Non-representational thinking: Methodologische Überlegungen anhand des Bonner Sperrmüllassemblages

Abstract

This paper undertakes a creative exploration of bulky rubbish [sperrmüll] in the City of Bonn by expanding on and utilising what has come to be known as non-representational thinking. Through a non-representational engagement with sperrmüll, I shed light on waste as a significant human-nonhuman ecology as it appears in an especially routinised manifestation in urban space. In doing so, the paper contributes to a discussion about enacting non-representational methodologies within German-speaking human geography. Here, there are three methodological interventions for a non-representational endeavour: (1) interfering, (2) material thinking, and (3) writing and presentation. These interventions are supported by revisiting Deleuze and Guattari's notion of assemblage; using it as a way to attend to sperrmüll as an area-sized fabrication connecting humans and various other materialities, and which directs thought towards a wide array of agencies. In conclusion, non-representational perspectives are advanced as a way to expose the affective ecologies that enable certain actions and hamper others.