Exposé for the application in the PhD program ‘Promotionsstudiengang Kunst und Design mit dem Abschluss Doctor of Philosophy’ at the Bauhaus Universität Weimar with degree Doctor of Philosophy Ph.D. It consists therefore of an interconnected equal theoretical (wissenschaftlich) and practical (künstlerisch oder gestalterisch) part.

I. The Problem

Jacques Lacan (1901-1981) was a French psychoanalyst; one of the most influential after Freud1 and for a good reason famously hard to understand.2 Since what he endeavours to transmit to his students is the unconscious – not as content to be understood, but as the formal obstacle to understanding. The unconscious is presented 3,4 not in theory 5,6 but as a praxis7,8 encountered by the student in Lacan’s homophony infused speech, topologies and clownish theatricality, with which he kindles and frustrates their „desires to know“9 – that is the encounter.

Such presentation must be unprecedented in order to maintain the obstacle. Lacan’s Return to Freud cannot therefore be a simple retelling of Freud’s discovery, but rather be a shifted, unorthodox (re-)presentation and thereby remain faithful to the discovery.12

Jacques Lacan
Television
1973

The today highly popular medium of the explainer video aims to create understanding.10,11  Nonetheless it is this medium which firstly operates more than any other on the desire to know and secondly can transmit more than the book or the blackboard the manipulation and movement of Lacan’s topology.

Lastly, and above all, this new medium offers the possibility of subjecting Lacan’s Return to the same shift that it had subjected Freud to, precisely in order to remain faithful to the discovery — (re-)presenting instead of representing it. 

 Thus the research question for this PhD is:

How can a translation (I.3)of Jaques Lacan’s Return to Freud (I.1), which (re-)presents the obstacle to understanding, into the medium of the animated explainer video (I.2) be realized?

It contains a theoretical part — theoretical basis for translation based in Lacan, theoretical research of Lacan for the writing of scripts — and a practical parts — the concrete technical realization of the videos — equally. 

I.1 Return to Freud

Lacan’s project called Return to Freud conducted in Écrits and Séminaires is first of all the presentation of the inherently unprecedented Freudian discovery — or the unconscious — not as established doxa, but as what it has always been: unprecedented.

This is 

1. firstly by reading it as the logic of the signifier (I.1.1.)

2. and secondly by conduction this presentation as a transmission of the discovery (I.1.2.).

I.1.1 Logic of the Signifier

The subject of the unconscious is that of science. Science is minimal. The signifier is the most minimal element of (psychoanalytic) structure.13 Initially a signifier is the materiality of a word that differentiates it from others and enables it to carry meaning (signified).

De Saussure's Logic of the Signifier

Lacan argues (against his forerunner De Saussure) that meanings and signifiers don’t exist independently, rather one signifiers becomes the meaning of another.14 If this is the case, there is always one signifier that represents the lack of meaning. This then is the location of the unconscious.15  The unconscious is not a content that can be understood, but the obstacle to understanding, something that is the call for meaning.16

Lacan's Logic of the Signifier

This call is the desire to know, the attempt at meaning is the symptom in analysis.17 The goal of analysis is to recognize that the question is the answer.18 To recognize the obstacle to understanding as the ultimate (non-)knowledge, which is not the “absence of knowledge, but its most elaborated form.”19

Lacan's Topology of the Signifier

This can also be expresses as such: if there is no outside of language that it can differentiate its inside from, it has to differentiate itself from itself, which nonetheless only displaces the lack of an outside. This perspective is called topology. Language is thus no two sided paper but a möbius strip, the circle becomes an interior eight, the sphere becomes a kleine bottle. All these have in common that their top-/inside always returns as under-/outside in an inverted form — identical and yet different to itself.

Saussure's Topology of the Signifier

Lacan's Topology of the Signifier

I.1.2 Transmission of the Unconscious

Lacan’s Return to Freud is/can never only theory but has to be practicepresentation of the unconscious.

If the unconscious is part of every linguistic structure, one cannot speak about the unconscious without performing it; there is no theory of the unconscious without a practice of it. Lacan’s presentation is emphasizing the unconscious i.e. the obstacle.20 This makes it a transmission.21 The unconscious is no content; thus, his presentation has to be an explanation without understanding22 to facilitate an encounter with the obstacle to understanding, by kindling the desire to know. 

„[T]he only genuine teaching is one which succeeds in awakening an insistence in those who are listening, this desire to know […].“23

Lacan utilizes to this end mainly the following techniques: facilitations and manifestations of the obstacle to understand.

Facilitations (Ways of discourse)

1

Promising and frustrating understanding

By using the promise, deferral, digressions, referral and retroactive dissolution of understanding Lacan at once kindles the desire to know and frustrates its satisfaction.24

2

Wise man/Clown 

By appearing as a clown who knows nothing and parodically emphasizes the theatricality and artificiality of his role as a teacher, and at the same time as a wise oracle who knows and conducts a highly developed, eclectic and complex theoretical discourse, Lacan presents nonknowledge as the ultimate knowledge.25

Manifestations  (Products of discourse)

1

Matheme

Since the unconscious is inherent to language, it is impossible to speak of it as a content with language. Lacan stages the attempt to solve this problem, by formalizing it with non-linguistic formulas26, schemata and topologies made of letters27 which appear on first sight as a solution to the obstacle inherent to language, however, language must be used again to explicate them.28 This brings one back to the initial problem: language.

