Heterogeneity and Absence/Presence

On the one hand the two excerpts are contiguous. It is reasonable to imagine continuity, co-presence, and more relations of difference — an organization in terms of the narrative relations discussed in chap­ter 2. But as we read on and a moment passes, so the field of presence starts to shift. Before, it was a matter of formalisms, terms that stood in quantifiable relations with one another. Now it is something differ-

When we looked at that formalism we already knew that some­thing was absent. We knew that there was one kind of logic at work, a logic of absence. We also knew that this absence was an engineer – ing/algebraic logic, one of pragmatic simplicity, the business of limit­ing complexity in order to secure ease of manipulation. But there were other kinds of absence too. Indeed in order to make the narrative work, I let slip a clue. For by referring to ‘‘lift slope’’ as ‘‘idle’’ I traded on another absence: the suspicion that the reader would ‘‘know’’ what was meant by such terms as weight or surface area—which, by im­plication, were not idle. This, then, was the performance of another logic of absence.

The second excerpt takes us in another direction. For new kinds of relations are being performed, relations that no longer have to do with formalisms but rather with the flying of aircraft. I will delve into this shortly. But first let’s focus on the changing relations of presence. The second excerpt performs a subtle shift. It ‘‘reminds’’ us what is absent from the formalism. But this is a double effect: it ‘‘reminds’’ us that there is no reference to ‘‘the real world,’’ to what ‘‘actually happens’’ (as opposed to what might happen), but it also inserts that absent ‘‘real world’’ into the formalism, which means that after the second excerpt the real world is, as it were, both present and absent from the formal­ism, and that the formalism has started to acquire extra weight, an extra weight of difference. It has started to acquire this weight in the impossible interference between absence and presence.

This, then, is how I define heterogeneity, heterogeneity in design, and heterogeneity elsewhere. Heterogeneity is an oscillation between absence and presence. How it is that whatever is not there is also there. How that which is there is also not there. Both/and rather than either/or. Or both/and either/or and both/and. Heterogeneity, then, is about the differences that reside in connection and disconnection. Or, more precisely, it is about the ambivalent distributions entailed in dis/connection. Which means that simplicity is not simply about absence but it is also about presence. Hence the term heterogeneity/ simplicity.

Now we can ask: Are there other forms of absence/presence? Are there other heterogeneities?

Fourth Story

If we stay with the aircrew a little longer and search through the pile of documents we find this:

The state of the pilots is variously described as ‘‘tired,’’ ‘‘bathed in sweat,’’ ‘‘weakness in limbs,’’ ‘‘headache.’’ The main factors causing fatigue appear to be several. There are oscillations in the higher frequencies to which various portions of the human anatomy respond. . . , moderate impacts which continually jar the pilot and throw him about, and occasional large gusts which frighten him by giving the aircraft a violent movement. In addi­tion the pilot had the strain of carrying on with his job, and the worry whether the aircraft structure would stand up to the treat­ment. (English Electric 1957)

This paragraph is taken from an internal English Electric memo­randum. Observing next that the pilots are ‘‘near the limit of their en­durance,’’ it continues:

The navigator, who has his eyes on his instruments, will be more prone to sickness than the pilot who looks at the horizon.

At the same time he will be trying to extract precise informa­tion from a variety of electronic equipment requiring fine adjust­ments to be made by hand. (English Electric 1957)