PlacestoSearchforLostTime.

indd 1 15/12/2008 9:03:18 PM

 a book to be read when desiring a space and people in-between the
2 graphical, typographical, textual and referential elements

PlacestoSearchforLostTime.indd 2 15/12/2008 9:03:18 PM

 a book to be read when acknowledging “names present 3
a confused image of people - and of towns - an image
which derives from them, from the brightness or darkness
of their tone, the colour with which it is painted uniformly,
like one of those posters entirely blue or entirely red, in
which, because of the limitations of the process used or by
a whim of the deigner, not only of the sky and the sea are blue
or red, but the boats, the church, the people in the streets.”

PlacestoSearchforLostTime.indd 3 15/12/2008 9:03:18 PM

 a book with its page-layout, typographical and graphical play
produces a frame that cuts across the text and its espoused
4 meanings, not to produce, in turn, a given set of multiple mean-
ings, but to multiply the production of meaning itself. the ref-
erence is no longer secured by the text but exists in that in-
terstitial realm between the phonetic word and the type itself.
as Ellen Lupton and Abbot Miller writes:
thehistoryoftypographyandwritingcouldbewrittenas
thedevelopmentofformalstructuresthathaveexplored
the border between the inside and the outside of texts.a
amidst this ‘in-between’ another form of communication is produced.

a. Lupton, Ellen & Miller, Abbot (1996) Design Writing Research: Writing on Graphic Design.
London & New York: Phaidon Press. p.17

PlacestoSearchforLostTime.indd 4 15/12/2008 9:03:18 PM

 5
a door... an entry-site...
a method to read
a pondering of places and
ones loved who are not yet here

Daydreams are often situated in the built environment. But the houses and people that
appear in daydreams can become places and subjects that we can never quite map.
They exist as constellations of memories, sensations and images that have dislodged
themselves from the the unaffected subject. One’s beloved along with the places which
‘houses’ one’s beloved are cast outside of the ‘Inside’ and ‘Outside’ or subject and
object divide. In this mode of daydreaming one proceeds from an exteriority outside
these spatial and subjectival divisions and journeys toward a centre that is not yet there.
One views one’s beloved from outside one’s interiority.

Somewhere in-between one’s textual musings and recollections of places one may have
once inhabited or will inhabit, a beloved who is yet to come emerges.

PlacestoSearchforLostTime.indd 5 15/12/2008 9:03:18 PM

 Place #1

Whence
Whence loving
loving someone
someone deeply
deeply wewe often
often lose
lose sight
sight of
of her.
her. But
But this
this is
is
aa joyful thing because the demands for possession are
joyful thing because the demands for possession are expelled with expelled with
this
this expulsion
expulsion of of Cartesian
Cartesian perspective.
perspective. Instead
Instead ofof possession
possession there
there is
is aa
submission of both the lover and his beloved’s mind/body
submission of both the lover and his beloved’s mind/body to an eternalto an eternal
event
event of
of chance
chance –– thethe universe’s
universe’s unpredictable
unpredictable happenings
happenings that
that sustains
sustains
life’s
life’s complexity. We who love give our bodies and minds up
complexity. We who love give our bodies and minds up to
to the
the
universe’s expansion from which new stars are born. The pensive
universe’s expansion from which new stars are born. The pensive question question
regards
regards which
which star
star will
will be
be forged
forged in
in this
this process
process of
of creation?
creation? But
But the
the divine
divine
question is: why the question which star will be forged
question is: why do we need to ask which star will be forged? need be asked?

PlacestoSearchforLostTime.indd 6 15/12/2008 9:03:18 PM

 […]
We who love learn how to make mysterious wor(l)ds. ‘Creativity’ as Gilles The beloved’s lies are the hieroglyphics of love. The interpreter
Deleuze suggests is the operative word: of love’s signs is necessarily the interpreter of lies. His fate
is expressed in the motto: To love without being loved.1
To fall in love is to individualize someone by the signs s/
he bears or emits. It is to become sensitive to these signs,
to undergo an apprenticeship to them… It may be that
friendship is nourished on observation and conversation, but
love is born from and nourished on silent interpretation. The
beloved appears as a sign, a ‘soul’; the beloved expresses
a possible world unknown to us, implying, enveloping,
imprisoning a world which must be deciphered, that is,
interpreted. What is involved here, here, is a plurality of
worlds; the pluralism of love does not concern only the
multiplicity of loved beings, but the multiplicity of souls
or worlds in each of them. To love is to try to explicate, to
develop these unknown worlds that remain enveloped within
the beloved. This is why it is so easy for us to fall in love with 7
women who are not of our ‘world’ nor even our type. It is
also why the loved women are often linked to landscapes that
we know sufficiently to long for their reflection in a woman’s
eyes but are then reflected from a viewpoint so mysterious
that they become virtually inaccessible, unknown landscapes.
[…]
There is, then, a contradiction of love. We cannot interpret
the signs of a loved person without proceeding into worlds
that have not waited for us in order to take form. That formed
themselves with other persons, and in which we are at first
only an object among the rest. The lover wants his beloved to
devote to him her preferences, her gestures, her caresses. But
the beloved’s gestures, at the very moment they are addressed
to us, still express that unknown world that excludes us. The
beloved gives us signs of preferences; but because these signs
are the same as those that express worlds to which we do not
belong, each preference by which we profit draws the image of
the possible world in which others might be or are preferred.