2

Lalangue

By using wordplay, Lacan stages language without differentiation: two words sound the same but have a different meaning.29 This leads to an undecidability of meaning, i.e. not to the overcoming of the obstacle to understanding but to its manifestation: Lalangue, which manifests the question that is the unconscious 30 — like a Freudian slip.

Schema L
The early topography of Imaginary and Symbolic (Real)

Borromean Knot
Mature topology of the relation between the Lacanian registers

I.1.2.1 Baroque

Lacan’s presentation is a kind of seduction (and frustration) in which the desire to know is kindled by the teacher, who promises to know, while the moment of satisfaction is either deferred (facilitation), or when it arrives, only manifests this deferral (manifestations).

Lacan appears as Salome dancing the dance of seven veils and what is transmitted is not a knowledge that is finally revealed beyond the veil, but that the veil that suggests a beyond is the ultimate (non-)knowledge. 

The logic of this seduction is homologous to that of the Baroque, its illusionist theater, trompe l’oeil painting, and painterly architecture.31 These present themselves as an artificial veil enabling one to see that “the truth hidden by the veil of appearance […] is itself nothing but appearance.”32 Or as Deleuze puts it: „the essence of the Baroque entails neither falling into nor emerging from illusion but rather realizing something in illusion itself.“ 33

Theatrical facade of
Chiesa del Santissimo Nome di Gesù all'Argentina

Trompe-l’œil in il Gesù
Triumph of the Name of Jesus by Giovanni Battista Gaulli

I.2 Explainer video

An explainer video is in the majority of the cases combining scripted narration and visual aid, either in form of a demonstration or graphic illustration. Adding up Stefanie Findeisen and Jürgen Seifrieds Work with Karsten Wolfs work on the topic we can define the explainer video as follows:

The explainer video 

1.is short (maximum 20 minutes).

2. is a video.35

Video is defined in contrast to other forms such as “Lehrfilm” as follows:

    1. A video is inexpensively self-produced.
    2. A video is available free of charge.
    3. A video is published on online video platforms (e.g. YouTube, Vimeo).

3. explains content, concepts and contexts.36

Explaining is defined as follows:37

    1. Explaining is the interaction between an explainer and at least one listener.
    2. Explaining addresses content that the listener(s) are initially unaware of or unaware of. The explainer has a knowledge advantage over the listener(s) (knowledge asymmetry).
    3. Explaining pursues the objective of making certain content understandable to the listener. Explaining is therefore not about presenting specialised content, but about making it understandable.

4. refers to individual parts of a topic (no claim to completeness).38

3. is intended to achieve an understanding in the viewer39

Understanding is the result of successful explanation.

Very popular channels exclusively creating explainer videos are the following: ‘Kurzgesagt’40, ‘Crash Course’41, ‘Veritasium’42, ‘Ted Ed’43 or in german space famously ‘Simple Club’44 and even the German pop scientist Harald Lesch appearing as an explainer in videos produced by the ZdF.45 All of these use illustrations with an off-camera narration, while ‘Veritasium’ uses an on-camera narrator, who is sometimes intercut by footages of the subject or infographics.

Explainer videos are produced to serve two main purposes: education or advertisements, both function on the premise that the audience leaves the video with the certitude that they have understood. Because of this  Wolf adds: 

„[Es gibt] (noch?) keine ausgeprägte künstlerische Auseinandersetzung mit dem Erklärfilm/-video […]. Die Mehrzahl der Erklärvideos und insbesondere der Video-Tutorials sind vielmehr überwiegend unkünstlerisch. Sie fokussieren auf das intentionale Beantworten von Fragen; das Enigmatische der Kunst dagegen steht nicht im Mittelpunkt.“46

I.2.2 Design elements

Findeisen, Horn and Seifried in their meta study of the effectiveness of different design elements of explainer videos47 in regard to the archived understanding conclude that the following elements are the most effective:

Actively engaging and stimulating the viewer through direct address, referring in the video to actions and content outside the video and its platform.

Demonstrations should be visible as if from the viewers point of view. 

Learners seem to attribute a higher level of expertise to older explainers and pay more attention to their explanations.

Empirical findings suggest a maximum length of six minutes.

The perceived aesthetics and user-friendliness of the design have a positive effect on the learning process.

Schorn names the problem-solution-narrative the most dominant narrative structure of the explainer video to achieve the success of understanding.48

A brief introduction of a problem. Can include a story/situation in the vein of “meet Bob…”

Presentation/elaboration of the problem or question.

Resolution of the situation, answering the question; can include a call to action.

