I have been reading Deleuze and Guattari and their ideas of becoming, the rhizome, assemblages, lines of flight and how they see everything on a continuum. This for me is interesting as Deleuze suggests that rather improvisation be viewed as virtuality and actualisation (stratification). He states “That the virtual could be confused with the possible. The possible is opposed to the real; the process undergone by the possible is “realisation”. By contrast, the virtual is not opposed to the real; it possesses a full reality by itself. The process it undergoes is actualisation.” (Deleuze, qtd. In Peters 2017). So, we have virtuality and actualisation sat together holding what it means to improvise and then we have the possible which is opposed to the real however it goes through a process of realisation. In other words, while the possible goes through a process of realisation virtuality goes through a process of actualisation. Peter states something else is happening, something to do with live-ness, with the physicality of the performance, the proximity of bodies, the fallibility of the human, the phenomenological intensity of the “flesh”, and the now-ness of the now.” (Peters, 2017:161). Deleuze states that the virtual is the unforeseen yet potentiality of something. Not to be confused with possibility, as it precedes possibility. The unknown, sometimes unchartered but often just unexpected moments that occur and present themselves to the audience and performers alike. It is my aim through play and improvisation in this exploration period to explore the virtual, precede possibility and go through a process of actualisation.