PlacestoSearchforLostTime.indd 7 15/12/2008 9:03:19 PM

 Place #2
To love is to demand from oneself the utmost form of faith: faith without
promises. It is to re-evaluate the whole act of having faith. For how else are
a beloved’s lies going to become the hieroglyphics of a love that expresses
relationships that eludes the heart? Whence we say we bear faith we in
fact, most often, mean we demand something in return. But true faith,
as Abraham demonstrates, is having faith in nothingness. Nothingness is,
however, not nihilism. It is a will to power, a will to an absolute potentiality
in which anything can happen. Faith in nothingness is faith in “nothing
predictable”, or to say that which is outside of even what the most divine
doctrines of organized religions can offer. This faith speaks of Gods who
offer neither haven nor inferno damnation. Instead there are non-dualistic
Gods. AsSøren Kierkegaard writes, “faith believes in what it does not
see.”2 True faith for Kierkegaard is not what is irrefutably there, but that
which is ever only “coming into existence.” He elaborates:
someone more than the God as ordained by the papalcy. Abraham’s God
does not reveal anything to him, nor does Abraham asks, both God and
unspecified.
Man waits for a time that is unspecified.
Perhaps the lover can learn from the father of faith. Perhaps the lover can
have faith in someone more than his ‘beloved’. But, this does not suggests
the lover should not that he should find find for himself another beloved as if
one’s beloved is entirely exchangeable. That ‘someone’ who is more than
his beloved is still his beloved but simply his beloved who has differentiated
in kind. Likewise the lover’s love for his beloved must also change in kind.
This act of faith the lover can possess and findfind delight in.

No coming into existence can be necessary before it comes

8 into existence, since it would then be impossible for it to
come into existence; nor can it be necessary after it has come
into existence, since it would then be impossible for it to have
come into existence.3

‘Faith’ then is faith in that which is only understood asas “metabasis

“metabasis eis
allo genos.” It is faith in that which changes genetically – not just a
44

proliferation of variations based on one immutable model but that which

changes in genus. Nothing in this kind of faith can be measured insofar
metabasis exists. “Faith’s conclusion is really no conclusion at all.5 Who is
the beloved we bear faith in? She is nothing other than blocs of forces the
corporeal body, memories, letters and conversations emit – forces, once
emitted, can group together as something entirely different, thus changing
its own basis or kind.

Whence having faith in this absolute metabasis there is expressed a faith

in ALL, in which the “ALL” is understood as inclusive of an all that is
outside of all calculative and categorial measures. To love is to love ALL
specificity. Following Kierkegaard I
that can happen without demanding specificity.
draw a demonstration of this absurd faith: Perhaps Abraham had faith in

PlacestoSearchforLostTime.indd 8 15/12/2008 9:03:19 PM

 Place #3
To love
To love whilst
whilst bearing
bearing such
such faith
faith is
is to
to forgo
forgo the
the return
return ofof aa beloved’s
beloved’s caress
caress
or gesture.
or gesture. One
One forgets
forgets the
the idealized
idealized image
image ofof the
the touch
touch inin order
order to
to conjure
conjure
another kind
another kind ofof sensation.
sensation. InIn forgetting
forgetting the the past
past joys,
joys, these
these caresses
caresses and
and
gestures turn into something strung between the corporeal
gestures turn into something strung between the corporeal and incorporeal. and incorporeal.
These caresses
These caresses andand gestures
gestures become
become touches
touches that
that stings
stings the
the flesh
flesh of
of the
the lover
lover
in ways fingers and memories cannot; these touches are
in ways fingers and memories cannot; these touches are otherworldly. Yet, otherworldly. Yet,
they are
they are not
not phantom
phantom touches
touches derived
derived from
from the
the categorized
categorized or or generalized
generalized
memories of
memories previous touches
of previous touches thethe lover
lover had
had encountered.
encountered. RatherRather they
they are
are
touches that the lover had not felt in the flesh yet, touches that
touches that the lover had not felt in the flesh yet, touches that his beloved his beloved
had yet
had yet made,
made, butbut nonetheless
nonetheless touches
touches that
that make
make hishis flesh
flesh ache.
ache. These
These are
are
touches from the fingers of a beloved who is yet to come, fingers of aa
touches from the fingers of a beloved who is yet to come, fingers of
body from
body from aa possible
possible world
world that
that the
the lover
lover hashas nono clear
clear perspective
perspective of.of.
The lover
The lover echoes
echoes himself:
himself:

