Becoming-Cyborg: A “Complicated Conversation” Concerning Cancer, Chaos, Complexity, and Collaborative Currere

• In Event: Roundtable Session 5
  In Roundtable Session: Complex Relationships, Complex Conversations

Abstract

This paper emerges from a dialogue which commenced when Noel Gough interjected the concept of ‘becoming-cyborg’ into conversations about his partner Annette Gough’s experiences of breast cancer, which initially prompted her to (re)interpret her experiences as a ‘chaos narrative’ of cyborgian and environmental embodiment. This paper demonstrates how the materialisation of Deleuzean theoretical concepts in Annette’s changing body enabled new appreciations of their interpretive power. The paper also contributes to contemporary conversations and literature about the uses of collaborative writing as a method of inquiry. By mobilising ‘becoming-cyborg’ in ways that de-emphasise points of individual subjectification, the authors produce a multiplicity of bifurcating, divergent and rhizomatic lines of flight which move them to imagine new possibilities for thought and action.

Authors

• Annette E. Gough, RMIT University

• Noel Gough, La Trobe University