Before I start, I wish to state that my mathematics is poor as is my Lacanian reading, so please bear with my exposition. (I welcome your Q & A!)
I was looking up descriptions of Lacan's formulae of sexuation when I came across an interesting wiki entry on a Lacanian encyclopedia:
http://nosubject.com/Formulas_of_Sexuation
The entry claims that Lacan based his formulae on Aristotelian logic, according to which propositions are categorised into four classes:
1. Universal affirmative
2. Universal negative
3. Particular affirmative
4. Particular negative
THIS MARKS THE POINT FROM WHERE I EDITED MY POST - notes to help me more than anyone else...
According to the author, modern logic requires that the universal affirmative necessitates the existence of a particular negative. This particular negative correlates to the exception to the Phallic function which is described by the first male formula, in the top left of the table. There exists an exception on the female side of the table (in the first and second female formulae), which the wiki defines in terms of phallic jouissance: not all of the woman's jouissance is phallic jouissance. The jouissance which exists outside of the symbolic order, i.e. language, is an exception.
The exception as a general concept is a thing that is unknown. In Lacan, according to the wiki source, there is 'at least one exception'. There can be numerous exceptions then. And indeed, it is only in enumeration that the exception is acknowledged: I suggest that this is because it is unknown, even unpredictable; a mystery, how could its potential wealth of 'qualities' be accommodated? So, all that can be said in the present moment is 'there has to be at least one exception'.
I take the liberty of interpreting (because I sure do not understand!) the exception as the metaphor for those things or those beings which are not The One i.e. The Man. (Although this is a gross misinterpretation of Lacan such that I ought to relinquish any reference to his ideas. But I wish to move out from Lacan and use his formulae as an example of the problems inherent in any human symbolic Law - the inherent failure of them).
Following this, I regret that it seems impossible to define a continuum of exceptions, which would mean that the exceptions are not merely accounted for, literally. It seems as if the very logic used to describe the exception is part of the problem. Or, this is the melancholy of language.
I focus then on the exception.
An image came to mind some time before I thought about the above, of a bird's eye view camera Point-Of-View looking down upon the backs of four dancers arranged in a circle where their heads meet in the centre, like a flower. I will post my sketches after this post. Do you know a playground game of fortune, where you fold paper (which has various answers written on it according to rules of the game) such that you need to use both your hands to manipulate the paper, like a puppeted paper flower? I had a memory of this form when I thought of the configuration of the four dancers. I found examples of it for you:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_fortune_teller
http://www.mathematische-basteleien.de/fortune_teller.htm
Well, the ideas of chance and fortune associated with this game and to some extent, with the concept of the exception, influenced my idea for a performance. See the sketch I suppose.. !
The four dancers represent the four predicates of Aristotelian logic and thus also Lacan's formulae (although he goes against the rules of formal logic in creating the 'not-all', according to the wiki author above). Together in formation they create a circular figure, which is the emergent quality (of systems theory). The emergent quality is, until it comes into being and becomes part of a system, unpredictable, indistinguishable, unquantifiable: just like the exception.
The dancers move around in a circle: one revolution, at which point one actor lifts its head so that from the camera's POV, we see a Greek-style comedy mask. The actor lowers its head, and the group dance one more revolution. Each actor raises its head once. Then there is one more revolution, and then a costume change: Underneath the costume is like a jigsaw in that each actor comprises one part of the image printed over their backs. They have no masks on now either. I thought that the costume underneath could be all black if the first costume is all white or vice versa.
I also thought that it could be interesting to see the actors/dancers at the beginning of the film in the C & A (!) Lacanian-Yamamotoan dresses. One actor seen face on in full-size wearing the dress, the other three standing directly behind so we cannot at first detect them. Then they move out and form the configuration necessary to begin the revolution(s) I describe above...
I am thinking overall, or perhaps feeling is more apt, of the tragedy of challenge and defiance which I wish to approach as graceful tragicomedy instead. This feeling was stimulated by contemplating the idea of refusing to exploit the revelation of knowledge and the metaphorical device of Hikinuku to explore this.
(SH)
I like the idea of the exception, the subject AND the aesthetic as emergent properties, Simone, and think we should look into this.
ReplyDeleteQuestions:
1) What does the revolving and head tilting symbolise, or, does it have to symbolise anything?
2) What's the jigsaw image on the back of the dancers?
3) Why 'tragedy' of challenge and defiance? This could relate to the end-game play of late modernism, I suppose. But isn't all creative expression haunted by and generated out of this? Do we want to make this explicit or move beyond it?
To expand on my last point - this relates to my own personal instinct to focus on 'joy and leaping laughter', on Rimbaud joufully pissing in the face of dawn rather than be despairing of our fate as post-humanist artists-as-Übermenschen. What are your thoughts and feeling about this?
AK
I will try to answer:
ReplyDelete1) I wanted there to be a repetitive rhythm and movement and this was my first idea. It came to me instinctively rather than through consideration. Good/Bad! The fact that I was already thinking of the 4 dancers as part of a whole probably influenced that. (So perhaps it wasn't wholly instinctive) It doesn't have to symbolise anything: but I think it's important that it gestures towards an ever-emerging idea. Or: to gesture towards the idea of an ever-emerging...
2) The image on their backs under the first costume could be a spiral: this comes back to the clinamen idea which I will post up...
3) On the tragedy of challenge and defiance: I was reading about 17th century theatre in England and a contemporary writer summarised John Ford's play 'Tis a pity she's a whore': "Ford's uncompromising treatment of incestuous love is the summation of the tragedy of challenge and defiance". I had been struggling with a problem relating to my feeling about challenge and defiance, about the revolt, etc as a force of human will. This summary triggered off an instantaneous agreement in me; it's tragic because it's a perfect action yet it's brief, and then the consequences of its action are messy. The results cannot compare to this pure form of will i.e. the desire for change, out of which challenge and defiance come from. This is as far I've gotten with this yet!
This idea works with the idea of creative expression, definitely lends itself to haunting but as you say, also generating new actions, new 'will'...
Because of the heroic, poetic and then tragic (these three are related in this instance: the tragedy of the challenge coming to an end, of the anti-climax after the challenge, but moreover of the very gesture of challenge itself being tragic (because of how it positions the challenger in relation to what is being fought against)) challenge and defiance in literature, in art, in history, the notion of challenge reaches an impasse, a blind impasse. There must be comedy: and/or joy. To keep the movement multiple in form rather than trapped in a tragic loop.
As for Rimbaud, I find it difficult to relate to the metaphor (and literal act!) of pissing in the face of dawn because of my female urinating organs! So it seems to me like an aggressive, male act and thus metaphorically it fails to elicit any idea of joy. I would interpret that kind of joy as having some part of menace and/or spite. I think that there is too much excitement invoked, too much rigour, in the metaphor. I seek out some image that will lend itself less to force and more to a gentle-yet-firm enjoyment and scintillant apercu of our fate as post-humanist artists-as-Ubermenschen. Does any of the above make sense? rough drafts...
Got to go to work - will post clinamen tonight.
SH