Mybeloved
My belovedtouches
touchesme me
whilstwhilst reaching
reaching backanother
back from from
another star? Or, have I become a part
star? Or, have I become a part of this other star, swirling of this
other an star, swirling
dust like
cloudan universal dust cloud
(yet-there)9
like universal through the terrain-corpus
through
of the terrain-corpus
my beloved while she, also of likemymadbeloved
dancingwhile
dust, AA possible
possible world
world oror other
other star
star in
in which
which the
the lover
lover and
and his
his (yet-there)
cut through me? In this Dionysian dance we speakme?
she, also like mad dancing dust, cut through not beloved (and
(and her
her touches)
touches) conduct
conduct their
their incorporeal
incorporeal encounters/
encounters/
In subjects,
of this Dionysian
objects ordance
even we speak not ofbut
inter-subjectivity subjects,
only of beloved
objects
events or even
which inter-subjectivity
ab/dissolves but onlyEvents
everything/one/place. of events are exchanges is a terra potentiæ. But what is a terra potentiæ?
exchanges is a terra potentiæ. But what is a terra potentiæ? It It is
is not
not
rightfully stars – they are stars without form, which Events
which ab/dissolves everything/one/place. burn up aa place
place where
where the
the lover
lover and
and his
his beloved
beloved may
may possibly
possibly inhabit
inhabit one
one
are rightfully
quickly and becomestars – they are
supernovas stars
so as without
to give form,
birth to new day in the foreseeable future. We dispense with mere possibilities
which burn up quickly and become supernovas
stars. To evoke memories is to turn the synapses darting so day in the foreseeable future. We dispense with mere possibilities
as to give
through my birth
brain to new
into stars.
little To evoke
supernovas, memories
exploding into and may-bes
and may-bes because
because certainty
certainty deceives
deceives more
more than
than ambiguity.
ambiguity.
is to turn the
innumerable
synapses darting
shards of formless
through
picturesinto
of pasts
my brain
yet to come. Terra potentiæ
Terra potentiæ isis not
not aa country
country or
or era,
era, apartment
apartment oror age.
age.
into little supernovas, exploding innumerable It is
is aa space
space that
that remains
remains forever
forever in
in potentiæ.
potentiæ.
shards of formless pictures of pasts yet to come. It
The lover echoes himself to become part of the architecture, landscape, art, It is
It is itself
itself without
without form,
form, oror else
else itsits form
form relies
relies entirely
entirely on
on the
the
words, air echoes
and bodies that to
arebecome
gathering artfulness ofof the
the lover’s
lover’s ability
ability to
to continually
continually turn turn his
his memories
memories ofof his
his
The lover himself partaround
of the his past, present
architecture, and future.
landscape, art, artfulness
beloved into
beloved into her
her constitutive
constitutive forces
forces (or(or signs)
signs) and and re-assemble
re-assemble them
them
words, air and bodies that are gathering around his past, present and future.
otherwise. Terra potentiæ is necessarily all the spatio-temporalities
otherwise. Terra potentiæ is necessarily all the spatio-temporalities
that the
that the lover
lover and
and his
his beloved
beloved can can inhabit
inhabit and/or
and/or become
become outside
outside
Aristolean actuality. As such it is always a space yet to come –– aa
Aristolean actuality. As such it is always a space yet to come
space, which
space, which form
form isis always informe. There
always informe. There is is no
no way
way wewe can
can ever
ever
remember memories
remember memories that that are
are yet
yet toto come.
come. These
These are are memories
memories thatthat
come from an outside that has forgotten the internal-external
come from an outside that has forgotten the internal-external duality. duality.
This is
This is an
an outside
outside that
that is
is even
even outside
outside of of thought.
thought. To To be
be inflicted
inflicted
by the mnemonic forces of this outside is to push
by the mnemonic forces of this outside is to push thinking beyond thinking beyond
recollection, to
recollection, to stir
stir the
the practical
practical actact of
of thinking
thinking towards
towards creation.
creation.66

PlacestoSearchforLostTime.indd 9 15/12/2008 9:03:20 PM


The lover relates to terra potentiæ so tenderly not because he can envision
it, but precisely because he cannot see it ever.
Do we not adore a beloved’s face more when we no longer can
image it with visual exactitude but when her face and even the
room she inhabits become sensations that appear involuntarily?
And, are not these sensations not emerging in the act of writing and art-
making? In encountering these sensations the work of art or the text
becomes as affective as the corporeal face and the architectural-material
room. These sensations produce an incorporeal face and an immaterial
room, or otherwise potential places and bodies. This incorporeal face and
this immaterial room form the terra potentiæ that subsist in the lover’s
actual practice of art-making and writing. Each word written, each concept
gathered expresses something more than their representational function.
10
PlacestoSearchforLostTime.indd 10
Place #4
It is this potentiality for something else that a lover may find delight in.
He finds delight in knowing such a space is already there in his acts; and
his acts are not merely ‘procedures’ to represent this space. Space for him
become something produced amidst relational, experiential, material,
architectural, textual and conceptual forces; space does not only belong
to a pre-existing Cartesian order. Hence, he writes words and pages after
words and pages in order make this space richer, increasing this space’s
own potentiality for further change. Each word and sentence contributes to
the text he is working on by beginning over again in ever newer ways. this
beginning over contributes to the intensity and exponential n-dimension
of the terra potentiæ. Nothing in the practice of writing words is simply
a matter of representation. Writing not only illustrates life’s complexity
but demonstrates the actual complexity in an instance of writing/reading.
Why not heed Umberto Eco’s advice on the power of fiction, and fiction’s
attribution to life’s complexity:
If fictional worlds are so comfortable why not try to read the
actual world as if it were a work of fiction? Or, if fictional
worlds are so small and deceptively comfortable, why not try
to devise fictional worlds that are as complex, contradictory,
and provocative as the actual one?7
15/12/2008 9:03:20 PM
 11

