An event is no coincidence, it is a form of attention. Attention can be slack, but as it gathers intensity it increases the tension. Lyotard describes the event as a feeling, an inflection. It has the sense of the question. You can...
moreAn event is no coincidence, it is a form of attention. Attention can be slack, but as it gathers intensity it increases the tension. Lyotard describes the event as a feeling, an inflection. It has the sense of the question. You can never be sure that an event will take place, nor can you certify that it has taken place. The structure of the event is a play within the tension of uncertainty, and it has the form of: Is it happening?
In Libidinal Economy, Lyotard introduced the concept of the tensor, which is a material state of energy that creates (produces, excites) tension upon a relatively stable material structure (a body, or, more precisely, a surface). It is the interaction between form and tension that creates the world, which is subject to interpretation. For events to be interpreted, their very happening is questioned, but there are hegemonic interpretations. Tension can be destructive or stabilizing; intensities can be stabilized by form or they can disrupt it.
It is as if a tension is waiting to come, expecting a future. However, it is not the release of tension that represents an event. An event is not a happening, like laughter, orgasm or revolution, but rather, an openness to the possibility of a happening and a wondering if something was missed and it already happened. It is a form of waiting that increases tension. Interpretation both precedes the event and interpretation follows the event, but it never coincides.
Did it happen? One waits.
