The void of self-representation
In the mid 1930s the French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan proposed a theory called the Mirror Phase. It defined the time when an infant sees its own self in the mirror for the first time and recognizes the image as who they are. It’s a strange shock as the image in the mirror doesn’t look like how we feel.
He posits that inside, we are chaotic, ever-changing, raw, a stream of speeding thoughts, desires and images; while outside we are somewhat composed, stable, with relatively symmetrical features and limited communication skills (language).
The image in the mirror is far more one-dimensional than the entity that beholds it. We are the whole and our self-reflection is the lack as it may never represent our authentic, real selves.
PDF RAT is the reader-making tool and cousin of Local Library, sibling of Local Radio and similarly only available on the YaleSecure network. The contents of the site are ever-changing, based on what is stored in the Library. Use the tool to merge files into one downloadable and printable PDF reader, for easy compiling and instant pirate publishing.
The other function of PDF RAT is of publisher of Packets: 20-page 8.5 × 11 in. PDFs compiled by different authors to explore a one-word theme through copied material, making new out of the existing.
Roughly 5 packets are organized and designed each year. So far, they are:
➊ Copying by Luiza Dale
➋ Sampling by Bryant Wells (Forthcoming)
Six Photocopied Garments Online
A digital appropriation of Pati Hill’s Six Photocopied Garments—a series of black and white photocopies of garments from 1976.