The lover is a poet not because he can speak his heart. On the contrary it Schizophrenic worlds and subjects attributes to a text’s “sovereignty”.
is because he can wrest his heart from clichés and throw it into the great Here, a schizophrenic solitude in which a writer and his reader become
event of chance, and begin to speak of something entirely unknown. His multiple exists. “The reader may very well hear the hero’s story as the life
tool and source of power is not his heart but his pen. Lovers and beloveds of another,” but the hero or writer’s voice is intermingled with the readers
all ‘lie’, but that is the beauty and endearing dimension of love’s process of as well as all the characters and personae the reader brings to his/her own
fiction-ing.
fiction-ing. Ultimately to make and sustain fiction
fiction testifies act of reading. Thus, Lyotard cleverly asks how a reader would know the
testifies to love’s ability
voice or sounds emerging to be truly ours if the voice in our throats is
to sustain itself poetically. Fiction and lies constitute the indisputable reality
and affectivity of people and stars in the process of being fabricated. already and always formed by the forces of other voices. For Lyotard,
what we have in lieu of a subjective voice is a “shared groan” belonging
Often, the lover does nothing but the practice of writing. But the lover does to everyone and no one.99
not write in order to tell the world his joys and passions. Jean-François To write is thus not to share as per intersubjectival communication,

write
Lyotard notes that the practice of writing, besides representation, is a but to affect one’s reader with the powers and forces of writing itself.
“matrix on which a writer’s impressions and expressions are obstinately To is thus not to share as per
molded and which lends his writing its secret singularity.”88 This singularity intersubjectival communication, but to affect
is however not the writer or lover’s voice, rather, it is a point where multiple one’s reader with the powers and forces of
voices can emerge. The lover, in writing, creates himself as a son of other writing itself.
stars. Lyotard continues to elaborate, “Schizophrenia persists” in the text.

PlacestoSearchforLostTime.indd 11 15/12/2008 9:03:21 PM

 Place #5
The text written about love is never extraneous to the act of loving. Such
a text expresses a love for love’s potentiality. Such a love “causes the
Placetruth #5of being to murmur.”10 Where and when is my beloved’s body, if not
The text written about
subsisting in thelove is neverthat
geography extraneous
I am nowto indistinguished
the act of loving. SuchIndeed,
from?
a text expresses a love
how can it not be herefor love’s potentiality. Such a love “causes
now if it shakes me so violently that my voicethe starts
truth oftobeing to murmur.” Where and when is my beloved’s body, if not
shatter?
10

subsisting in the geography that I am now indistinguished from? Indeed,

how can Theit not be hereofnow
practice if it shakes
writing me soother
is nothing violently
thanthat
to my voice
gather startsof past
forces
to shatter?
memories, current words and imageries into/through one’s active body,
so as to transform it, so as to enable one’s body and mind to express
The practice of writing
potentialities is nothing
yet defined. othercan
Writing than to gather
become forces
a process of pastbodies/
whereby
memories,
minds current words andand
are conjoined imageries into/through
metamorphosed one’sAactive
together. body,
corpus-intellectus
so as to transform it, so as to enable one’s body and mind to
potentiæ is what the lover delights in and has faith in. We find delight in express
potentialities
things we yet do
defined.
not yetWriting
possesscan become
because theya process
give us anwhereby bodies/anxiety,
inexplicable
minds not
are unlike
conjoined and metamorphosed together. A corpus-intellectus
a sublime joy when encountering that which cannot be held.
potentiæ
The is lover
what theholdslover delights
neither in and
his own hasnor
body faith
hisin.beloved’s.
We find delight in
Both bodies are
12 decomposed
things we
not unlike
do
a
not yet
sublime
possess
joy when
because they
encountering
give us an inexplicable
that which
anxiety,
into their constitutive forces and become whirlwinds of forces
cannot will
be held.
that can settle down into potentially anything. But, nothing ever settle,
The lover holdsis neither
for that the naturehis of
own bodythat
forces norconstitute
his beloved’s.
Nature,Both bodies
which are
all bodies are
12 decomposed into their
one and the same with.constitutive forces and become whirlwinds of forces
that can settle down into potentially anything. But, nothing will ever settle,
for that is the nature of forces that constitute Nature, which all bodies are
one and the same with.

