Each one is already several… Collaboration in the context of the differential self. Notes on Goat Island & Deleuze & Guattari

In this paper, I will try to develop a concept of collaboration based upon the discussion of two specific collaborative practices: the collaborative philosophy of Deleuze and Guattari, and the collaborative performance work of Goat Island. Both of these practices are instances of collaborative-thinking; or better, perhaps, I want to suggest that whilst all thinking-practices belong to a process that tends towards collaboration on the one hand and subjectification or individualization on the other, these particular practices tend more towards collaboration than others – and not just because they involve more than one person. After all, why collaborate, if - as Deleuze and Guattari put it - each one is already several, if the self – in other words - is already a site of difference and multiplicity? How can collaboration be conceived if ‘self’ and ‘other’ are construed as the by-products, rather than as the basis, for a more fundamental becoming, processuality or we might say, collaboration of all things? What specificity, if any, can be left for collaboration if we acknowledge that the solo artist or author was never self-present or self-identical in the first place? These are some of questions addressed in this paper