On the Production of Subjectivity (PDF)

Simon O'Sullivan is Reader in Art Theory and Practice at Goldsmiths College, University of London, UK. He is the author of Art Encounters Deleuze and Guattari: Thought Beyond Representation (2005), co-editor, with Stephen Zepke, of Deleuze, Guattari and the Production of the New (2008) and Deleuze and Contemporary Art (2010) and co-author, with Jorella Andrews, of Visual Cultures as...Objects and Affects (2013).

'Simon O' Sullivan does not merely offer another theory of the subject. Rather, he elegantly diagrams contemporary theoretical treatments of subjectification in order to grapple with the implications of subjectivity's adjacency and residuality. He never loses sight of the stakes for self-creation while examining the parameters of the relations between finitude-infinitude, desire-ethics, and subject-object that organize his engaging interpretations of Badiou, Foucault, Deleuze, Guattari, and Lacan. His commitment to practices that support the emergence of both strange and dissident subjectivities of the future fruitfully bring into the discussion paganism, shamanism, and animism. On the Production of Subjectivity is a fundamental reference point for questions bearing upon mental ecology, and a sourcebook for thinking beyond the diluted subjectivities available under semiocapital.' - Gary Genosko, Professor of Sociology and Canada Research Chair, Lakehead University, Canada

'On the Production of Subjectivity has taken the diagram to a new level of thought, and with that, renewed our philosophy of the subject in unprecedented fashion. Through analyses of the most important thinkers within the immanentist tradition (from Spinoza to Deleuze), as well as the most radical approaches to subjectivity (Lacan, Foucault, Guattari), this book not only tells us a new story concerning the emergence of self, but also shows us this in the most speculative and productive manner possible, following Bergson's adage that 'to speculate is to see'. With this work, O'Sullivan makes us see a new subject, and with the diagram, he gives us a new vision or 'non-philosophy' of thought itself.' - John Mullarkey, Kingston University, London, UK