The issue with making a video understandable is that this understanding can often be as Kulgemeyer and Wittwer recognize as an “illusion of understanding” based on the recognition of the new knowledge as already acquired knowledge. Techniques to avoid this problem are collected in a 2018 review of research by Kulgemeyer to improve the effectiveness of science explainer videos based on evidence.49

Rule-example structure if the learning goal is factual knowledge. Example-rule structure if the learning goal is a routine or procedural knowledge

The video summarizes the explanation

The video is adapted to a group of addresses and their potential knowledge, misconceptions, or interests. To do so, it uses the “tools for adaptation.”

The video uses examples to illustrate a principle

The video uses analogies and models that connect the new information with a familiar area 

The video uses representation forms and/or demonstrations 

The video uses a familiar level of language 

The video uses a familiar level of mathematization

The video focuses on the core idea, avoids digressions and keeps the cognitive load low

The video connects sentences with connectors, especially “because.”

The video explicitly highlights why the explained topic is relevant to the explainee 

The explainee is addressed directly, e.g., by using the second-person singular

The video describes learning tasks the explainees can engage in actively.

I.3 Faithful Translation

Since Lacan’s Return to Freud is and cannot be a mere transmission of a content, but is about the transmission of the place where form and content touch – it presents what is impossible to say. This is why the only theory of translations one can apply to it is the one Walter Benjamin presents 1923 in the preface to his translation of Baudelaire‘s Tableaux Parisiens under the title of The Task of the Translator.

The translator’s task is

  1. not to transfer the content of a poem from original language into receptor language,
    1. since the essential feature is not communication of a content, but rather a beyond-of-communication.49
      1. This beyond-of-communication is untranslatable since it is specific to its language’s way-of-meaning.50
      2. This beyond-of-communication is linked to the specific way each language’s way-of-meaning is unsuccessful in fully signifying its object.51

2. not to recreate the effect that the original (language) had in the receptor language so that “it readsas if it had originally been written in that language.“52

The task of the translator is to highlight the difference between languages by transferring the syntax from original language as perfectly as possible into receptor language while feeling free to impair its functionality not only of grammatical structures but also of meaning-effects.53

A truthful translation is

1. a literal rendering of the syntax of language A in language B.

2. so literal it effects the functionality of language B negatively.

3. “casts the reproduction of meaning entirely to the winds”. 54

4. “threatens to lead directly to incomprehensibility”.55

Thus a true translation creates a strange hybrid of original language und B; it formally transforms receptor language through an alien syntax. To make this idea clear Benjamin describes the opposite of a truthful translation through a quote by Rudolf Pannwitz, who criticizes translation as such:

“Our translations, even the best ones, proceed from a mistaken premise. They want to turn Hindi, Greek, English into German instead of turning German into Hindi, Greek, English.”56

Sphere
The pre-modern Universe

Klein Bottle
The modern Universe

II. Relevance

The question „How is a truthful translation of Jacques Lacan’s Return to Freud into the medium of the animated explainer video possible?“ can now clearly be formulated as such:

How must an explainer video be written, visually designed and its conventions formally transformed so that it can present the hurdle of understanding as to integrally transmit it to the viewer?

II.1 The first artistic investigation of the medium

The overwhelming majority of researchers agree that the medium of explainer video is becoming increasingly important and popular57,  but, as Wolf emphasizes, there has been no artistic exploration of the medium due to its clear instrumental nature. With this choice of subject, the enigmatic that Wolf ascribes to the artwork is unavoidable. Furthermore, the subject is perfectly suited to the deconstruction of an explanatory video, as it is not about anything enigmatic, but about the precise understanding of non-understanding.

II.2 Perfect medium for Lacan (hurdle to understanding)

If the formal aim of the Return to Freud is to present a hurdle to understanding, then such a presentation is most effectively carried out and reinforced through the medium of the explainer video. This is because the explainer video today awakens the expectation of understanding much more strongly than a text by Lacan. When a reader is confronted with the obscurity of Lacan, he will, as is often the case today, look for and find a video that promises understanding so effectively that it entices him to watch it. This is the perfect prerequisite for the hurdle of understanding.

II.3 Perfect medium for Lacan (Matheme & 3D topology)

 

Lacan’s logic of the signifier is explicitly temporal58, this is implicit and explicit in his language, for example, when he speaks of the “bobbining movement of the repetition”59 in desire. Since it is a movement, it cannot be represented as such on a page or a blackboard. Furthermore, the topology that Lacan uses and the manipulations60 he performs take place in an abstract mathematical three-dimensional space 61,62 and occur in several steps over time. It is therefore very difficult to follow them in detail.63 An explainer video with 3D animation is the perfect medium for discussing such topics.

II.4 A Lacan explainer video hasn’t be done yet properly

 

In the english language space there is already a vibrant online community of experts, autodidacts and groups discussing, debating and teaching Lacan especially in the medium of video.64 But only a handful could be classified as creating explainer videos, such as ‘LacanOnline’65,  ‘Julian de Medeiros’ 66 or ‘Evers Brothers’67. All of them either lack professional visualization, popular accessibility (promise of understanding) or the hurdle to understanding and in the last case academic rigor. Non of them have achieved a level of illustration or infographics such as ‘Kurzgesagt’ in combination with the presentation of the hurdle. The only channel that comes closer is ‚Plastic Pills’68 which nonetheless lacks academic rigor and includes questionable content.