PlacestoSearchforLostTime.indd 12 15/12/2008 9:03:22 PM

 Nature is a whirlwind of forces. Nature is the ultimate sublime, a “pure
event”, as Ignasi Solà-Morales following Lyotard, explains. Nature can
always open up to new worlds. However, it is not that Nature leads to
new worlds external to itself, but that Nature itself becomes an infinitude
of new worlds. Nature becomes outside of what it is. Nature itself in this
opening of/as new worlds “opens up spaces of visual, auditory, or emotional
intensity… to bring about a shock, an experience stripped of references”
that may decomposes any preconception we may have of Nature itself. 11
In Nature there is no non-Nature and Nature proper. Nature is differrence
itself. Oppositions are irrelevant here. Nature constitutes “the entire
nature of difference” without contradictions, oppositions and identity.12
Differentiation bypasses the dialectic, or, as Luce Irigaray suggests, “the
open expanse [that] contains nothing, except for the openness that opens
and lets all things bloom within it.” Nature is not something we can grasp
“like a perceptible horizon.” In this zone of imperceptibility the lover and
his beloved’s bodies, one and the same with Nature, are “already within the
opening,” hence to write of love is to become open to becoming someone/ 13
thing else.13

Nature is no more serene than it is chaotic like the battle of energy, the
mad rush of microbes and molecules, and the struggles of men-beasts.
Are our bodies not coextensive with these practices of madness that is
natural life? Is not the practice of writing of one’s beloved not part of
Nature’s mad surge of forces? In/as Nature swirling force-bodies are
neither of the present, past or future, but are like ‘time’ itself, here and
there simultaneously – of the present and the potential pasts and futures.
Love is a practice of this mad rush. It is a practice not of possession but
of throwing oneself into Nature’s frenzy. There is nothing to proclaim for.
There is no subject to speak from and to.
The lover says without a mouth:

Yonder? Here, always already and still here. A slack

throughout – within her lights arms, which escort all
beginnings. She neither rises from nor sinks back into the
hollow of the valleys. Horizontal, she is ajar in all dimensions
without ever leaving the threshold of her birth.14

PlacestoSearchforLostTime.indd 13 15/12/2008 9:03:24 PM

 Place #6
His beloved is always in the process of her own re-birth. His beloved
becomes one and the same with the event of change that is Nature itself.
And the only way the lover can attain union is to throw himself to the mad
rush of Nature’s inexplicable ways of change. There, he is in union with
ALL.

Is not valid that surrending oneself up to something without guarantees

an act of faith? Hence, the lover in forgoing possession of his body or
his beloved’s body demonstrates immanently the act of faith. He does
not make a bargain with his beloved through the conventional means of
inter-subjectival communication. His body is not given up to her, but to
the event of change. He seeks to place bodies back in the stream of time,
which is the precise form of terra potentiæ. He throws everything he has
over to chance and potentiality. True love is love without returns, without
ever demanding to be entered into the reciprocal act of being-loved. Only
then can “loving” express the kind of utmost faith Abraham had for his
14 God. Only then a beloved is no longer an object to be grasped or
held but is a ‘being-event’ that envelops and transforms the lover.
As Luce Irigaray writes, “Once he has passed from inside her to outside.
His boundaries will soon disappear.”15 Let us
us not
notspeak
speakofof“Is”.
“Is”.

What happens when the lover and his beloved are beings-event? What
does the lover do when encountering a being-event beloved whence he
himself is of such form?

In his (non)-engagement with his beloved, the lover learns that the signs,
forces and memories his beloved emits are no longer representations of
her. His task is no longer to trace where these signs, forces or memories
originate but to devise a way to channel them into the creation of possible
worlds and times. The lover becomes an artist16 who crafts spaces and
temporalities where there had not been any.17 Here, the lover holds out
his own non-promised promise by speaking of a star-child of a star that
has yet settled from the universal dust. He holds out his innumerable
potentialities charted only by the exponential change of the universe that
is filled
filled with the energy of time.

PlacestoSearchforLostTime.indd 14 15/12/2008 9:03:25 PM

 Place #7
The lover is not a lonely man. Far from that he is filled with the joys of
the universe; he fold ins everything the universe has to offer. Here, he
contends himself not with inter-subjectival banter, but enriches himself
with the commingling of forces emitting from bodies, that are coextensive
with each other, with the bodies of texts, drawings, thoughts, material and
architecture. As D.H. Lawrence suggests, once “the solid earth is gone”
you slip into a “timeless world” where “the souls of the all the dead are
alive again, and pulsating actively around you. You are out in the other
infinity.”18 Words and memories are no longer of the past, but come forth in
the present as blocs of sensations that turn our bodies and minds into things
we can never predict. We, thus, attain infinitude through differentiation.
We have “step off into the other worlds of undying time.”19

We speak not of this or that time. We remember no past moments whence

all those past bodies and minds are turned into a mad surge of force
that is cutting through us at every instance. This past persists by its very
disappearance and reformation into something else. This is the past’s15
eternity – eternity by differentiation. To his beloved, the greatest thing a
lover can say is, “I’ve forgotten who you were, but yet I can feel you as a
strange invasion of sensations!” The lover no longer holds out for the reprise
of past times. He no longer wishes for the same caresses and gestures, or
micro twitches of his beloved. As Deleuze elaborating on the notion of
the lover’s search for “time regained” writes, the lover becomes like an
artist who seek only “the revelation of an original time” that is capable
of expressing “simultaneously all its series and dimensions” without
specifications. Time regained becomes the production of new times. Time
regained is the potentiality of many new times but new times
that cannot be seen by the lover’s acculturated mundane eyes.
The lover speaks not for this or that temporality, but an “extratemporality”
beyond historical measures.20 The lover’s search for time regained is an
act of creation.

