Pure Designation. Deleuze’s Reading of Hjelmslev in The Time-Image

In the second chapter of The Time-Image, Deleuze addresses the conditions of possibility of a semiology of cinema. These conditions depend on the relations between cinema and language: under what conditions can cinematic images and signs be understood as a language? In other words, (how) can cinematic images and signs be inscribed in the discursive plane of the signifiable? Discussing Christian Metz’s semiological approach of cinema, Deleuze argues that the structural conditions of linguistics and of post-Saussurian semiology cannot adequately render intelligible the specificity of cinematic semiosis. Drawing on Louis Hjelmslev’s semiotics, Deleuze redefines the specificity of a relation of designation distinct from a relation of signification (strictly linguistic), a specificity that concerns the fact that the designative relation is antecedent and heterogeneous to any signifying relation. Put differently, the very constitution of the sign is redefined: in opposition to semiology, semiotics becomes the study of images and signs as (1) being independent of language in general and (2) expressing a “non-language material”. This article explicates the importance of Hjelmslev’s semiotic theory in The Time-Image by offering a detailed account of the constitution of the sign in Hjelmslev’s Prolegomena to a Theory of Language and by tracing Deleuze’s earlier appreciation of Hjelmslev in Anti-Oedipus and its intricate relation to his appreciation of Jean-François Lyotard’s theory of designation in Discourse Figure

The Work of Art as Monument: Deleuze and the (After-) Life of Art

In the last chapter of What is Philosophy? Deleuze and Guattari conceptualise the work of art as a paradoxical monument which does not commemorate a past, but rather, preserves itself in the absence of man. The key to understanding this paradox lies in the further determination of the monument as a ‘being of sensations’: a ‘compound’ of ‘percepts’ and ‘affects’, meaning, a composition of invisible forces that populate the world, affect us, and make us become. Art would provoke an encounter with inhuman conditions of life which in daily, pragmatic life are often not given a chance. Yet, why still speak in terms of visibility and invisibility if there is not even an eye to perceive? How to understand a conception of art which refuses to think it in terms of human needs, for example exactly of commemorating the past? Deleuze was well aware of these questions, as the chapter on percept, affect and concept repeatedly re-affirms its radical appeal. In this paper I aim to elucidate this novel understanding of art as unwordly monument. I will do so firstly by looking into its implicit dialogue with the phenomenologists Erwin Straus and Henri Maldiney. Secondly, Theodor W. Adorno's essay 'Valéry Proust Museum' will serve as a ground for formulating what might be called the Deleuzian 'after-life' of art

Linking Ultracold Polar Molecules

We predict that pairs of polar molecules can be weakly bound together in an ultracold environment, provided that a dc electric field is present. The field that links the molecules together also strongly influences the basic properties of the resulting dimer, such as its binding energy and predissociation lifetime. Because of their long-range character these dimers will be useful in disentangling cold collision dynamics of polar molecules. As an example, we estimate the microwave photoassociation yield for OH-OH cold collisions.Comment: 4 pages 2 figure

Influence of drought on foliar water uptake capacity of temperate tree species

Foliar water uptake (FWU) has been investigated in an increasing number of species from a variety of areas but has remained largely understudied in deciduous, temperate tree species from non- foggy regions. As leaf wetting events frequently occur in temperate regions, FWU might be more important than previously thought and should be investigated. As climate change progresses, the number of drought events is expected to increase, basically resulting in a decreasing number of leaf wetting events, which might make FWU a seemingly less important mechanism. However, the impact of drought on FWU might not be that unidirectional because drought will also cause a more negative tree water potential, which is expected to result in more FWU. It yet remains unclear whether drought results in a general increase or decrease in the amount of water absorbed by leaves. The main objectives of this study are, therefore: (i) to assess FWU- capacity in nine widely distributed key tree species from temperate regions, and (ii) to investigate the e ff ect of drought on FWU in these species. Based on measurements of leaf and soil water potential and FWU- capacity, the e ff ect of drought on FWU in temperate tree species was assessed. Eight out of nine temperate tree species were able to absorb water via their leaves. The amount of water absorbed by leaves and the response of this plant trait to drought were species- dependent, with a general increase in the amount of water absorbed as leaf water potential decreased. This relationship was less pronounced when using soil water potential as an independent variable. We were able to classify species according to their response in FWU to drought at the leaf level, but this classification changed when using drought at the soil level, and was driven by iso- and anisohydric behavior. FWU hence occurred in several key tree species from temperate regions, be it with some variability, which potentially allows these species to partly reduce the e ff ects of drought stress. We recommend including this mechanism in future research regarding plant- water relations and to investigate the impact of di ff erent pathways used for FWU