And. The Invention (Projection) of the Third

Abstract

My intention is to distinguish between the new and novelty. Using the impossibility of projective difference defined (made, determined) by the other and the third, I will elaborate a deconstruction of the creation of the “new”. As the other appears from the possibility of difference, invention is a discovery (in what already exists) of the other. If Derrida placed the appearance of the other outside the methodological procedure, thus projecting (designing) deconstruction above all as a “metaphysical project” with explicitly phenomenological projection, we can claim that, upon the invention of the other (the new), we must also produce “the third”, as inspiration of real creation (novelty). Invention is not the same as creation, but refers to alteration (movement, change) of what already exists through qualitative openness to other readings. The other is the projection of openness, or the other is what contains a “projection”. Distinct from the “new”, novelty is pure creation, that is, it refers to the concept. Thus, the other could be said to belong to the project, that is, it is a projection that constructs a new object, opens it and places it into reality. “The Third” is an unstable position that emerges from the constant tension between what exists and what is thought. This uncertainty could manifest “something” entirely novel, beyond projective geometry, which aims to oppose deconstruction with the “perfect” or “ideal” structure. The new is thus equated with invention, that is, the project; while novelty relates to the concept. Since the concept mediates between architecture and philosophy, and as novelty is essentially the future of the discipline, then the concept – the conjunction AND – contains the contingency of the third: the possibility of novelty for the new.