This text sets the theoretical basis for [[Organon Lutherie Lab#Organon Lutherie Lab I Uncharted Territories]] Elin Kanhov September 2026 >Thus Diagram plays in the in-between space of both materiality and [its] non-indexicality, while still reflecting features of the object without trying to stand for it. (Panayotov, 2016) What is a diagram, and what is the practice of diagramming? How can a diagrammatic process be used when considering lutherie in practice? One immediate idea of the diagram might be that it is precisely an idea—a representation of an object that can be directly translated into reality. However, in poststructuralist thought, notably in that of the thinkers Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, the concept of diagram reaches far beyond aspects of representation. In Deleuze and Guattari’s words, the “diagrammatic or abstract machine does not function to represent, even something real, but rather constructs a real that is yet to come, a new type of reality” (Deleuze & Guattari, 2013, p. 164). It is therefore almost easier to begin with what a diagram is not. A diagram is not a blueprint of a machine to be built. It is not mimetic, metaphorical, or metonymic, for such representations are already reductions of what a machine can do, with what and whom it interacts, and what expressions it produces.  The diagram cannot mirror the form—function—expression—content of the machine. Rather, the diagram refers to what Deleuze and Guattari call the abstract machine—a potential modality of a thing, contraption, apparatus, body, or assemblage. Functioning as an abstract map of forces and relations between entities and structures, the diagram constructs simultaneously as it presents those forces and relations. The diagram is therefore an act of cartography. Through cartography, Deleuze and Guattari separate between practices of mapping and practices of tracing. Whereas a tracing reconstructs something that already exists—in a reductive, non-productive manner—the virtual mapping orients towards experimentation in direct relation to the actual. By mapping a diagram, new transversalities, or what Deleuze and Guattari also term lines of flight, can emerge—actions, forces, or expressions that otherwise escape reproducibility.   The new materialist thinkers Rick Dolphijn and Iris van der Tuin perceive such transversalities that diagrams can produce central to new materialist critique of oppositions and dualisms (Dolphijn & Tuin, 2012). The diagram traverses across, and thus eliminates, the dualisms of matter and meaning, of body and mind, and nature and culture. Sounds, particularly, hold exceptional potential in traversing across, between, and beyond such dualisms. And lutherie in practice can be a process where materialities, temporalities, audiences, signals and signs can come into being, together.  From the concept of diagram, then, we propose the practice of diagramming. To diagram is to map points in a space that does not yet exist; to express words that have yet to form meaning; to move in directions yet to realize their destination. In a sense, musical instruments are already diagrammatic, as they encourage sonic explorations of the unexpected, the unintended, and the so-far unrealized. It is in their encounter with bodies, movements, and spatialities that instruments ignite potential sonic realizations. Still, the diagram is not meant to be all-encompassing—it can never, and should never, capture the totality of an assemblage. Neither can it, for what can? Its purpose is rather to open up towards uncharted territories. By connecting the practice of diagramming with the practice of lutherie, we encourage thinking and acting beyond. Which forms—functions—expressions—content can come into play through your diagramming? Which forces and relations emerge from your lutherie practice? # References Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. (2013). A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia (B. Massumi, Trans.). Bloomsbury Academic. Dolphijn, R., & Tuin, I. van der. (2012). New materialism: Interviews & cartographies. Open humanities press. Panayotov, S. (2016). Diagram. New Materialism. https://newmaterialism.eu/almanac/d/diagram.html