Gap (Lacan Instructions 1)

In the gap is the non-realized. In Lacan's text The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis, he talks a lot about the space in between the things that we can see. It is that that is the crux of a lot of his arguments, that limbo space. The space between the lines that's a chasm of understanding, as long as we can see, or attempt to see, what's there. The idea of something that is not realized is hopeful, because it denotes a hopefulness: It is not realized yet. It has a potential, even if it never is realized. In the gap, Lacan states, something is oscillating. The moon causes the tide, but what is it... where is that chain that pulls the water that leads to the moon?

For Lacan, the Unconscious is the place where we can see the gap. It is a door that leads to the gap. But if neurosis fills the room where the gap is, out of it comes a scarring of the unconscious. To continue with my metaphor: the door becomes rusted, sometimes even rusted shut. For Lacan, the psychoanalysts who were coming after Freud wanted to sew the gap away, to stitch it shut instead of trying to understand it. The refusal is what allowed for the scar to happen, a scar that has made it difficult and often detrimental to open back up, and so we have forgotten about the gap that the unconscious leads to.

I think the gap is an interesting place to think about Electracy because so much of what we do in Electracy is comparable to the moon pulling the ocean, there is a line that we don't see that allows what we do to be translated to the screen. That is something that's amazing, I think, and I think it's important to maybe try to see where the gap is here and what it does.

So much of what we see is the cause and the effect, but the steps towards something could, perhaps, open up that door just a little bit so that we can see the place where the gap is in terms of Electracy.

Instruction: Try to find the string that's pulling the ocean, so to speak. Think about the steps that it takes for something to appear from a keyboard to the screen. If you can, document the steps it takes for something to happen. For instance, if you're uploading a video, for instance, how does that happen - can you screencap the steps that it takes to get there. What about your drafts, save every draft of something that you're doing and them compare the drafts. Can you see where the gaps are? Why do you think you saved there and not some other place? 

Think, also, about your Mystory: Where are the gaps there, and what does that tell you.... what can you see in the gap, if you can see anything at all.