A strict protocol shapes the lalangue project to be auto-selective and auto-progressive, shaping initial informal conversations to allow the project to grow from the inside out. There will be no conventional “call for papers.” Rather, participants move through ideosyncratic investigations that are simultaneously trimmed and expanded during zoom conversations. By the time diverse views are pulled together into a special issue of Psyche Extended, there will be little need to review, revise, or reject submissions; the collective experience will (hopefully) have had a “self-editing” effect. Authors will have had the opportunity to review each other’s ideas, orally and in writing.
step 1
The Zairja Study involves aleatory processes and combinatorial fictions to advance and refine the idea of LALANGUE. The method involves (1) picking two terms at random from THE LARGE LIST, (2) researching/inventing a possible connection (speculation and invention are allowed, if not required), and (3) applying the connection to a third, randomly selected term. For help, watch this instructional video on how to use a zairja.
This same procedure can be accomplished with ChatGPT. The “results” are the change that has been provoked in your own thinking. The model for this method is a combination of Lacan’s adaptation of the Fundamental Polygon of the torus, his formula of metaphor, and his late reconfiguration of the discourse matheme.
step 2
Those who have undertaken at least one session of the Zairja Protocol are invited to participate in a Zoom event (see the iPSA definition of the reverse zoom) to discuss results and present ideas for new perspectives on the idea of lalangue.
This project runs in parallel with the Tiny House Project, done in conjunction with a workshop to be held in September 2024 at the annual VANDA conference in Vienna. The Tiny House is to the domestic home what lalangue is to conventional language.
step 3
Zoom conversations are designed to fuel participants’ writing. First, contributions will be posted on the lalangue forum. Authors and the public will be invited to comment and make suggestions. Authors are encouraged to use the style sheet for the anticipated special issue of Psyche Extended, first to get acquainted with the formatting that will be required of all essays in the special issue on lalangue and the Tiny House, second to allow editors to make the eventual changes to all manuscripts for both web publication and any future book proposals.
step 4?
At this point the theoretical project should be sufficiently developed to serve as a platform for new work in a variety of media. Following the successful dissemination of the first special issue of Psyche Extended, the essays can be reformed into one or more book proposals. Alternatively, there can be exhibitions of artwork, performances, or new conferences.
Contact Don Kunze, kunze767@gmail.com with questions or for further information.