"Is it visible, is it clear enough? Do you see from down there in the bad light? Here we have opened up an orifice crossing both what in my drawing symbolised the enveloping cosmos and what in my drawing symbolised the enveloped microcosm, and it is in this way that we rejoin the structure of the Klein bottle. Have you seen it enough? No? Well then I'll make it bigger. Otherwise we'll never understand anything. There it is now, completed. Are you beginning to see that? Are you beginning to see it? Have you grasped the essential of what I explained to you earlier, the structure of the Klein bottle? This blackboard must be really badly lit. Is there no light, since I see down there people craning their necks? It would all the same be important for you to see what I drew."

Lacan, Jacques. The Seminar of Jacques Lacan: Book XII: Crucial problems for psychoanalysis, 1964-1965. unofficial, trans. Cormac Gallagher. 16.11.1964. p. 42.

III. Design Concept

A transformation of the medium in translation, is definitely necessary since the explainer video is designed to create understanding and the Return to Freud is not only a content, but also a form that is deliberately designed to present the hurdle to understanding.

Therefore, the question is which elements of the typical explainer video need to be converted and to what extent in order to achieve this truthful translation,

how to stick as closely as possible to the characteristics and rules for creating a successful explainer video while twisting them ever so slightly to match the syntax of the inherent transmission of the hurdle.

The features are the following and the preliminary solutions given here will set the groundwork for the work plan and outline of practical tasks.

III.1 Video series

III.1.1 Number of videos / Relation of videos:

The goal is the deferral of understanding, thus

  • a series is necessary.
  • each video has to result not in understanding, but deferral to another. 
  • the series as a whole has to form a mobius strip, where in the end we come back to the beginning but in an inverted form (question = answer), making it not-all.

 

To enhance this effect the creation of longer videos forming a series, which are referred to in short clips taken from them seems effective. 

III.1.2 Length of videos:

The goal is the kindling of the fantasy of knowing, thus

  • it shouldn’t be so long as to seem unattractive.
  • it shouldn’t be so short as to seem oversimplified, since the topic is very complex. 
  • an absolute maximum of 25 minutes for long videos and 10 minutes for clips seems appropriate to ensure referral inside the individual videos themselves. 

III.1.3 Titles and thumbnails:

The goal is the kindling of the fantasy of knowing, thus

  • titles should make the video look like a straightforward answer. 
    • Thus titles should neither be overly complex nor appear as clickbait, but simple, technical and direct.69 Clips could be titled as: “What is psychoanalysis? | Lacan explained” ; “Woman does not exist | Lacan explained”. 
  • thumbnails should be aesthetic and appealing, to create the impression of professionally.

III.2 Script Structure

III.2.1 Problem-solution-narrative

The goal is the transmission of the hurdle, thus the apparent solution of the problem has to

  • either turn out to be another question/problem.
  • or to be deferred to another video. 

III.2.2 Rule-example structure/Example-rule

All factual knowledge in Lacan is in essence procedural, since terminology is in the process of deferral; thus 

  • rules should turn out to be examples and visa-versa.

III.2.3 Summary

The goal is the deferral of understanding, thus

  • a summary should be utilized as a deferral to another video.

III.3 Stylistic elements

III.3.1 Exemples

Since the goal is to transfer Lacan’s presentation (i.e. syntax), examples should be chosen as he does, 

  • mainly from Freud’s and other published case studies. 

 

Since the presentation of the hurdle is the goal and it is located where form and content meet up, examples should not be illustrations but 

  • objects of continuous investigation.
  • manifest the structure they exemplify.70
  • subvert the very meaning of what they exemplify.71
  • lead to a deferral. 

III.3.2 Language

Since the goal is to kindle the fantasy of knowing and the transmission of the hurdle, use 

  • familiar but very dry and professional language to make videos more accessible yet trustworthy. 
  • subtle wordplays, homophones, slips and little mistakes such as mispronunciations.
  • spelling mistakes with connotations in the graphics visuals.
  • double entendres and references.
  • strategically engineered mishearing.
  • deferred explanation of complicated terms.

III.3.3 Digressions

Since the goal is to transfer Lacan’s presentation (i.e. syntax),

  • digressions into seemingly unrelated mathematics, topology or examples should be utilized. 

III.3.4 Coherency

The goal is the  transmission of the hurdle and this is not the same as chaotic nonsense,

  • the highest degree of coherence (possibly interspersed with digression) should be maintained.
  • the series as a whole (conjunction with videos referred to) should form no coherent whole. 

III.4 Visuals

III.4.1 Visibility of the speaker

Since the kindling of the desire to know is a seduction, and the desire to know is a desire for satisfaction, one has to 

  • firstly, point this out by making the speaker visible and speaking in a way that subtly conjures up connotations of seduction, which probably makes the viewer uncomfortable and yet further interested.

