Rhizome

From Capitalism and Schizophrenia

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Bermuda Grass. Propagation is by rhizomes, stolons, or seeds. In some cases it is considered to be a weed; it spreads through lawns and flower beds, where it can be difficult to kill with herbicides without damaging other grasses or plants. It is difficult to pull out because the rhizomes and stolons break readily, and then re-grow.

Young ginger rhizomes are juicy and fleshy with a very mild taste. They are often pickled in vinegar or sherry as a snack or just cooked as an ingredient in many dishes. They can also be stewed in boiling water to make ginger tea, to which honey is often added as a sweetener; sliced orange or lemon fruit may also be added. Mature ginger roots are fibrous and nearly dry. The juice from old ginger roots is extremely potent and is often used as a spice in Chinese cuisine to flavor dishes such as seafood or mutton

“The rhizome is an acentered, nonhierarchical, nonsignifying system without a General and without an organizing memory or central automation, defined solely by a circulation of states” (ATPC 23). The model of thought for rhizomatics, schizoanalysis, stratoanalysis, pragmatics, and micropolitics.

The rhizome is characterized by six principles ("approximate characteristics" (ATPC 7)) – all active simultaneously – described in the introduction chapter of A Thousand Plateaus:

[edit] Principles

1. Connectivity – the capacity to aggregate by making connections at any point on and within itself.
2. Heterogeneity – the capacity to connect anything with anything other, the linking of unlike elements
3. Multiplicity – consisting of multiple singularities synthesized into a “whole” by relations of exteriority
4. Asignifying rupture – not becoming any less of a rhizome when being severely ruptured, the ability to allow a system to function and even flourish despite local “breakdowns”, thanks to deterritorialising and reterritorialising processes
5. Cartography – described by the method of mapping for orientation from any point of entry within a "whole", rather than by the method of tracing that re-presents an a priori path, base structure or genetic axis
6. Decalcomania – forming through continuous negotiation with its context, constantly adapting by experimentation, thus performing a non-symmetrical active resistance against rigid organization and restriction

[edit] Related articles

• Rhizome-book

[edit] External links

Toward a Theory of Hypertextual Design – by Kathleen Burnett; on hypertext as rhizome

“Chapter 1: Internet-rhizome” – from the book Internet: Towards a Holistic Ontology by Chuen-Ferng Koh; on Internet as rhizome

Wikipedia entry on the biological concept of Rhizome