Nullpunktet?

Abstract

How does art produce subjectivity, and does art always work for a better production of subjectivity? With an outset in an ethnographic study and participatory observation of youth encountering practices of contemporary art in upper secondary school, the article introduces Félix Guattari’s concepts regarding serial and singular processes of subjectivation, passages from territory to deterritorialization, and the role the poetic function plays in the production of subjectivity. As the study indicates, poetic practices involved in the production of subjectivity can work for better or worse. In other words, art cannot be immediately beneficial for democracy, the environment, or individual or collective mental health and wellbeing; yet the methods and processes of art are disruptive, allowing for the possibility of subjectivation.