Since “LA femme” takes the place of the never arriving final meaning in Lacan, the speaker would have to be played as such a woman – a woman that promises satisfaction.72

Since the continuous deferral of knowledge is akin to a never ending striptease, this fact could be visually referenced in the dress and location of the speaker.

  • secondly, no speaker appears, but a voiceover narration suggests a position of neutrality (theory), which then needs to be undermined by III.3.2. (praxis).

III.4.2 Design style

Since the obstacle to understanding is the desire to understand and thus the listener is already performing the answer to his question, his desire has to be addressed by e.g. 

  • filming the visible speaker in widely recognized places of seduction and using them as a backdrop for infographics, so that the places and change of place tell a typical story of seduction, e.g. the clishee scenario: (1) see woman at hotel bar, (2) sit with woman, (3) go to hotel room etc. 73
    • While using the objects at these places for didactic purposes. 
    • In these scenarios, the camera perspective is that of the audience, who would then be located as the male partner in the scenario. While the visible speaker (woman) articulates examples, Lacanian aphorisms, writes Mathemes and topologies, in short everything that is an answer but calls for explanations. The camera then holds on the woman or on objects utilized by her, while the male voice off-screen fails to explain the words of the woman and graphics illustrate these.  

 

Since the subject of the unconscious is that of science and science is minimalist,74

  • a minimalist design of illustrations/graphics should be utilized aligning with the principles described by Tschichold. 75

 

Since the integral transmission is structured as the baroque is, one has to use

  • illusionistic transitions, in which 
    • e.g. the back of something turns out to be the front of another. 
    • something seems to be blurred, but turns out to be inherently blurry.
    • backgrounds slide away and assemble themselves such as in the baroque theater.
  • baroque style backgrounds, images, furniture and locations.
  • baroque music (potentially synthesized such as to fuse with the minimalism of science).

 

Since the integral transmission functions only through the desire to know, 

  • the design needs to look highly aesthetic and user-friendly to seem professional.
    • The visual user-friendliness needs to be interrupted by the baroque.

III.4.3 Illustrations 

Since topology and the matheme is the imaginary access to the real, illustrations have to use 

  • Lacanian letters, schemas, graphs in 2D. 
  • topology of cross cap, torus, etc. in 3D.

 

These can/should be animated since, 

  • see: II.3

 

Since it has to be based on anticipation and retroaction, the animation has to be

  • stilted/jerky.
  • tensing and then snapping. 

"L'introduction de la topologie par Lacan dans les années 1960, en particulier les recents développements sur les noeuds, constitue, à mon avis, une tentative de saisir el réel par des moyens imaginaires fantasmatiques (...). Cette façon d'envi- sager la topologie ayant plus à faire au dessin qu'au calcul. au tableau noir qu'au papier, à la monstration qu'à al démonstration; va à l'encontre de al croyance selon laquelle faire de la topologie est, pour les analystes, faire de al science."

— Nasio, Juan-David. Introduction à la topologie de Lacan. Paris, Payot, 2010.

III.5 Viewer

III.5.1 Audience 

The video is addressed to anyone who would watch an explainer video, 

  • thus someone who comes from the original text with the desire to know, thus all decisions made are directed at his desire to know (see II.2). 
  • Beyond that many connotations and associations would only function with knowledge of western cultural space, which due to the internet and cinema is omnipresent.  

III.5.2 Direct address 

Since the hurdle of understanding is equivalent to the non-existence of an outside-of-language, 

  • a direct address can function as a fourth-wall break that stages this non-existence.
    • To achieve this fourth-wall break it needs to start with a neutral narration and change to a direct address. 

III.5.3 Interactions 

Interactive tasks are 

  • being deferred to other videos. 
  • being deferred in one video. 

I propose for now the following long videos; they have been chosen based on the most commonly searched in conjunction with Lacan on google based on google trends. These longer videos can then be clipped into shorter videos.

1. The Signifier

 [lack (Real), metaphor  (Imaginary), metonymy (Symbolic)]

2. The Subject of Unconscious

[enunciation,  statement, $]

3. Desire & Objet Petit a

 [fantasy, Symptôme, Angst, ‘Che Vuoi?’]

4. Mirror Stage

[Schema L, Optical model]

5. Phallus

[Ödipus-conflict]

6. Formulas of Sexuation 

[LA Femme]

7. Three Clinical structures 

[Neurosis, psychosis, perversion]

8. Four Discourses

[Master, University, Psychoanalysis, Hysteric]

9. Drive & Jouissance

[End of analysis]

Scene Sketch
The torus in a baroque space

IV. Work & time plan

The standard duration of the PhD is 3 years, this is 6 Semesters. In the second semester there will be a “Vorprüfung”. In § 4 of the “Prüfungsordnung” it says: 

“Der  Doktorand/die Doktorandin erläutert im Rahmen einer Präsentation seinen/ihren wissenschaftlichen sowie künstlerischen oder gestalterischen Arbeitsfortschritt seit Studienbeginn.” 

At the end of the 6 semesters the following parts have to be completed as noted in § 1:

    1. “eine Dissertation als schriftliche wissenschaftliche”
    2. “wie künstlerische oder gestalterische Arbeit”
    3. “eine Disputation als Vortrag”. 

