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This chapter explores the metaphysics and politics of being mixed, as well as the conditions (metaphysical, historical, etc.) under which being mixed creates an identity problem in the first place. It considers various proposed solutions to the problem, including assimilationism and nomadic subjectivity. It concludes with a description, assessment, and political analysis of the two main metaphysical options for conceptualizing mixed identity. The primary focus will remain on mixed racial identity, but race is mediated by ethnic and cultural identities in such a way that these cannot always be neatly disentangled.

This chapter explores the eco-philosophical aspects of the ethics of becoming, with reference to the project of nomadic subjectivity and sustainability. Nomadic philosophy mobilises one's affectivity and enacts the desire for in-depth transformations in the status of the kind of subjects we have become. Thus, nomadic ethics is not about a master theory, but rather about multiple micro-political modes of daily activism. As we shall see, it is essential to put the ‘active’ back into activism. This chapter suggests that the ethics of becoming is a way of not taking life for granted, while praising the radical immanence of subjects: it proposes becoming-imperceptible as transcendental empiricism.

This chapter considers three films by French documentary auteurs who late in their careers, chose to make road movies of sorts: Chris Marker’s Chats perchés/The Case of the Grinning Cat (2004); Agnès Varda’s Les Plages d’Agnès/The Beaches of Agnes (2008); and Claudine Nougaret and Raymond Depardon’s Journal de France (2012). It suggests that all three films share an experiential impulse, understood as an invitation to experience space in a mobile, exploratory mode, and the potential to unsettle, de-center, and displace the viewer. Instead of fulfilling the conventional authoritative role of documentary commentary that describes or explains, the narrative instance provides instead a multiple, fragmentary, and unstable narrative center, which comes into being through incomplete journeys with uncertain destinations.

This chapter begins with a discussion of the “knowing” subject as multiplicity, process, and becoming. It proposes an alternative vision of both the thinking subject, of his or her evolution, and of the structure of thinking. It develops this insight in two parallel directions: the first is a sociopolitical critique of the identity politics of the allegedly universal subject of knowledge. The second is a more conceptual critique of the rationalist takes of subjectivity but also of what it means to think at all. The remainder of the chapter discusses the decentering of anthropocentrism, which is one of the effects of the scientific advances of today; the theoretical and methodological implications of the postanthropocentric shift for the practice of science; an anti-Oedipal approach to the question of intergenerational ethics; and the Deleuzian-Nietzschean perspective ethics.

The consequences of the motivations and practices from the previous two chapters are considered here in terms of art spaces as spatio-temporal expressions. As an expression, the art space is more accurately depicted as an act and not an object. The issue of precariousness continues, particularly in view of the art spaces’ temporariness as a kind of adaptive strategy. Further reflections on nomadic agency consider their access to resources. The perspective of continuity challenges the dualistic character of whether the spatio-temporality of art spaces reflect their being either victim of precarity or subject or an agent of urban change. It raises questions about permanence, especially in connection to rhythms and patterns that reflect the desire for continuity.

This chapter explores Germany's response to the holocaust, examining the problem of how memorialisation might create a connection to the past without reinstating the Oedipal shadow of an original trauma. It suggests that the past is not so much a tangible terrain or a monumental time that acts as a warning or reminder both in the present and for future generations, but an admixture of times which affirm the present and future, and in so doing encourage a more nomadic subjectivity that identifies with a variety of subjectivities. The chapter discusses the limitations of the moulding of the landscape and re-empowering a community in order to respond to a shared loss.