Félix Guattari: Thought, Friendship, and Visionary Cartography

Bifo:Well, from what I understood, Félix himself was very discreet

about this, protective. The topic of his relationship with Deleuze was

basically a rather secret matter. I met Deleuze at Guattari’s place only

one time because their meetings were not a public thing. I seem to

have understood from Félix – because the question of collaborative

writing is a question that interests me greatly, even recently, for a

thousand reasons – that their procedure, let’s call it, was like script-

writing: they worked out the script and then worked on it separately,

after which they would meet and work, not so much to correct but

rather to integrate. This is a method I would call recombinant, rather

in the sense of Raymond Queneau, that is, the idea according to which

there is an automatism in the language process that is derived from

understanding on another level. That is, there is no need to polish off,

but rather a need to combine, I seems to me. I would like to know

more about it.

GM:So basically it’s a beautiful gamble writing together, it seems – that is,

it becomes a gamble.

Bifo:I don’t know if you know Wu-Ming, formerly known as Luther

Blissett ...^10

GM:Well I do not know them personally but I have heard about them.

Bifo:I know them well, and I am curious and have tried to understand

how they do it. We are great friends, and I have asked many times how

do they do it? And this is how they proceed, that is, with a script, each

of them writing it all, and then they see what works well. So this is a

method that is not one of correction, but of combination.

GM:To move a bit toward the present. From a conceptual perspective on

things that are useful now, you have this concept of the ‘semiochemical’ that

I found interesting. You make it clear that this is the way in which Deleuze

and Guattari interpret the concept of the sign. That is, the sign is not only a

convention, but also has a corporeal existence, a real effect on bodies, and

you speak also about viruses. So how do you find this concept of the semio-

chemical – that is, a concept of direct production, from the point of view of

capital – now that we are in the era of cognitive capitalism, or the immater-

iality of work, when you no longer produce machines but advertisements, and

the ad is not as a pure sign, but something that also changes bodies? Do you

find that this semiochemical concept might be combined, or at least do you

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