So a practical part (A.), a theoretical part (B.) and a final presentation (C.).

The practical part (A.) will be the realization of the videos. This includes: 

  1. researching Lacanian concepts, grasping the concepts deeply; 
  2. scripting, storyboarding the videos; 
  3. realizing the videos, which itself includes multiple steps: 
      1. Preparing visuals 1: define design system (colors, imagery, typography, animations, illustrations etc.)
      2. Preparing visuals 2: location scouting, testing lighting, shooting, SFX 
      3. Recording off-screen narration.
      4. Creating visuals 1: shooting on-screen location.
      5. Creating visuals 2: editing, SFX, color grading etc. 
      6. Creating visuals 3: adding illustrations and animating them.  

The theoretical part (B.) will include: 

  1. providing a theoretical basis of the translation,
  2. researching Lacanian concepts for scripts,
  3. documenting the work done in the practical part and describing theoretical legitimation behind the decisions.The time- and work-partitioning plan looks as follows (for now):

Semester 1

  • define list off all videos 
  • define content & relation of series
  • define design system (Preparing visuals 1) 
  • prepping visible narrator (Preparing visuals 2)
  • document

Semester 2 

(Vorprüfung)

  • write script for video 1 (including Storyboard)
  • shoot video 1 (Creating visuals 1-3)
  • prepare the Vorprüfung
  • document

Semester 3

  • finishing writing scripts for 2-4 incl. storyboards
  • realize videos 2-4
  • refine translation process through practical application
  • document

Semester 4

  • finishing writing scripts for 5-7 incl. storyboards
  • realize videos 5-7
  • start writing theory behind translating methode
  • document decisions

Semester 5

  • finishing writing scripts for 8+9 incl. storyboards
  • realize videos 8+9
  • writing documentation

Semester 6

(Disputation)

  • do anything that could not be finished before
  • finalizing documentation
  • prepare final presentation

References

1 Evans, Dylan. An Introductory Dictionary of Lacanian Psychoanalysis. Vereinigtes Königreich: Taylor & Francis, 2006. Back Cover.

2 Boothby, Richard. Freud as Philosopher: Metapsychology After Lacan. Vereinigtes Königreich: Taylor & Francis, 2015. p.11

3 Lacan, Jacques. ‘Conférence chez le Professeur Deniker, hôpital Sainte- Anne, le 10 novembre 1978’, le Bulletin de l’Association freudienne, no. 7 (June 1984), p. 3.

4 Greenshields, Will. Writing the Structures of the Subject: Lacan and Topology. Deutschland: Springer International Publishing, 2017. p.19

5 Lacan, Jacques. The Seminar of Jacques Lacan: Book XVI: From an Other to the other 1968-1969. unofficial, trans.Cormac Gallagher. Session of the 4.12.68

6 Lacan, Jacques. The Symbolic, the Imaginary, and the Real. In: Lacan, Jacques. On the Names-of-the-Father. Vereinigtes Königreich: Polity Press, 2015. p.3

7 Weber, Samuel. Return to Freud : Jacques Lacan’s dislocation of psychoanalysis. Vereinigtes Königreich: Cambridge University Press, 1991. p.5

8 Lacan, Jacques, Forrester, John. The Seminar of Jacques Lacan: Book 2: The Ego in Freud’s Theory and in the Technique of Psychoanalysis 1954-1955. Vereinigtes Königreich: Cambridge University Press, 1988. p. 222.

9 Lacan, Jacques. Variations on the standard Treatment, In: Lacan, Jacques. Ecrits: The First Complete Edition In English. Vereinigtes Königreich: WW Norton, 2006. p.297

10 Schorn, Anna. ‚Online explainer videos: Features, benefits, and effects‘, Frontiers in Communication, 7:1034199 (2022). https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2022.1034199

11 Kulgemeyer, C., Wittwer, J. ‚Misconceptions in Physics Explainer Videos and the Illusion of Understanding: an Experimental Study‘, International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education 21 (2023). 417–437. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10763-022-10265-7

12 Greenshields, Will. Writing the Structures of the Subject: Lacan and Topology. Deutschland: Springer International Publishing, 2017. p. 122

14 Milner, Jean-Claude. A Search for Clarity: Science and Philosophy in Lacan’s Oeuvre. USA: Northwestern University Press, 2020. p.64

15 Lacan, Jacques. The Seminar of Jacques Lacan: The psychoses 1955-1956. New York: WW Norton. p.119

17 Lacan, Jacques. The Seminar of Jacques Lacan: R.S.I. 1974-1975. 18.02.1975.

http://staferla.free.fr/S22/S22 p.37

18 Lacan, Jacques. The Seminar of Jacques Lacan: The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis. New York: WW.Norton. 1998. p.251

17 Lacan, Jacques. The Seminar of Jacques Lacan: The psychoses 1955-1956. New York: WW Norton. p.190

18 Lacan, Jacques. The Seminar of Jacques Lacan: The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis. Book XI. New York: WW Norton. 1998. p.250

19 Lacan, Jacques. Variations on the standard Treatment, In: Lacan, Jacques. Ecrits: The First Complete Edition In English. London: WW Norton, 2006. p.297

20 Lacan, Jacques. The Symbolic, the Imaginary, and the Real. In: Lacan, Jacques. On the Names-of-the-Father. Vereinigtes Königreich: Polity Press, 2015. p.7

21 9e Congrès de l’École Freudienne de Paris sur « La transmission » . Parues dans les Lettres de l’École, 1979, n° 25, vol. 21 II, pp. 219.

