“How very important it is, when chaos threatens, to draw an inflatable, portable territory. If need be, I’ll put my territory on my own body, I’ll territorialize my body: the house of the tortoise, the hermittage of the crab, but also tattoos that make the body a territory.” (Deleuze 320)
There are many things that I must remain aware of, rather, that I am forced to remain aware of, when I consider the relationship of the body, my body, to an environment. It will suffice, for now, to suggest a profound transition or transformation; that several unexpected anxieties have arisen relating to my body, and correspondingly, its relationship to Detroit. The familiar and comfortable has, ultimately, been replaced by the “chaotic,” by annoyance, by frustration, by persistent anxiety. An unraveling? There exist, for the purposes of this post, two systems or periods of interaction (this is not to suggest that there are not other systems involved):
(5 B.T. – 0 B.T.)- The former system was one of incredible comfort. The body moved within the system without much disturbance or confrontation. I learned, I was assured, I moved, and felt myself moving without hinderance. I studied, and slept in my vehicle, and interacted with the environment freely, almost carelessly. Although territorialized, the body moved provocatively in relationship to what might be consider the chaotic; that which the territorialization is meant to put at a distance.
(0 B.T. - ) Panic! Reversion. Discomfort. Struggle. Paranoia rules all (The paranoid sees the operation of the signs in everything). The underlying threat never really subsides. Moments of freedom and clarity from the monotony of anxiety and restriction. The territorialization of the body is nearly absolute. I distance myself physically. Distance propels even greater anxiety. Deterritorialization? I am both within Detroit, and outside of Detroit simultaneously. I consider a gradutated means of approach. The body approaches systematically. It moves cautiously.
The transition is confronting, and yet, compelling. I am interested in writing/mapping this transition, with emphasis on the second period, on the second state of involvement.
