Deciding on diffraction

When two stones or more are dropped into a pool simultaneously, the resultant ripples of water that appear in concentric circles, move outwards and interfere with each other. These ripples also produce patterns that move with the flow, in a process that can be described as diffraction (Barad 2007). In contrast, still water that has not been disturbed can create mirror-like reflections -- a static product, mediated by light waves. On the other hand, refraction refers to the bending and splitting of light when lights waves move through different mediums and change speed. In this process there is a separation or dispersion of the waves, sometimes visible through rainbow colours.

The interactions of all forms of matter are recognized as important contributors to our insights and our actions. Like waves interfering with each other through the diffractive process, we can pull our research theories and data through each other to distinguish different patterns. This offers a new, alternative approach that shifts away from separation and stasis. It can be informative in facilitating difference to make a difference (Barad 2007). There is a growing and emerging interest in using diffractive methodologies for research in different disciplines. This shift takes research beyond a “conventional humanistic qualitative methodology” by expanding into the non-human materiality of matter and the interrelating relationships (Denzin & Lincolm 2011).

Feminist scholar Donna Haraway first considered diffraction as a valuable metaphor for feminist research in 1992 (Kaiser & Thiele 2014).  The notion of diffraction as a process in physics that can be related to philosophical understandings was further picked up by Karen Barad and taken forward through observations in quantum physics. Barad draws on the experimental work of Niels Bohr and other influential physicists to explain diffraction as “not a set pattern, but rather an iterative (re)configuring of patterns of differentiating-entangling” (Barad 2014:168). She explains meanings from the relationships in the entanglement of patterns of interference describing how matter matters by going beyond the geometrics that is associated with the optics of diffraction. It is a strong move away from traditional binary conceptions that tend to relate difference to something that is not the same, an otherness that has led to limiting dualist viewpoints such as shadow versus light, cause/effect, human/non-human amongst others.

Diffraction pushes outwards in a powerful way to illuminate differences and the spaces in-between. Diffraction encapsulates the dynamic complexity of the entanglement of space, time and all kinds of matter and includes a strong ethical component embedded in the relationships of the patterns of difference. For instance Barad (2012:68)  asserts “that our responsibility to questions of social justice have to be thought about in terms of a different kind of causality”.

The notion of cause and effect is expanded. When waves in the ocean crash against an obstacle they become superimposed on each other and can produce bigger waves or other variations of amplitude that depend on their timing, positioning and force amongst other influences. There is a multitude of possible responses to the waves interacting with each other. How this is interpreted depends on our viewpoints, perspectives and measuring processes.

In my research project I plan to identify differences through the intra-acting patterns that emerge. I will explore insights through one another to find “new patterns of thinking-being” (Barad 2012:58). This diffractive methodology acknowledges that I as the researcher will be immersed in the data, and through my developing relationships will be likely to become transformed in indeterminate and different ways, rather than assuming a distance from the data in a neutral and objective manner. The researchers take up a “responsibility to the entanglements of which we are a part” (Barad  2012:52).

In this appealing process there is a positive component that develops in the construction and deconstruction of phenomena that make up the patterns, and relate to each other, through connections that form, what Deleuze and Guattari (1987) term assemblages. This contrasts with some other critical stances that can be undermining through their binary conceptions that give value to some data and knowledge and discard other. Kaiser and Thiele (2014:166) suggest that “thinking-with-diffraction” opens up affirmative potentials to be a “subject-shifter”.

The image above was created on my iPad using the Flowpaper App. The drawing was imported into the Paper App where additional elements were added like the text.

Barad, K. 2014. Diffracting diffraction: Cutting together-apart. Parallax. 20:2:168-187. 

Barad, K. 2007. Meeting the universe halfway: Quantum physics and the entanglement of

matter and meaning. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Barad, K. 2012. “Matter feels, converses, suffers, desires, yearns and remembers” Interview with Karen Barad. In Dolphijn & Van der Tuin, New Materialism: Interviews & Cartographies. Open Humanities Press.

Deleuze, G., & Guattari. F. 1987. A thousand plateaus: Capitalism and schizophrenia. Trans. B. Massumi. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.

Kaiser, B. M. & Thiele, K. 2014. Diffraction: OntoEpistemology, Quantum Physics and the Critical Humanities, Parallax, 20:3:165-167.

St Pierre, E. 2011. Post qualitative research: the critique and the coming after. 2011. In Denzin & Lincoln (Eds), 4th Ed. The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research.