PlacestoSearchforLostTime.indd 15 15/12/2008 9:03:25 PM

 “To remember
“To remember is toiscreate…
to create…
to reachto
thatreach that the
point where point where chain
associative the
associative
breaks, leapschain
over thebreaks, leaps
constituted over the
individual constituted
[and] is transferredindividual
to the birth
[and] is transferred
of an individuating to the birth
world.”21
ofaan
This is individuating
star that is still in world.”
its infancy
21
This
and
isready
a startothat is still
become in its infancy
anything. This isand ready toready
a territory becometo beanything.
caught upThis is
in the
asolar
territory
winds ready
and to be caught
dissipate, up to
only in be
thegathered
solar winds and dissipate,
sometime only to
and somewhere
be gathered
else. sometime
Stars cannot and somewhere
be completely else. they
destroyed; Starswill
cannot be completely
become dust to be
destroyed; they In
gathered again. willmany
become
ways,dust
starstoare
be always
gathered again.another
already In many starways,
if we
stars are always
take into alreadytheir
consideration another star eternitythat
absolute if we take into consideration
is sustained by the their
force
absolute
of time. eternitythat
Star-intoxicated is sustained by the force
lovers attained of time.love
their eternal Star-intoxicated
by living the
lovers
lives ofattained
stars. their eternal love by living the lives of stars.

When
When we we say
say love
love isis eternal,
eternal, we
we must
must not
not confuse
confuse such
such aa saying
saying with
with
the
the common
common imagery
imagery of of aa lover
lover and
and his
his beloved
beloved coiled
coiled together
together in in aa
cocoon
cocoonthat thatdefies
defieschange
changeand andtime.
time.Love
Loveisiseternal
eternalby byvirtue
virtueof
ofits
itseternal
eternal
changing-ness,
changing-ness,its itsdifference
differencefrom fromitself.
itself.To
Tolove
loveisisan
anact
actof
ofpoiesis.
poiesis.This
This
isis love’s
love’s defiance
defiance of of the
the historicist’s
historicist’s perspective
perspective that
that lays
lays out
out progressive
progressive
development
developmentand andeventual
eventualannulment.
annulment.LoveLovedefies
defieshistory
historybybywithholding
withholding
16
16itself
itself from
from being
being anything
anything definitional.
definitional. Love
Love disrespects
disrespects memories
memories by by
treating
treatingthemthemnot
notas asgems
gemsof ofthe
thepast
pastbut
butas
asthe
themere
merebricks
bricksfor
forthe
thebirth
birthof
of
aastar
staryet
yettotocome
comethat
thatfollows
followsno noblueprint,
blueprint,andandcosmic
cosmicbodies
bodiesthat
thatfollow
follow
no
nogiven
givenmoral
moralcodes.
codes.

Forgetting
Forgetting memories
memories of of one’s
one’s beloved
beloved isis not
not aa mechanism
mechanism to to protect
protect or
or
shelter oneself from despair. “To the contrary, he [the lover]
shelter oneself from despair. “To the contrary, he [the lover] must exposemust expose
himself
himselftotothethetest
testof
ofthat
thatdifference
differencethat thathe
heloves
lovesasasmuch
muchasashe
hedistrusts.”
22
distrusts.”22
The
The lover
lover exposes
exposes himself
himself toto the
the strange
strange place
place memories
memories can
can sweep
sweep himhim
to.
to.He
Hemust
mustembrace
embracethe thepure
puredifference
differencethat
thatconstitute
constitutethe
theevent
eventwherein
wherein
bodies
bodiesand
andsubjects,
subjects,minds
mindsand andplaces,
places,become
becomesomething
somethingelse.
else.As
AsIrigary
Irigary
writes,
writes, forget “her” so as to be “welcoming her in her upsurge in
forget “her” so as to be “welcoming her in her upsurge in the
the
present.”
present.” This
23
23
Thisisishis
hisonly
onlywaywayoutoutof ofdespair
despair––totomake
makememories
memoriesof ofhis
his
beloved into works of art. Art directs love toward its own
beloved into works of art. Art directs love toward its own futurity. futurity.