22 Lacan, Jacques. The Seminar of Jacques Lacan: The psychoses 1955-1956. New York: WW Norton. p.143

23 Lacan, Jacques, Forrester, John. The Seminar of Jacques Lacan: Book 2: The Ego in Freud’s Theory and in the Technique of Psychoanalysis 1954-1955. Vereinigtes Königreich: Cambridge University Press, 1988. p.207

24 Boothby, Richard. Freud as Philosopher: Metapsychology After Lacan. Vereinigtes Königreich: Taylor & Francis, 2015. Ibid.

25 Buse, Peter & Lapsley, Robert. ‘Gaps in Transmission: Reading Lacan’s Television’, Modern Philology 120, no. 3 (February2023): 394-415. https://doi.org/10.1086/723143

26 Lacan, Jacques. The Seminar of Jacques Lacan: On Feminine Sexuality. The Limits of Love and Knowledge. Book XX. Encore 1972-1973. New York: WW Norton. p.119

27 Milner, Jean-Claude. A Search for Clarity: Science and Philosophy in Lacan’s Oeuvre. USA: Northwestern University Press, 2020. p.83

28 Lacan, Jacques. The Seminar of Jacques Lacan: On Feminine Sexuality. The Limits of Love and Knowledge. Book XX. Encore 1972-1973. New York: WW Norton. p. 110

24 Boothby, Richard. Freud as Philosopher: Metapsychology After Lacan. Vereinigtes Königreich: Taylor & Francis, 2015. Ibid.

25 Buse, Peter & Lapsley, Robert. ‘Gaps in Transmission: Reading Lacan’s Television’, Modern Philology 120, no. 3 (February2023): 394-415. https://doi.org/10.1086/723143

26 Lacan, Jacques. The Seminar of Jacques Lacan: On Feminine Sexuality. The Limits of Love and Knowledge. Book XX. Encore 1972-1973. New York: WW Norton. p.119

27 Milner, Jean-Claude. A Search for Clarity: Science and Philosophy in Lacan’s Oeuvre. USA: Northwestern University Press, 2020. p.83

28 Lacan, Jacques. The Seminar of Jacques Lacan: On Feminine Sexuality. The Limits of Love and Knowledge. Book XX. Encore 1972-1973. New York: WW Norton. p. 110

29 Milner, J-C.‚ Back and Forth from Letter to Homophony. Problemi International, vol. 1 no. 1, 2017. Society for Theoretical Psychoanalysis. p.89 https://problemi.si/

30 Lacan, Jacques. The Seminar of Jacques Lacan: On Feminine Sexuality. The Limits of Love and Knowledge. Book XX. Encore 1972-1973. New York: WW Norton. p.143

31 Wölfflin, Heinrich. Renaissance und Barock: eine Untersuchung über Wesen und Entstehung des Barockstils in Italien. Basel: Schwabe, 2009. p.27

32 Egginton, William. The Theater of Truth: The Ideology of (Neo)Baroque Aesthetics. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2009. p. 27

33 Deleuze, Gilles. The Fold. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2006. p.143

34 Findeisen, Stefanie, Sebastian Horn, und Jürgen Seifried. 2019. «Lernen durch Videos – Empirische Befunde zur Gestaltung von Erklärvideos». MedienPädagogik, (Oktober), p.18. https://www.medienpaed.com/article/view/691

35 Wolf, Karsten D. 2015. «Video-Tutorials und Erklärvideos als Gegenstand, Methode und Ziel der Medien- und Filmbildung». In Filmbildung im Wandel, herausgegeben von Anja Hartung- Griemberg, Thomas Ballhausen, Christine Trültzsch-Wijnen, Alessandro Barberi, und Katharina Kaiser-Müller, p. 126.

36 Schorn, Anna. ‚Online explainer videos: Features, benefits, and effects‘, Frontiers in Communication, 7:1034199 (2022). p.01  https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2022.1034199

37 Findeisen, Stefanie, Sebastian Horn, und Jürgen Seifried. 2019. «Lernen durch Videos – Empirische Befunde zur Gestaltung von Erklärvideos». MedienPädagogik, (Oktober), p.18. https://www.medienpaed.com/article/view/691

38 Findeisen, Stefanie, Sebastian Horn, und Jürgen Seifried. 2019. «Lernen durch Videos – Empirische Befunde zur Gestaltung von Erklärvideos». MedienPädagogik, (Oktober), p.18. https://www.medienpaed.com/article/view/691

