Creativity, singularity and techne: The making and unmaking of visual objects in modernity

Creativity is the release of singularity captured in form. According to Jean-Luc Nancy, a singularity is “that which occurs only once” (41), a unique event that reveals a field of contiguities and interconnectivities, and offers potential for new kinds of assemblages and the creative production of new kinds of differentiated objects.A singularity is not a particular (particulars are the individual elements belonging to a plan) but that aspect of particulars which refuses to be resolved into “good form”. As Nancy writes, a singularity is “a unique property that escapes appropriation” (41), a resistivity lodged at the heart of particulars. In this article I discuss creativity as the practice of releasing singularities from the formal properties (the particularity) of visual objects.Creativity bears a special relation with techne and the technical, as that which reveals techne’s (false) grounding in nature, and instead shows the way towards an ungrounding of the nature-techne relation as an experience of aura, or the uniqueness of the object as work of art (Heidegger, Benjamin, Steigler). Modern objects are auratic when read as singularities—as resistive affects of fading originariness, a glimmer at the edge of the object’s connection to the world. As an engagement with techne, creativity works from the inside of knowledge production, but only by allowing the outside in. Creativity is thus inherently interfacial, working on surfaces, as planes of affect (Deleuze and Guattari). All objects in modernity are works of art, when read in terms of their singularity as resistive affect (Deleuze and Guattari 164).In this discussion, I undertake a reading of two images. The first of these, a painting by the nineteenth century English landscape artist J.M.W. Turner, will demonstrate how creativity can be understood as the destabilisation of trained techniques—a kind of untrained training—and the release of singularity as the formlessness of the “becoming pure” of colour. The second reading is of a nineteenth century photograph of Lewis Paine, codemned to death for his part in the assassination of US president, Abraham Lincoln. The reading will exemplify a way of describing images creatively, which “opens up an irreducible strangeness” of singularity (Nancy Being Singular Plural 6). The techne of photography, like the techne of visual art, produces a “false” connection with the real—a connection predicated on mediation, where the real as originary is something produced and not something present as such. A creative reading of the image will reveal the falsity of this connection as access to its originariness, and thus offers potential for a renewed vision of the past, as the image of a future yet to come.I argue that this descriptive analysis of visual objects and their mode of appearing (as percepts) can be considered as a technique of creative reading to counter the emergence of another formulation of creativity currently gaining ground in the academy, as the production of knowledges within what has been termed “creative industries” (Flew). Creativity cannot be the subject of knowledge production. Rather, it is that which de-knowledges knowledge, and hence puts at risk all that knowledge and its attendant power apparatuses want us to know and practice. Creativity, as that which reveals and articulates singularities, critiques the techne of any knowledge production activity, and challenges knowledge to rethink its origin as technologically produced

Uso do ácido indolbutírico e do escuro no enraizamento in vitro do porta-enxerto de macieira 'Marubakaido' Using of indolilbutyric acid and of darckness in in vitro rooting of the apple rootstock 'Marubakaido'

O trabalho teve por objetivo estudar o enraizamento in vitro do porta-enxerto 'Marubakaido' (Malus prunifolia Borkh), visando a diminuir os efeitos prejudiciais causados pelo excesso de auxina. Foram utilizadas brotações do porta-enxerto 'Marubakaido' com três pares foliares (2,5 a 3 cm), oriundas do processo de multiplicação in vitro. O meio utilizado foi o MS/2 acrescido de l00mg/l de mio-inositol, 30 g/l de sacarose e 6g/l de ágar. O pH foi ajustado para 5,9, antes da colocação do ágar. Avaliou-se três períodos (2, 4 e 6 dias) de permanência dos explantes no escuro e três concentrações (0,0; 1,0 e 3,0miM) de ácido indolbutírico (AIB). Após a permanência dos explantes nos devidos períodos de escuro, estes foram transferidos para meio sem reguladores e acondiconados em sala de crescimento, sob condições de 16h de fotoperíodo, 25 &plusmn;2&deg; C e 2000 lux. A ausência e a menor concentração de AIB reduziram a percentagem de enraizamento de acordo com os aumentos nos períodos de escuro, mostrando um efeito linear negativo. Para o nível mais elevado da auxina não se observou diferenças no enraizamento para todos os períodos de escuro, apresentando índices superiores a 80%. Na presença da auxina houve um incremento no número de raízes para os aumentos do período de escuro. Houve formação de raízes bem desenvolvidas com formação de calo somente na cicatrização do corte. As plântulas apresentaram um incremento gradual da área foliar com o aumento da concentração de AIB e do período de permanência no escuro. Maiores percentagens de sobrevivência foram obtidas com aumentos na concentração de AIB e períodos de escuro. Melhor qualidade das plântulas foi observada com um período de seis dias de escuro e 3,0miM de AIB.<br>The this work was improve in vitro rooting percentage and quality of the apple rootstock 'Marubakaido' (Malus prunifolia Borkh.) through reduction of the damaging effects caused by excess auxin during rooting period. Shoots with three pair leaves (2.5 - 3.0 cm) derived from the in vitro multiplication process were utilized. The medium used had MS vitamins and salts MS/2, 100mg/l-1 myo-inositol, 30 g/l'1 sucrose and 6 g/l-1 agar. The pH was adjusted to 5,9 before adding the agar. The shoots remained 2, 4 and 6 days in the dark under three IBA concentrations as follows: 0; 1.0 and 3.0 muM. After that period they transferred to a medium without growth regulator and displayed in a growth chamber at 25 &plusmn;2&deg; C, 16 hour photoperiod and 2000 lux. The lack of IBA or its lowest concentration reduced the rooting as the darkening period increased showing a negative linear effect. For the highest auxin level it was not observed any difference in the rooting for all the darkening periods witch presented over 80% rooting. Shoots treated witch IBA showed a higher number of roots as the darkening periods increased. It was observed that roots formed mainly in the base shoots soars. Plantlets showed gradual increase in leaf area witch the increase and IBA concentration and the period remained in the dark. The highest survival percentage occurred with higher IBA treated explants. The highest plantlet quality were obtained with 6 days darkening period under 3.0 muM IBA. Although the svstem IBA/darkness seems to improve quality it requires further manipulation of the individual explants and a renewed medium is also required