How can the embodied subject be recreated as a chaotic, mobile, and creative space? In A Thousand Plateaus, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari propose intermediary “milieus” between rigid forms to be where creative chaos and transversal communication may happen. The question is: How can the already formed subjects like us become milieus? Taichi offers a way to further develop the relation between subjectivity and the mobile milieus in Deleuze and Guattari’s philosophy. This paper analyzes the verb “shu” (虛) in the practice of Taichi, translates it into “mobile milieus” in dialogue with Deleuze and Guattari, and explores the subjective practice inherent in it. While “shu” in Daoism means an empty space full of potential, in Taichi, it refers to the practice of “mobile milieus” that creates internal space for mobility by the shifting of weight between two feet. This verb describes not only “not bearing weight” but also “the space that is open to feel and move.” In the varied process of shifting the body’s weight from one sole to the other, the whole body constantly, fluidly, and molecularly reorganizes its structure in relation to gravity and recreates the space within it. This changing space is not any fixed forms but endless, numberless milieus. These mobile milieus in the body enable sensitive communication between parts of the body in relation to gravity. Such a practice redefines subjectivity as what is able to be sensitive to relations between forms and become mobile spaces by constantly transforming its own structure.

Authors:
Shan-ni Sunny Tsai, Academia Sinica, Taiwan

About the Presenter(s)
Dr Shan-ni Sunny Tsai is a University Postdoctoral Fellow or Instructor at Academia Sinica in Taiwan

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