39 Findeisen, Stefanie, Sebastian Horn, und Jürgen Seifried. 2019. «Lernen durch Videos – Empirische Befunde zur Gestaltung von Erklärvideos». MedienPädagogik, (Oktober), p.18. https://www.medienpaed.com/article/view/691

40 Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell – YouTube

41 CrashCourse – YouTube

42 Veritasium – YouTube

43 TED-Ed – YouTube

44 simpleclub – Die Lernapp – YouTube

45 Terra X Lesch – YouTube

46 Wolf, Karsten D. 2015. «Video-Tutorials und Erklärvideos als Gegenstand, Methode und Ziel der Medien- und Filmbildung». In Filmbildung im Wandel, herausgegeben von Anja Hartung- Griemberg, Thomas Ballhausen, Christine Trültzsch-Wijnen, Alessandro Barberi, und Katharina Kaiser-Müller, p. 126.

47 Findeisen, Stefanie, Sebastian Horn, und Jürgen Seifried. 2019. «Lernen durch Videos – Empirische Befunde zur Gestaltung von Erklärvideos». MedienPädagogik, (Oktober), p.30. https://www.medienpaed.com/article/view/691

48 Schorn, Anna. ‚Online explainer videos: Features, benefits, and effects‘, Frontiers in Communication, 7:1034199 (2022). https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2022.1034199

49 Kulgemeyer, C. (2018). A framework of effective science explanation videos informed by criteria for instructional explanations. Research in Science Education, 50(6), 2441–2462. https://doi.org/10.1007/ s11165-018-9787-7

50 Benjamin, Walter., Eiland, Howard., Smith, Gary. Selected Writings: 1913-1926. Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1996. p. 253

51 Ibid. p. 257 

52 „In the individual, unsupplemented languages, what is meant is never found in relative independence, as in individual words or sentences; rather, it is in a constant state of flux-until it is able to emerge as the able to emerge as the pure language from the from the harmony of all the various ways of meaning.“ Ibid.

53 Ibid. p. 260 

54 „This very stratum furnishes a new and higher justification for free translation; this justification does not derive from the sense of what is to be conveyed, for the emancipation from this sense is the task of fidelity.“ p.261

55 Ibid. p. 260 

56 Ibid.

57 Ibid. p. 261 ff.

58 Schorn, Anna. ‚Online explainer videos: Features, benefits, and effects‘, Frontiers in Communication, 7:1034199 (2022). https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2022.1034199

59 Lacan, Jacques. The Seminar of Jacques Lacan: The psychoses 1955-1956. New York: WW Norton. p. 155

60 Lacan, Jacques. The Seminar of Jacques Lacan: Book IX: Identification. 1961 – 1962. unofficial, trans. Cormac Gallagher. 9.5.62. p.

61 For Exempel: Seminar XXIV. Seminar 2: Wednesday 14 December 1976

62 Nasio, Juan-David. Introduction à la topologie de Lacan. Paris: Payot, 2010. p.36,

63 Lacan, Jacques. The Seminar of Jacques Lacan: Book XII: Crucial problems for psychoanalysis, 1964-1965. unofficial, trans. Cormac Gallagher. 16.11.1964 p. 39.

64 ’Theory Underground‘ (David McKerracher) YouTube: theory underground – YouTube Website: theory underground; ‘Philosophy Portal’ (Cadell Last) YouTube: Philosophy Portal – YouTube Website: https://philosophyportal.online/; Peter Rollins YouTube: Peter Rollins – YouTube Website: PETER ROLLINS; Todd McGowan YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@toddmcgowan8233; The Dangerous Maybe (Michael Downs) YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheDangerousMaybe Blog: The Dangerous Maybe

65 YouTube: LacanOnline – YouTube Blog: LACANONLINE.COM

66 YouTube: Julian de Medeiros – YouTube

67 Evers Brothers Productions – YouTube

68 Lacan – Mirror Stage, Desire, Imaginary and Symbolic „I“, Lacan – The Real, Lacan – The Mirror Stage, The Imaginary, and Social Media (How am I not myself ?)

69 The HP-support channel is a great example of this: HP Support – YouTube or the Simple club: Mathe – simpleclub – YouTube

70 Jacques Lacan, Écrits, trans. Bruce Fink. New York: Norton, 2006, p. 263.

71 Zizek, Slavoj. For They Know Not What They Do: Enjoyment as a Political Factor. London: Verso, 2020. p.143

72 Lacan, Jacques. The Seminar of Jacques Lacan: On Feminine Sexuality. The Limits of Love and Knowledge. Book XX. Encore 1972-1973. New York: WW Norton. p. 103

73 See section titles in: Zizek, Slavoj. Less Than Nothing: Hegel and the Shadow of Dialectical Materialism. London: Verso, 2012.

74 Ivanova, Milena; French, Steven. The Aesthetics of Science: Beauty, Imagination and Understanding. New York: Taylor & Francis, 2020.p. 30

75 Tschichold, Jan. The Principles of new Typography. In: The new Typography: A Handbook for Modern Designers. Berkley: University of California Press, 2023. p. 115-128. https://readings.design/PDF/ThePrinciplesoftheNewTypography.pdf