Jacques Henriot’s conception of “distance”: a virtual space for play
DOI:
10.52367/BRJPD.2675-102X.2021.3.3.109-119Keywords:
mechanical play, distance, virtuality, function, play form, creation, ethics.Abstract
Jacques Henriot asserts that the game refers to one and the same idea. He believes in a semantic core, a common element, a “unity of the game” among the diversity of games. This “common denominator”, as Caillois puts it, is what makes all types of games playable. This semantic core is, according to our reading of Henriot, the “distance” that defines the function of play, for the idea of play must first be understood in a mechanical way. Play is above all that emptiness which allows us to say that there is play: in the parts of a gear, in the joints, in a hinge, etc. Playing is then considered as a dialectical operation that puts the player at a distance. The form of the game is this distance, this interval that allows the game to exist for a player. The "distance" is thus a key concept to understand Henriot’s conception of the game, but instead of approaching the "distance" from a psychoanalytical point of view, we propose to define this concept starting from the concept of “virtuality” in order to fully grasp the richness of Henriot’s thinking.
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