The coexistence of machines (desiring, abstract, war) and the possibility of a queer resistance in the science-fiction novel The Cage of Zeus by Sayuri Ueda and Project Itoh’s, Harmony

The notion of machine infiltrates in a rhizomatic way the philosophical works of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. In Anti-Oedipus (1972), they propose the notion of desiring-machines to conceptualize an immanent theory of desire in opposition to mainstream psychoanalysis. Eight years later, in A Thousand Plateaus (1980), the concept of desiring-machine is replaced by what they describe as either an abstract machine or a war machine. In this communication, I want to investigate the coexistence of these different types of machine (desiring, abstract, war) and how they constitute different tools to resist heteronormativity, patriarchy, and capitalism. This talk will be divided into two parts: the first, is more theoretical and will develop a genealogy of the different use of machines in their work. In the second part, I want to illustrate the coexistence of different machinic usage in the work of two different Japanese artists. First, is the science-fiction novel written by Sayuri Ueda called The Cage of Zeus. The second is the anime adaptation of Project Itoh’s, novel Harmony made by Michael Arias and Takashi Nakamura. Our aim is to see how the radical potential of Deleuze and Guattari’s thought is reflected in these novels and animes. Finally, many questions can be asked: how the notion of machine evolve in their work? How the work of Sayuri Ueda and Project Itoh can help us discuss this evolution? What is the radical potential of desiring, abstract or war machines?