Manuel DeLanda (born 1952) is a
Mexican-
American writer, artist and philosopher who has lived in
New York since 1975. He is a lecturer in architecture at the
Princeton University School of Architecture
Princeton University School of Architecture is the name of the school of architecture at Princeton University. Founded in 1919, the School is a center for teaching and research in architectural design, history, and theory. The School offers an und ...
and the
University of Pennsylvania School of Design
The University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design is the design school of the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia. It offers degrees in architecture, landscape architecture, city and regional planning, historic preservation ...
, where he teaches courses on the philosophy of urban history and the dynamics of cities as historical actors with an emphasis on the importance of self-organization and
material culture in the understanding of a city. DeLanda also teaches
architectural theory as an adjunct professor of architecture and urban design at the
Pratt Institute and serves as the
Gilles Deleuze Chair and Professor of Philosophy at the
European Graduate School
The European Graduate School (EGS) is a private graduate school that operates in two locations: Saas-Fee, Switzerland, and Valletta, Malta.
History
It was founded in 1994 in Saas-Fee, Switzerland by the Swiss scientist, artist, and therapist, P ...
. He holds a
BFA from the
School of Visual Arts
The School of Visual Arts New York City (SVA NYC) is a private for-profit art school in New York City. It was founded in 1947 and is a member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design.
History
This school was started by ...
(1979) and a
PhD in media and communication from the European Graduate School (2010).
DeLanda was previously a visiting professor at the
University of Southern California
, mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it"
, religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist
, established =
, accreditation = WSCUC
, type = Private research university
, academic_affiliations =
, endowment = $8.1 ...
School of Architecture, where he taught an intensive two-week course in the spring 2012 term on
self-organization
Self-organization, also called spontaneous order in the social sciences, is a process where some form of overall order arises from local interactions between parts of an initially disordered system. The process can be spontaneous when suff ...
and urbanity; adjunct associate professor at the
Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation from 1995 to 2006; and adjunct professor at
Cooper Union's Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture.
Films
After moving to New York, DeLanda created several experimental films between 1975 and 1982, some as part of an undergraduate coursework at the School of Visual Arts. While at SVA, DeLanda studied under video artist
Joan Braderman
Joan Braderman is an American video artist, director, performer, and writer. Braderman's video works are considered to have created her signature style known as "stand up theory." Via this "performative embodiment," she deconstructs and analyzes ...
; they were subsequently married in 1980 and collaborated on several works (including Braderman's ''Joan Does Dynasty''
986
Year 986 ( CMLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Byzantine Empire
* August 17 – Battle of the Gates of Trajan: Emperor Basil II leads a Byz ...
DeLanda's ''Raw Nerves''
980and ''Ismism''
979
Year 979 ( CMLXXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place Byzantine Empire
* March 24 – Second Battle of Pankaleia: An Ibero-Byzantine expeditionary ...
before divorcing at an indeterminate point.
Influenced by the
No Wave movement, DeLanda's
Super 8 and 16mm films also served as methodical, theory-based approaches to the form.
Ed Halter
Ed Halter is a film programmer, writer, and founder of Light Industry, a microcinema in Brooklyn, New York. He currently teaches at Bard College, where he is Critic in Residence.
Criticism
His writing has been featured in ''Artforum'', '' The ...
"Abstract Machines. Nonlinear dynamics and the films of Manuel DeLanda"
Museum of the Moving Image, March 4, 2011 He pulled them from circulation after the original negatives were lost; in 2011,
Anthology Film Archives restored and reissued them.
Cited by filmmaker
Nick Zedd
Nick may refer to:
* Nick (given name)
* A cricket term for a slight deviation of the ball off the edge of the bat
* British slang for being arrested
* British slang for a police station
* British slang for stealing
* Short for nickname
Place ...
in his
Cinema of Transgression
__notoc__
The Cinema of Transgression is a term coined by Nick Zedd in 1985 to describe a New York City-based underground film movement, consisting of a loose-knit group of artists using shock value and black humor in their films. Key players in ...
Manifesto, DeLanda associated with many of the experimental filmmakers of this New York based-movement. In 2010, he appeared in Céline Danhier's retrospective documentary ''Blank City''.
Much of his oeuvre was inspired by his nascent interest in
continental philosophy and
critical theory; one of his best known films is ''Raw Nerves: A
Lacan
Jacques Marie Émile Lacan (, , ; 13 April 1901 – 9 September 1981) was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist. Described as "the most controversial psycho-analyst since Freud", Lacan gave yearly seminars in Paris from 1953 to 1981, and ...
ian Thriller'' (1980).
