biopolitical power and control in the times of the Anthropocene.
Rather than concentrating on individuals and identities, contemporary philosophy is increasingly interested in processes, multiplicities and potential for change, that is, in those features that define living beings. Žukauskaitė argues that the capacity of living beings for self-organisation, creativity and contingency can act as an antidote to biopolitical power and control in the times of the Anthropocene.
Engages in recent debates on posthumanism and the Anthropocene
Reconsiders different forms of life, such as post-Anthropocene life, animal life, and life of inorganic objects
Introduces an interdisciplinary approach which brings together contemporary philosophy, cultural and visual studies, posthumanism, media and technology studies, environmental studies and indigenous cosmologies
Outlines new ontologies and engages with new materialism
Features contributions by prominent contemporary philosophers and theorists, including Catherine Malabou, T. J. Demos, Graham Harman, Jussi Parikka and Cary Wolfe
This collection reconsiders the notion of life and conceptualizes those forms of life which have been excluded from modern philosophy, such as post-Anthropocene life, the life of non-human animals and the life of inorganic objects.