“Imbricated subject” is my attempt to come up with a name that describes me and my interests, while also being related to my worldview as well as being original. Imbrication, in the most technical sense, is the overlapping of tiles on a roof, so that no space is left between them to allow rain through. It is of French origin, and it is through the landmark Anti-Oedipus by Deleuze & Guattari (French philosophers) that I was first introduced to the word and it’s application to capitalism’s influence on our experience:
Two inscriptions coexist in the imperial formation, and mutually adjust insofar as the one is imbricated into the other, but the new inscription cements the whole and brings the producers and products into relations with itself (they do not need to speak the same language).
Deleuze, G. & Guattari, F., Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism & Schizophrenia, pp.. 199
I am not going to go in to the meaning of this (although D&G are hugely influential on me and this will show in future posts), but I do want to explain how I take this word and use it in a more personal sense. If we use imbrication as an overlapping area of identity, where traditional classifiers are insufficient to categorize a subject as A vs. B in domain Y, then it becomes a good signifier for what I am trying to express. This is closely related to the more overarching concepts in D&Gs work, such as the body without organs, nomads and deterritorialization. All of this is related to being in constant flux and not remaining in one area long enough to be identified as such.
The imbricated subject is just that, a subject who’s/that’s only identity is to be in constant defiance of being identified. This begins as cultural categories, political affiliations, mundane interests and gender but extends to phenomenology (virtual vs. the real), ecology (where does nature begin), artificiality (what is the line between created and organic).
I will end this introductory post in a very Deleuzian manner, with a far-fetched analogy:
The moment we are born, we are identified by absolutes, a birth date, a name, a mother and father, a gender and a race. Just as the shingles on a roof that, in response to the elements, are fused together until their edges seem to disappear; the imbricated subject is born clearly apart and identifiable, but with exposure to the environment becomes more and more fluid and unidentifiable.