Having moved on to the nondeterministic synthesis of
Baudrillardian and
Deleuzian theory,
command and control
Command and control (abbr. C2) is a "set of organizational and technical attributes and processes ... hatemploys human, physical, and information resources to solve problems and accomplish missions" to achieve the goals of an organization or en ...
techniques, and
materialistic concerns of
complex systems and
artificial life
Artificial life (often abbreviated ALife or A-Life) is a field of study wherein researchers examine systems related to natural life, its processes, and its evolution, through the use of simulations with computer models, robotics, and biochemistry ...
(including
cellular automata
A cellular automaton (pl. cellular automata, abbrev. CA) is a discrete model of computation studied in automata theory. Cellular automata are also called cellular spaces, tessellation automata, homogeneous structures, cellular structures, tessel ...
) that would comprise "Policing the Spectrum" (1986) and ''
War in the Age of Intelligent Machines'' (1992), DeLanda had largely eschewed by the mid-1980s his interests in "post-
Freudian
Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies explained as originating in conflicts i ...
ideas of the unconscious... as well as any interest in
film theory."
Philosophical work
DeLanda's notable works include ''
War in the Age of Intelligent Machines'' (1991), ''A Thousand Years of Nonlinear History'' (1997), ''Intensive Science and Virtual Philosophy'' (2002) and ''
A New Philosophy of Society: Assemblage Theory and Social Complexity'' (2006). He has published many articles and essays and lectured extensively in Europe and in the United States. His work focuses on the theories of the French philosophers Gilles Deleuze and
Félix Guattari
Pierre-Félix Guattari ( , ; 30 April 1930 – 29 August 1992) was a French psychoanalyst, political philosopher, semiotician, social activist, and screenwriter. He co-founded schizoanalysis with Gilles Deleuze, and ecosophy with Arne Næs ...
on one hand,
and modern
science
Science is a systematic endeavor that Scientific method, builds and organizes knowledge in the form of Testability, testable explanations and predictions about the universe.
Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earli ...
, self-organizing matter,
artificial life
Artificial life (often abbreviated ALife or A-Life) is a field of study wherein researchers examine systems related to natural life, its processes, and its evolution, through the use of simulations with computer models, robotics, and biochemistry ...
and
intelligence
Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. More generally, it can be des ...
,
economics
Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services.
Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analyzes ...
,
architecture
Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...
,
chaos theory,
history of science,
nonlinear dynamics
In mathematics and science, a nonlinear system is a system in which the change of the output is not proportional to the change of the input. Nonlinear problems are of interest to engineers, biologists, physicists, mathematicians, and many other ...
,
cellular automata
A cellular automaton (pl. cellular automata, abbrev. CA) is a discrete model of computation studied in automata theory. Cellular automata are also called cellular spaces, tessellation automata, homogeneous structures, cellular structures, tessel ...
on the other. His 2015 book ''Philosophical Chemistry: Genealogy of a Scientific Field'' furthers his intervention in the
philosophy of science
Philosophy of science is a branch of philosophy concerned with the foundations, methods, and implications of science. The central questions of this study concern what qualifies as science, the reliability of scientific theories, and the ult ...
and
science studies
Science studies is an interdisciplinary research area that seeks to situate scientific expertise in broad social, historical, and philosophical contexts. It uses various methods to analyze the production, representation and reception of scient ...
.
Books
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See also
*
Noosphere
*
Metaphysical realism
*
Wargaming
A wargame is a strategy game in which two or more players command opposing armed forces in a realistic simulation of an armed conflict. Wargaming may be played for recreation, to train military officers in the art of strategic thinking, or to s ...
*
Cinema of Transgression
__notoc__
The Cinema of Transgression is a term coined by Nick Zedd in 1985 to describe a New York City-based underground film movement, consisting of a loose-knit group of artists using shock value and black humor in their films. Key players in ...
Notes
External links
Manuel DeLanda Extensive Annotated Bibliography with links to articlesVarious textsManuel DeLanda Professor Biography at The European Graduate School / EGS.*
Other interviewby
Paul Miller (28 May 2000)
Interview1000 Years of War. ''
Ctheory'' (1 May 2003)
"Markets and antimarkets in the world economy"by DeLanda (26 June 1998)
{{DEFAULTSORT:DeLanda, Manuel
1952 births
Living people
Columbia University faculty
European Graduate School faculty
Cellular automatists
20th-century Mexican philosophers
21st-century Mexican philosophers
20th-century Mexican writers
20th-century American male writers
21st-century Mexican writers
20th-century American writers
21st-century American writers
Writers from Mexico City
Continental philosophers