Machinic Eros ─ Writings on Japan

The French philosopher Felix Guattari frequently visited Japan during the 1980s and organized exchanges between French and Japanese artists and intellectuals. His immersion into the “machinic eros” of Japanese culture put him into contact with media theorists such as Tetsuo Kogawa and activists within the mini-FM community (Radio Home Run), documentary filmmakers (Mitsuo Sato), photographers (Keiichi Tahara), novelists (Kobo Abe), internationally recognized architects (Shin Takamatsu), and dancers (Min Tanaka). From pachinko parlors to high-rise highways, alongside corporate suits and among alt-culture comrades, Guattari put himself into the thick of Japanese becomings during a period in which the bubble economy continued to mutate. This collection of essays, interviews, and longer meditations shows a radical thinker exploring the architectural environment of Japan’s “machinic eros.”

Felix Guattari (1930–1992) was a French psychoanalyst, activist-intellectual, and philosopher known widely for his collaborations with Gilles Deleuze and Antonio Negri.

Gary Genosko is professor of communication at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology. His scholarship about Felix Guattari includesThe Guattari Reader, Felix Guattari: An Aberrant Introduction, Felix Guattari: A Critical Introduction, The Party without Bosses, Deleuze and Guattari Dictionary, andDeleuze and Guattari: Critical Assessments of Leading Philosophers.

Jay Hetrick is assistant professor of cultural studies at the American University in Dubai. He has published in the fields of twentieth-century art, continental aesthetics, and critical theory.