This text is an excerpt from the chapter “The Smooth and the Striated” in the book “A Thousand Plateaus” by Gilles Deleuze. and Felix Guattari.
They divide space into two broad categories: “smooth space” and “striped space. A smooth space is a nomadic, non-centered, rhythmic, tactile space, a space that is not constant and changing with direction. Striped space, on the other hand, is national, center-oriented, visual, and measurable, a space that is delimited and organized by fixed coordinate axes.
It is argued that these two spaces are not simply dichotomous, but are always intertwined with each other, in a complex relationship of mutual transition from smooth to striped space and from striped to smooth space.
Deleuze and his colleagues use models as diverse as textiles, music, oceanography, mathematics, physics, and aesthetics to highlight the characteristics and interrelationships of these two spaces. Finally, they state that although smooth space itself has no emancipatory force, it is where the nature of the struggle is transformed and life faces new stakes.
Overall, this is a unique discussion that rethinks the way we perceive space while using unique concepts, but it is also highly abstract and difficult to understand.
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