Wednesday 26 October 2016

What is presupposed actualization?

presuppose 1 to believe that a particular thing is true before there is any proof of it 2 to make something necessary if a particular thing is to be shown to be true or false 
actualize 1 to make something real or actual 2 to portray or represent something realistically – actualization 
Bloomsbury Concise English Dictionary

Presupposed actualization (PA) is the desire, ability and will to create potential realities. It works via the consciousness (and unconscious) of those involved in a particular project or programme who have a shared investment in its outcome. While operating seemingly abstractly via the psyche of the individuals, PA’s effects mean that those most invested in the programme already exist in the future space of the (to be) realised project, whether this is unconscious or not. This means that, in a sense, the completed project already exists.

PA is not the same as belief or will, even though it utilises them in order to reach its fruition. Rather, it is the projection of the finalised product as it appears in mind and how this vision unconsciously operates via discourse in order to make it a reality. The repeating of tropes (for example: how they appear in what Foucault calls ‘statements’), the physical act of inscribing words and images that support the mission at hand, and the circulation of significant motifs in the wider community, all unconsciously create schemas that help to concretise the outcome. In an Althusserian sense we can describe this as being material in that the procedures that underpin the discourse exist in an apparatus that creates subjects specific to the cause. The ideology is driven through the material practices of communicating, operating on the subjects reflexively, and on the future proactively, such that the result is manifest in advance.

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