Keynote lecture given at the Amsterdam School of Cultural Analysis workshop on Transparency/Opacity, 23rd March 2016. http://asca.uva.nl/conferences/asca-workshop-2016-transparency-opacity/asca-workshop-2016-kopie.html See also text uploaded separately.

1. Transparency, Opacity, Antinomy:
’Pataphysics
Professor Andrew Hugill
Bath Spa University

3. Pataphysical Science
Ubu Roi: ’Pataphysics is a science we have invented,
and for which a crying need has generally been felt.

4. Bishop Mendacious

5. The gidouille

6. ʼPataphysics

7. Antinomy

8. Definitions
• Pataphysics […] is the science of that which is superinduced upon
metaphysics, whether within or beyond the latter's limitations,
extending as far beyond metaphysics as the latter extends beyond
physics.
• Pataphysics will be, above all, the science of the particular, despite
the common opinion that the only science is that of the general.
• Pataphysics will examine the laws which govern exceptions, and will
explain the universe supplementary to this one; or, less ambitiously,
will describe a universe which can be - and perhaps should be -
envisaged in the place of the traditional one […]
• DEFINITION. Pataphysics is the science of imaginary solutions, which
symbolically attributes the properties of objects, described by their
virtuality, to their lineaments.
(Jarry Gestes et opinions du Docteur Faustroll, pataphysicien)

9. Collège de ʼPataphysique

10. Questions

11. Pataphysical Knowledge

12. Should pataphysics be taken seriously?
Carelman: Les Chaussons ramasse-miettes (crumb slippers)

13. Pataphysics and the Academy
“Is there any need to wish pataphysics well
in Buenos Aires?
It was there, as it was everywhere, before
we came into existence and it can do
without the lot of us.
It will always exist and will do without us
altogether.
It can even do without existing, for it does
not even need to exist in order to exist.”

14. Two Examples
Surface of God Days and Nights

15. Lord Kelvin and Paul Valéry
Lord Kelvin Paul Valéry

16. Formula
Thus we have:
x = ∞ – N – a – P.
But
N = ∞ – 0
and
P = 0.
Therefore
x = ∞ – (∞ – 0) – a – 0 =
∞ – ∞ + 0 – a – 0x = – a.
GOD IS THE
TANGENTIAL
POINT BETWEEN
ZERO AND
INFINITY.
Pataphysics is the
science . . .

17. Boris Vian: Calcul numérique de dieu
par des methods simples et fausses
Dieu = deux + i - x = 2 + i - x
[…]
Deux + Deux = 4
(Dieux - i) + (Dieux - i) = 4
Dieux + Dieux - 2i = 4
Dieux - 2i = 4
Dieux = Deux + i = 2 + i
2 + i - 2i = 4
2 - i - 4 = 0
i = -2
Dieu = 1 – 1 = 0.

18. JOOTSY Calculus
• Generalized Orthographic Denotations (GOD)
• 2 + 2 = 4
• Inverted: (9 - 8)(9 - 8)
• T-Math: 2 teacups plus 2 teacups = 40 cups
• Honest calculations: one plus twelve = 1 + 12;
seven plus seven = 7 + 7

19. Days and Nights: novel of a deserter

20. Roman scales

21. The Tacit Dimension
Nonaka, I. (1991) "The knowledge creating company." Harvard Business Review, 69, (Nov-Dec), 96-104

22. Robert Smithson Spiral Jetty (1970)

23. Mode 1/Mode 2
Kemp, R. & Martens, P. (2007) “Sustainable development: how to manage
something that is subjective and can never be achieved”.
Sustainability: Science, Practice and Policy e-journal.

24. The Consolations of ʼPataphysics

25. Creative Computing
Andrew Hugill/Martin Rieser Secret Garden (2013)

26. PRASCAL
<Physics> ʼ+ <Physics> ::= Metaphysics
<Metaphysics> ʼ+ <Metaphysics> ::= Pataphysics
<Pataphysics> ʼ- <Metaphysics> ::= Metaphysics
<Metaphysics> ʼ- <Physics> ::= Physics
<Physics> ʼ* <Metaphysics> ::= Pataphysics
<Pataphysics> ʼ/ <Metaphysics> ::= Physics

27. Crossing levels of abstraction
frog ʼ+ frog = heqet
heqet ʼ+ heqet = hoquet
hoquet ʼ- heqet = heqet
heqet ʼ- frog = frog
frog ʼ* heqet = hoquet
hoquet ʼ/ heqet = frog

28. Patadata

29. Uboolean Logic
Conjunction
X Y Z = X (AND ⋀)Y
F F F
F T F
F FT F
T F F
T T T
T FT FT
FT F F
FT T FT
FT FT FT
Disjunction
X Y Z = X (OR ⋁) Y
F F F
F T T
F FT FT
T F T
T T T
T FT T
FT F FT
FT T T
FT FT FT

30. Some Pataphysical Functions
• absolu (string) → string (the absolu value will always result in a cliché)
– absolu(frog) = a frog in the hand is worth two in the refrigerator.
• antinomy (string) → string (the antinomy function is self-contradictory)
– antinomy (brother) + antinomy (cheese) = You do not have a brother
and he likes cheese (cf. Perec).
• epiphenomenon (string) → string (an epiphenomenon is a by-product)
– epiphenomenon (spaghetti) = steam

31. Marxism

32. Thank you!
Andrew Hugill
Centre for Creative Computing
Bath Spa University
Corsham Court
Corsham SN13 0BZ
U.K.
a.hugill@bathspa.ac.uk

33. From The Imaginary Voyage
• Isle of Cack
– ….is not an island but a man….
– http://theimaginaryvoyage.com/Islands/Cack/Isle
_of_Cack1.php

34. Land of Lace
The king of Lace drew out the light as a ropemaker plaits his retrograde line,
and the threads troubled slightly in the dim light, like cobwebs.
They wove themselves into forests, like the leaves which hoarfrost engraves
on windowpanes;
then they fashioned themselves into a Madonna and her Child in the
Christmas snow;
and then into jewels, peacocks, and gowns, intermingling like a swimming
dance of the Rhine maidens.
The Beaux and the Belles strutted and preened in imitation of fans, until their
patient gathering broke up with a cry.
Just as the white junonians, roosting in a park, complaining raucously when
the lying intrusion of a lamp apes prematurely the dawn’s reflection of their
ocelli,
so an artless shape burgeoned in the forest of raked-over pine pitch;
and as Pierrot serenades the confusion of the moon’s entwined ball,
the paradox of day burrowing underground arose from Ali Baba screaming in
the pitiless oil and the jar’s darkness.