A Philosophy of Practising - by Antonia Pont (Paperback)

About the Book

Provides an account of 'practising', its mechanisms and implications, in conversation with Deleuze's Difference and Repetition.

Book Synopsis

Antonia Pont shows us how to identify when practising is happening and explains, using the early philosophy of Gilles Deleuze, how it fosters transformation, and gives us access to deep memory and rest, while also cultivating stability and responsiveness in the present. Practising, in other words, gives us three kinds of time instead of one. Practising involves an interweaving of differences expressing themselves among intentional repetitions. By engaging in practising, we open times other than our habitual presents, we slip the binds of identity and we thin out our relation with behaviours that shut out the future. Whether you practise already, are curious about embarking, or are a reader of Deleuze, this book - for makers, thinkers, lovers and activists - is a rigorous account of why practising is hard to say, why it works and why it matters.

From the Back Cover

'A remarkable book that asks an unexpected question: what is a practice, what does it mean to practice something, to be a practitioner? Pont's provocative claim is that a practice isn't about getting something done or preparing for a future performance. It is a laboratory for the production of a rich, textured, impossibly complex nothing.' Joe Hughes, The University of Melbourne Provides a thorough account of 'practising', its mechanisms and implications, in conversation with the Deleuze of Difference and Repetition Antonia Pont shows us how to identify when practising is happening and explains, using the early philosophy of Gilles Deleuze, how it fosters transformation, and gives us access to deep memory and rest, while also cultivating stability and responsiveness in the present. Practising, in other words, gives us three kinds of time instead of one. Practising involves an interweaving of differences expressing themselves among intentional repetitions. By engaging in practising, we open times other than our habitual presents, we slip the binds of identity and we thin out our relation with behaviours that shut out the future. Whether you practise already, are curious about embarking, or are a reader of Deleuze, this book - for makers, thinkers, lovers and activists - is a rigorous account of why practising is hard to say, why it works and why it matters. Antonia Pont is Senior Lecturer in Writing, Literature and Culture at Deakin University, Australia. Cover images: Drip poem 1, 2, 3, 2020, 21 x 29.7 cm, Justin Gosker [delete 1 or 2 as appropriate] Cover design: riverdesignbooks.com ISBN 978-1-4744-9046-7 Barcode

Review Quotes

A Philosophy of Practising develops a philosophical understanding of the complexities and productivities of practices - artistic, sporting, nurturing or conceptual - that we engage with and call us beyond our current limits. It is a carefully conceived project that uses Gilles Deleuze's philosophical insights regarding difference and repetition to articulate the ways in which practising enables new modes of self-creation.

-- "Elizabeth Grosz, Duke University"

A remarkable book that asks an unexpected question: what is a practice, what does it mean to practise something, to be a practitioner? Pont's provocative claim is that a practice isn't about getting something done or preparing for a future performance. It is a laboratory for the production of a rich, textured and complex nothing, which can transform the way we relate to change.

--Joe Hughes, The University of Melbourne

Antonia Pont's achievement in this book is difficult to quickly summarise. This is a thinking-through practicing, displaying an extremely sensitivity to its manifold complexities; a meticulous, illuminating and fresh working-through of Gilles Deleuze's baroque philosophy of time; a consideration of rest and posture, injury and pain in their proper texture ... Pont does not simply reconstruct that familiar bridge between the cliché of blind practice and sovereign, panoptic philosophy. In place of application, this astonishing book instead presents a weaving, an intertwining, in the course of which the discrete places of philosophy and practice are themselves undone and redone over and over again, their original names lost in the difficult joy of their ceaseless transformation.

--Jon Roffe, Melbourne School of Continental Philosophy

Pont's remarkable study opens a largely unexamined dimension of experience to philosophical exploration. This is an important work for anyone interested in the subtleties and mysteries of masterfully practicing a discipline, an art, a vocation or an avocation. Highly recommended.

--Ronald Bogue, University of Georgia

About the Author

Antonia Pont is Senior Lecturer in Writing, Literature and Culture at Deakin University, Australia. She publishes poetry, fiction and essays as well as theoretical work across writing, literature and the creative arts. Her research is concerned with time, transformation, ethical capacity, thought, movement and joy. She is the founder of Vijnana Yoga Australia (2009- ), where she continues to practise, teach and lead retreats. Her collection of poetry You Will Not Know in Advance What You'll Feel was published in 2019 with Rabbit Poets Series and shortlisted for the Mary Gilmore Award (2020). She is co-author of Practising with Deleuze (Edinburgh University Press, 2017).