The document summarizes a presentation on the Rhizomatic Model of Learning based on the work of Deleuze and Guattari. It describes the rhizome as a way of learning based on ideas rather than literal words. Ideas can be understood in different ways and communicated in a non-linear fashion, similar to how a rhizome plant spreads underground. The presentation outlines six key principles of the rhizome model, including connection, heterogeneity, multiplicity, and asignifying rupture. It analyzes an example video artifact explaining how the internet exemplifies rhizomatic learning.

1. Rhizome
COMM 321 Presentation by:
Eduardo Soto, Floroliva Alvarez, Margreth Li, Monica Zelaya, and Onie Rahman

2. The Rhizomatic Model of Learning (slide by Margreth Li)
● The Rhizomatic model is better understood as a way of learning and thought to be compared to a
plant called the Rhizome which is used to explain how learning is based off of ideas rather than just
literal words.
● According to Deleuze & Guattari, “Let us summarize the principal characteristics of a rhizome:
unlike trees or their roots, the rhizome connects any point to any other point, and its traits are not
necessarily linked to traits of the same nature; it brings into play very different regimes of signs,
and even nonsign states. The rhizome is reducible neither to the One nor the multiple. It is not the
One that becomes Two or even directly three, four, five, etc. It is not a multiple derived from the
One, or to which One is added (n + 1). It is composed not of units but of dimensions, or rather
directions in motion. It has neither beginning nor end, but always a middle (milieu) from which it
grows and which it overspills” (p. 21).

3. Rhizomatic Model of Learning (slide by Margreth Li)
● What authors Deleuze & Guattari are trying to explain in their passage about the rhizome is that
the idea of the rhizome plant is related to learning in life.
● The roots described in the quote signify different ways that an idea can be understood.
● Although, the understanding of the idea may be different the concept is still related and
communicated and later taught.
● The idea starts in one place or foundation and from then on how it is communicated on is where
the learning should take place to understand how the idea was understood.
● The Rhizome concept: Neither the subject nor the object (the many ways to think about 1 idea and
how related it is to other ideas)

4. Rhizome Example/ Artifact:
● The following 3 minute video does a great job simplifying the idea of the Rhizome and also explains
how Wikipedia and the Internet is a good example of a Rhizome because there is “no central origin
or logical pattern to their growth” so it starts in the middle (“milleu”).
(slide by Margreth Li)

5. Artifact Significance
● In the video it shows different examples of rhizomes in our society such as maps, the internet, and
ginger but why is this of any importance to us?
● Deleuze & Guattari talk about Rhizomes in a learning aspect. Since we all started school we were
all fed information to believe/ think a certain way to just regurgitate later. Which is why the
rhizome model of learning is so important because it has no structure, it shows us to focus on the
idea rather the concrete information which can take us to any conclusion.
Monica Zelaya

6. Connection and Heterogeneity
● In the reading Rhizome is broken down into six different principles/ concepts:
Connection, Heterogeneity, Multiplicity, Asignifying Rupture, Cartography,
Delcalcomanina.
● Connection and heterogeneity like rhizomes are connected to one another at
anypoint unlike a tree which has root, trunk, and branches “a fixed order”
● The human population is a great example of a rhizome characteristics being diverse
and connected on multiple levels always changing.
● The Chomsky model begins at a point and proceeds by dichotomous, under this
model semiotic chain of nature can be found in biological, political, and economic
groups/organizations.
Monica Zelaya

7. Connection and Heterogeneity
(Quote)
● According to Deleuze & Guattari,“A rhizome ceaselessly establishes connections between
semiotic chains, organizations of power, and circumstances relative to the arts, sciences, and
social struggles....perceptive, mimetic, gestural, and cognitive: there is no language in itself, nor
are there any linguistic universals, only a throng of dialects, patois, slangs, and specialized
languages.” (pg. 7)
● In understanding the rhizome one can see how these ceaseless connections of different areas of
society are unending and ever multiplying this observed through gestures, images, langues, and the
like.
● In looking at a semiotic chain is like a diverse collection of different act such as signs, symbolism,
images, and objects. Language is also a divers act having no real pattern, starting or ending point.
Monica Zelaya

8. CONCEPTS

9. Concept: Multiplicity
“Principle of multiplicity: it is only when the multiple is effectively treated as a substantive,
‘multiplicity,’ that it ceases to have any relation to the One as subject or object, natural or
spiritual reality, image and world” (Deleuze & Guattari’s , p. 8).
Explanation: The complex structure of multiple lines that do not alter or divide a subject. The
multiplicity serves as its own subject and can not be altered unless replaced. It is the variety of
measurements and not the measurements themselves. Multiplicities can connect to other
multiplicity, or subjects.
Floroliva Alvarez

10. Concept: Principle of asignifying rupture
You may make a rupture, draw a line of flight, yet there is still
a danger that you will reencounter organizations that
restratify everything, formations that restore power to a
signifier, attributions that reconstitute a subjectanything you
like, from Oedipal resurgences to fascist concretions.
(Deleuze & Guattari’s , p. 9)
Explanation: The principle of an asignifying rupture is that it
will regrow if broken. The rhizome will grow in its old line or
in a new one, similar to a line of ants. The rhizome is
constantly reforming, disconnecting and reforming again.
Floroliva Alvarez

11. Quote:
“The rhizome is altogether different, a map and not a tracing” (Deleuze &
Guattari’s , p. 12).
Explanation: The rhizome is the original thought or idea. It is not traced from another and can not
be persuaded or controlled. The map is the drawing of a new location, it is not copied from an
existing location, or else it would be a traced. The map has multiple entries because it is the new
idea, unlike a tracing, that would always lead back to the same object it was traced by.
Floroliva Alvarez

12. Concept: How rhizome forms to its environment.
Quote:
“Unlike trees or their roots, the rhizome connects any point to any other point, and its traits are
not necessarily linked to traits of the same nature; it brings into play very different regimes of
signs, and even nonsign states”. (Deleuze & Guattari’s , p. 21)
Onie Rahman

13. Explanation
- This refers to the rhizome being able to mix with anything
it comes in contact with. Rhizome is universal to all types
of of aspects it touches. Which is symbolizes in the
reading as how we should be able to learn about different
concepts in life without any pushback. People need to
mesh and accept different ideals just like the rhizome.
Onie Rahman

14. Concept: Principle
of cartography and
decalcomania
Quote: A rhizome is not amenable to any structural or generative
model. It is a stranger to any idea of genetic axis or deep structure.
(Deleuze & Guattari’s p.12)
Eduardo soto

15. Explanation
The rhizome does not conform to any specific shape, rather like the map
, it free flows in any direction. The “map” has many openings, and can
connect at any point. In relation to ideas and learning, an idea could start
in one place, and end up in another. There are multiple ways to interpret
ideas and communicate them.

16. Conclusion
The rhizome was a model of learning created by Deleuze & Guattari that states that learning is based off ideas
not literal words. An idea can have start in one place, and as the idea is communicated, ends up in another place.
There are multiple ways an idea can be understood and communicated.
There are six principle concepts to the rhizome that include: 1) Principle of connection, 2) Principle of
heterogeneity, 3) Principle of multiplicity, 4) Principle of asignifying rupture, 5) principle of cartography, 6)
principle of decalcomania
Our artifact chosen is relevant to the topic because of how it compares things like the internet, wikipedia, and
maps and reinforces the idea that there is no real way of learning and that information can be picked up from
multiple points and sources. Deleuze & Guattari stress the importance that an idea could be understood from
different points and that like the plant, there is no beginning or end, but only the middle.