Milieu

Definition

Milieu, in the wiki's Deleuze-and-Guattari register, is a rhythmic block of space-time constituted by repetition — the field of force that a lived mark radiates. The concept's source-formula in the wiki comes from Wise's essay quoting A Thousand Plateaus: "The milieu is 'a block of space-time constituted by the periodic repetition of the component'" (A Thousand Plateaus, p. 313, quoted p. 391). Its founding scene is the child in the dark: "The child, 'gripped with fear, comforts himself by singing under his breath.' The song is calming, a stability amidst the chaos, the beginning of order. The song marks a space, the repetition of the simple phrases structures that space and creates a milieu" (p. 391) — the song (D&G's refrain) as home's elementary operation: comfort drawn from sonic marking repeated in time.

Milieus are made in more ways than song. They are made by bodies ("we mark space more subtly by placing objects (a coat saves the seat), or by arranging our stuff… or even our bodies (posture opens and closes spaces)," p. 392), by smoke, scent and symbol, by "the very words we use, the language we speak, the accent we speak it in" (p. 392), and above all by the lived object: "The marker (wall, road, line, border, post, sign) is static, dull, and cold. But when lived (encountered, manipulated, touched, voiced, glanced at, practised) it radiates a milieu, a field of force, a shape of space" (p. 392). The canonical example is rhythmic and mobile: "The bass-heavy rhythm pounding from a car driving by shapes the space of the street, changes the character of that space… The resonant space thus created is a milieu" (p. 391). Milieus are transient and layered: "Milieus cross, 'pass into one another; they are essentially communicating;' rhythms blend and clash" (p. 391, D&G quoted) — the street's own milieus "reassert themselves after it leaves" (p. 392). And they are everywhere-connected: "As practised, our life-world is flooded by the variant radiance of the milieus. Each milieu opens up onto others" (p. 392), so that "No space is enclosed, but is always multidimensional, resonant and open to other spaces" (p. 393).

Milieu's relation to territory is the concept's structural point: "What creates the territory is an accretion of milieu effects. Each milieu affects the space, bends it, inflects it, shapes it. Compound these effects, but then make these effects expressive rather than functional. The resultant space is the territory" (p. 393). "Territories are not milieus. 'A territory borrows from all the milieus; it bites into them, seizes them bodily (although it remains vulnerable to intrusions). It is built from aspects or portions of milieus'" (p. 393, D&G quoted). The milieu radiates; the territory expresses. The home is the paradigm case: "Home, likewise, is a collection of milieus, and as such is the organization of markers (objects) and the formation of space. But home, more than this, is a territory, an expression" (p. 393).

This page requires fuller treatment — created at the Wise ingest to hold the Deleuzian milieu against the wiki's atmosphere, space and territory pages (see log).

Key Thinkers

• Gilles Deleuze (with Félix Guattari, not yet paged — see log) — the concept's source: A Thousand Plateaus' milieus ("blocks of space-time constituted by the periodic repetition of the component," p. 313), the child's refrain, and the territory's borrowing ("A territory borrows from all the milieus; it bites into them, seizes them bodily," p. 314, quoted p. 393).
• J Macgregor Wise — the concept's home-applier: the milieu as the mechanism between the lived marker and the territory; the car-rhythm, the Ganesha's "milieu-radiance," the life-world "flooded by the variant radiance of the milieus" (2000/2006).
• Henri Lefebvre — the rhythm-analyst whose body-as-rhythms account the milieu's periodicity extends (Lefebvre's body "as an ensemble of rhythms"; Wise's culture-assemblage is "by way of" Lefebvre's The Production of Space, note 14).

Related Concepts

• territory — the concept's compound: territory as the accretion of milieu effects made expressive; the milieu radiates, the territory expresses and "bites into" the milieus it borrows.
• home — milieu's lived compound: the home as "a collection of milieus… organized… and the formation of space" — the paradigm territory assembled from milieu effects.
• repetition — the milieu's constitutive temporality: "the periodic repetition of the component" — the song's phrases structuring space by return.
• habit — the accumulation-side: the milieu's periodic repetitions sedimented as habitual acts; the headnote's home "established by… the accumulation of habitual acts."
• haecceity — the moving milieu's individuation: the car-with-its-rhythm as the haecceity-case (individuation by speeds and rests rather than substance).
• smooth-and-striated-space — the spatial politics of the milieu-field: space "composed of vectors, speeds" against the static marker's metric order.
• deterritorialisation — the system the milieu belongs to: the territorializing forces that make home and identity; the street's milieus reasserting themselves as reterritorialization.
• trace — the marker's double existence: static trace ("markers are traces of movement that has passed") and radiating milieu ("when lived… it radiates a milieu").
• boundaries — the marker's architectural form: walls, fences, posts — static, dull, cold — vs the lived marker's field of force.
• atmosphere — the felt-quality cousin: milieu as radiated field-of-force vs atmosphere as staged or calculated mood; the concept-page distinction (D&G rhythm vs Böhme/Baudrillard affect).
• Practiced Place — the lived condition: the marker "when lived (encountered, manipulated, touched, voiced, glanced at, practised)" — de Certeau's practicing as the milieu's ignition.
• life-world — the flooded whole: "As practised, our life-world is flooded by the variant radiance of the milieus" — the life-world not as Husserl's taken-for-granted ground but as a resonant field of milieu-radiance.
• comfort — the milieu's affective yield: the song's "stability amidst the chaos"; "the whistling and comfort-effect that is home."
• Everyday Life — the domain of the milieu's making: humming, whistling, marking with stuff — the everyday's unconscious spatial practice.

Source Support

Sources in the wiki that discuss this concept:

• Home: Territory and Identity (Wise 2000/2006) — the concept's source: the D&G child-in-the-dark opening and the milieu definition (p. 391); the car-rhythm and street milieus (pp. 391–392); the marker that radiates "a milieu, a field of force, a shape of space" when lived (p. 392); "our life-world is flooded by the variant radiance of the milieus" and the Ganesha's "milieu-radiance" (pp. 392–393); and the milieu→territory formula ("an accretion of milieu effects… expressive rather than functional," p. 393).

Open Questions

• Is the milieu the atmosphere-theory's rival or complement? The wiki's atmosphere registers (Böhme's staged atmospheres, Baudrillard's calculated ones, Solomon's wielded ones) theorize the felt quality a room or scene emits; Wise's milieu is a rhythm-constituted space-time radiated by any lived marker — bodies, objects, songs, cars. Is the atmosphere the milieu's designed species (the marker deliberately staged), or a different production (atmosphere as quality, milieu as field)? And does the milieu's D&G lineage (the refrain, periodic repetition) give the atmosphere-cluster a mechanism it lacks?
• Can a milieu be designed without being lived? "The marker… is static, dull, and cold. But when lived… it radiates a milieu" — the radiance is the practice's product, not the object's property. Can interior architecture design milieus (arrange markers to radiate) or only their conditions — compare the comfort-effect question on home?
• The refrain's scope: the child's song is D&G's founding case, but Wise's examples range from cigarette smoke to accent. Is there a taxonomy of milieu-makers (sonic, olfactory, gestural, symbolic), and does the sung refrain remain the type?
• Milieu vs the non-place: the car and street are milieus; Augé's non-place is impersonal transit. Is the non-place a milieu that fails to territorialize, or a space-form the milieu-theory excludes? See non-places.