Disturbances in the Theoretical Field
Quantum field theory holds that the universe is permeated by a multiplicity of fields which, when excited, manifest as physical instances of fundamental particles. The fields provide an underlying intangible structure, and certain sets of conditions agitate discrete units—single electrons, single photons, single quarks—into being. I like to imagine that intellectual production of and engagement with film theory creates an analogous dynamic. Factors such as an individual’s body of knowledge, life experiences, and historical context form a field of consciousness—a frame of reference—through which certain disruptions can ripple and manifest in the mind as singular theoretical concepts. However, unlike quantum fields, our frames of reference shift constantly as a consequence of theorizing. The creation of new concepts means that we see the world in a new way, one that wasn’t available to us before.
As a student conducting scholarly work both within and between the fields of film studies and postcolonial studies—two concentrations which are both rigorously interdisciplinary in their concerns and methodologies—I am no stranger to Deleuze’s theoretical toolbox. Admittedly, my conception of film theory as a creative activity is shamelessly influenced by Deleuze’s open approach to history and concepts as Becoming rather than Being in philosophical terms. Nonetheless, reading Laura Marks’s article “A Deleuzian Politics of Hybrid Cinema” and grappling with her concepts of counter-memory in post-colonial spaces allowed me to articulate questions about collective memory and the ideological implications of indexical realism in the context of my own documentary work.
