Involuntary phrases for the 21st Century: “No phrase is the first.” §184

In an interview in 1978, Lyotard was asked if he believed a “communication volontaire” is possible. The difficulty of translating this phrase — “self-directed” or “voluntary” communication? — is enhanced by the fact that such a notion seems oddly out of time. Lyotard’s reply invokes aspects of the strange and strained relationship between his most philosophical book, The Differend: Phrases in dispute, and his most popular, The Postmodern Condition: a report on knowledge, in particular the shift from Wittgensteinian ideas of “language games” to that of phrase regimen and its attending critique of anthropocentrism. Is there, in this shift, a move that echoes current questions asked by the conjuncture of art and technology and into which it might, in turn, feed? The possibility of a “communication volontaire” will be considered through the inter-relationship of both texts, Lyotard’s own response in relation to his teachings at the university of Vincennes, and through artworks which perform aspects of this voluntary process.