PlacestoSearchforLostTime.indd 16 15/12/2008 9:03:25 PM

 Place #8
“She is a“She
woman is a woman without purpose,” writes Keith Ansell Pearson
without purpose,” writes Keith Ansell Pearson
25
25
in his contemplations on a lover’s relationship to women in Lawrence’s
in his contemplations on a lover’s relationship to women in Lawrence’s
Study of Thomas Hardy. The woman without purpose is, however, not a
Study of Thomas Hardy. The woman without purpose is, however, not a
useless object. She expresses great potentialities that are yet actualized
useless object. She expresses great potentialities that are yet actualized
– potentialities greater than what her name can promise. Her purpose
– potentialities greater than what her name can promise. Her purpose
is yet to be defined. Without defined purposes the beloved expresses a
is yet to be defined. Without defined purposes the beloved expresses a
life, which is shared by her lover that “is always ‘brimming over’.” She
life, which is shared by her lover that “is always ‘brimming over’.” She
is a ‘yet-woman’ in the lover’s texts. As Ansell Pearson continues, she
is a ‘yet-woman’ in the lover’s texts. As Ansell Pearson continues, she
“becomes a rhizome, forging connections with other populations around
“becomes a rhizome, forging connections with other populations around
her,” becoming indistinct from a Dionysian Nature.2626
her,” becoming indistinct from a Dionysian Nature.
The
The woman
woman without
without purpose
purpose becomes
becomes likelike aa summer
summer that that is
is yet
yet here,
here,
constituted by great potentialities beyond qualification or quantification.
constituted by great potentialities beyond qualification or quantification.
The
The joy
joy for
for aa coming
coming summer
summer is is always
always greater than the
greater than the sum
sum of of words
words
describing it, indeed, sometimes greater than that summer
describing it, indeed, sometimes greater than that summer itself. Words itself. Words
that
that are
are written
written not not extraneous
extraneous toto this
this coming
coming summer, these words
summer, these words dodo not
not
describe what is suppose to come. These words attribute to the coming 17
describe what is suppose to come. These words attribute to the coming
summer’s
summer’s intensifying
intensifying wonderfulness.
wonderfulness. The The ‘coming-ness’
‘coming-ness’ of of this
this coming
coming
summer subsists in these words. A coming summer expresses
summer subsists in these words. A coming summer expresses innumerable innumerable
other
other coming
coming summers;
summers; aa coming
coming summer
summer speaks
speaks of other stars
of other stars we
we have
have
yet mapped in the loving act of writing
yet mapped in the loving act of writing love. love.
No
No lover
lover can
can truly
truly say
say itit is
is his
his beloved’s
beloved’s heart
heart hehe is is after.
after. Every
Every lover
lover A
A lover’s
lover’s beloved as a bloc of surging forces cuts through and combines
knows his beloved’s heart is never where he thinks it is
knows his beloved’s heart is never where he thinks it is but scattered across but scattered across with
with the
the lover’s body, sweeps him up in a cloud of change – a moment
the
the ‘form’
‘form’ ofof time.
time. Besides,
Besides, how how can
can one
one grasp
grasp something
something that that is
is already
already of
of poiesis or else the emergence of life as artwork. Words and texts
poiesis
part of oneself? Time is in one and vice versa. One’s
part of oneself? Time is in one and vice versa. One’s beloved is already beloved is already emerge
emerge from
from this moment only to be swept back to further and sustain
part
part of of him,
him, but
but this
this is
is not
not to to say
say one
one party
party has
has captured
captured her her heart.
heart. Rather,
Rather, this
this moment’s perpetual intensity. Words and texts add to this continuous
itit speaks of a coextension in which both parties are
speaks of a coextension in which both parties are not just coextensivenot just coextensive production;
production; they
they do not merely reproduce or reiterate the event. At this
with
with eacheach other
other but
but with
with the
the world
world atat large
large and
and all
all those
those other
other stars
stars yet
yet moment
moment the lover, his beloved and these words and texts are indistinct.
the
to
to come. Lyotard elaborates on this coextension and explains why
come. Lyotard elaborates on this coextension and explains why aa Together
Together they
theyproduce
producewhat
whatPearson
Pearsoncalls “new
calls lines
“new of lives.”
lines WeWe
of lives.”
27 27
do not
do
lover
lover cannot
cannot grasp
grasp his
his beloved:
beloved: “It “It is
is because
because she she isis inside
inside his
his eye
eye like
like make love the subject of art, but in art-making love becomes
not make love the subject of art, but in art-making love becomes capable of
some
some speckspeck suspended
suspended in in the
the aqueous
aqueous humour
humour –– oneone that that moves
moves withwith the
the occasioning
occasioning the emergence of new modes of thinking, new subjectivities,
movements of his gaze, on which he can never focus.”
movements of his gaze, on which he can never focus.” The lover’s organs 24 The lover’s organs
24
and
and new spatio-temporalities. Ultimately love as art bears new modes of
and
and his his beloved’s
beloved’s body
body and
and heart
heart are
are caught
caught up up in
in the
the expanding
expanding universe.
universe. living.
living. As Deleuze writes, “Art produces resonances that are not those of
His already with
His eyes are already with her, yet not seeing her. Caught up
eyes are her, yet not seeing her. Caught up with
with her,
her, the
the memory.”
memory.”2828Art
Art sets up relations where there had not been; it is essentially
lover’s memories are more than unique fragments
lover’s memories are more than unique fragments from the past, but realfrom the past, but real concerned
concerned with invention and newness, not unlike the act of loving itself.
mnemonic,
mnemonic, conceptual,
conceptual, and and intellectual
intellectual forces
forces that
that act
act immediately.
immediately. Loving becomes art-making. Loving becomes
Art becomes art-making.
place-making.

