Manuel DeLanda

Since 1975, Manuel DeLanda has maintained a base in New York City, transitioning from experimental filmmaker to a prominent voice in materialist philosophy. Born in Mexico City in 1952, he has built an academic career that bridges the gap between continental theory and the hard sciences, focusing on self-organization, urban history, and the complexity of synthetic systems.

Early Experimental Filmmaking

During his initial years in New York, DeLanda engaged with the No Wave movement and the Cinema of Transgression. Between 1975 and 1982, he produced experimental works using Super 8 and 16mm film, often as part of his studies at the School of Visual Arts. Notable titles include the 1979 film Ismism and the 1980 work Raw Nerves: A Lacanian Thriller. Although he eventually withdrew these films from circulation following the loss of original negatives, Anthology Film Archives restored and reissued the collection in 2011.

THE FREE TEST

How high is yours?

Twenty questions, eight minutes on the clock, and a percentile measured against everyone who has taken it. No sign-up.

Take the IQ test →

Shift toward Materialism

By the mid-1980s, DeLanda abandoned film theory and post-Freudian concepts of the unconscious. He pivoted toward the synthesis of Deleuzian theory and the study of complex systems, such as artificial life and cellular automata. This intellectual trajectory informed his early books, specifically War in the Age of Intelligent Machines, released in 1991, which examined the intersection of command and control technologies with modern warfare.

Academic and Philosophical Career

DeLanda holds a BFA from the School of Visual Arts, earned in 1979, and a PhD in media and communication from the European Graduate School, completed in 2010. He serves as the Gilles Deleuze Chair at the European Graduate School and has held teaching positions at Princeton University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Pratt Institute. His previous roles include adjunct positions at Columbia University and Cooper Union, as well as a visiting professorship at the University of Southern California.

Contributions to Assemblage Theory

His research interests encompass nonlinear dynamics, chaos theory, and the philosophy of science. Key publications include A Thousand Years of Nonlinear History (1997), Intensive Science and Virtual Philosophy (2002), and A New Philosophy of Society (2006). In recent years, he has continued to expand his philosophical framework with works such as Philosophical Chemistry (2015), Assemblage Theory (2016), and Materialist Phenomenology (2021), focusing on the emergence of synthetic reason and the nature of material culture.