PlacestoSearchforLostTime.indd 17 15/12/2008 9:03:26 PM

 Love passed through the work of art becomes productive; ‘lover-artists’ (Endnotes)
forge new memories instead of merely discovering old ones.29 That is
Deleuze, Gilles (2000) Proust and Signs (Trans. R. Howard), Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
love’s truthfulness; that is a lover’s truthfulness to his beloved as well as 1.
pp.7-9
the truth a beloved can offer back. Lover and beloved offer each other their 2. Kiekegaard, Søren (2001) “Philosophical Fragments” in The Kierkegaard Reader (Trans. & eds. J.
Chamberlain & J. Rée), Oxford, UK & Massachusetts: Blackwell. p.168
otherness – what they are becoming. 3. Ibid, p.163
4. Ibid, p.161
5. Ibid, p.169
Make no mistake, the lover still loves his beloved, but, only on the condition 6. Deleuze (2000), p.97. As Deleuze wrote, “Creation is the genesis of the act of thinking within thought
his beloved is from another star. He waits. In this waiting he disregards itself. This genesis implicates something that does violence to thought, which wrests it from its natural stupor
and its merely abstract possibilities.” The lover does not lament, or to say he is able to take sad passions and turn
his reified memories of his beloved, for how can he, who has already been them into actions that makes (his) life dynamic. Laments and lost love, memories of a beloved are all the raw
transformed in an unaccountable fashion still speak truthfully of his own materials from which he forge new beginnings like an artist: “The truth seeker is the jealous man who catches a
lying sign on the beloved’s face. He is the sensitive man, in that he encounters the violence of an impression. He
memories? Conversely how can his beloved herself speak of her memories, is the reader, the auditor, in that the work of art emits signs that will perhaps force him to create.”
for she too, insofar as she is one and the same as Nature is already engulfed 7. Eco, Umberto (1995) Six Walks in the Fictional Woods, Cambridge, MA & London: Harvard University
Press. p.117
in the event of change and chance? Both lover and beloved speak only of 8. Lyotard, Jean-François (1998) “Womanstruck” (Trans. R. Harvey) in October (No. 86, Fall 1998). pp.24-
voices that are not their own. From mouths, bodies and stars they have yet 46, p.41
9. Ibid, p.42
to know they mumble words they have never heard. 10. bid, p.43
11. Solà-Morales, Ignasi (1997) Differences: Topographies of Contemporary Architecture (Trans. G.
Thompson), Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. p.103
“Love is dismantled so that we may become capable of greater loving.”30 12. Deleuze, Gilles (1994) Difference and Repetition (Trans. P. Patton), London & New York: Continuum
18 Books. p.239
13. Irigaray, Luce (1999) The Forgetting of Air in Martin Heidegger (Trans. M.B. Mader), London: Athlone
Places and situations are deterritorialized so that they can become capable Press. p.56
of forging paths. 14. Ibid, p.109
15. Ibid, p.47
16. Deleuze (2000), p.14
17. Ibid, p.45. Deleuze noted that spatio-temporalities that do not yet exist but which bear on those who think
them are defined by the term “complication,” which “certain Neoplatonists used… to designate the original state
that precedes any development, any deployment, any ‘explication’.” Complication “envelops the many in the
One and affirms the unity of the multiple.”
18. Lawrence, D.H. (1960) “The Man who loved Islands” in Love among the Haystacks and Other Stories,
London: Penguin Books. p.99
19. bid, p.100
20. Deleuze (2000), p.46
21. Ibid, p.111
22. Lyotard (1998), p.31
23. Irigaray (1999), p.128
24. Lyotard (1998), p.31
25. Ansell Pearson, Keith (1999) Germinal Life: The Difference and Repetition of Deleuze, London & New
York: Routledge. p.193
26. Ibid.
27. Ibid, p.195
28. Deleuze (2000), p.151
29. Ibid, pp.146-47
30. Ansell Pearson, p.195

PlacestoSearchforLostTime.indd 18 15/12/2008 9:03:26 PM

 but what now? after the act of writing an theorizing? the stories, sites and
people the eight ‘places’
convey in the preceding
sections are to be found
in curious situations.
graphical elements are
neither figure nor ground, they are not there to support
or strengthen the text and the text’s espoused meaning.
these elements work together
with those phonetic marks to
produce subjectivities and spa-
tialities that are yet to come,
or at least, yet to be named.
the ‘places’ from which we may view

our beloved whilst engaging with

this present text cut through architectural,

material, graphical, textual and conceptual

19
forces. These are ‘places’ which truly obey

the order of time and the form of the world -

otherwise the form and order of change itself.

on the printed page on the printed page we encounter a world
we may indeed have which colours, hue and tones remain yet
encounteredtheexpansive to be mixed... there are pigments but yet
side of representation. boundaries to put them within

PlacestoSearchforLostTime.indd 19 15/12/2008 9:03:26 PM

 20

a book for the future memories of a book for the future memories of
your becoming-Mr. Marcel Proust me becoming-Patrick F. Chan

PlacestoSearchforLostTime.indd 20 15/12/2008 9:03:26 PM