With no name

St-Martin de Ré, august 2011.

One entity, one name. It is the means we commonly use to designate the world we live in. No human being with no nickname or surname, no city or streets without plaques, no goods without labels, no surf on internet without addresses. Such a marking process is so pervasive that one does not pay any attention to it, and it is precisely what makes its own force: without such labels, the world would not be identifiable, nor practicable. Without any named landmarks, the world would be totally disordered.
One entity, no name. The design of objects is also another powerful means to locate. In many cases, their shape and colors are sufficient to identify them. Thus a different marking work is necessarily involved to signify their identity: contrary to all appearances, “this is not a trash can”. Instead of attaching a name to it, the phrase do not point out what it is, but what it is not. It certainly can disconcert, but it has a different virtue. Contrary to the obsession of realism to designate exactly what things are in their intrinsic unicity, the phrase invites to exploration: rediscovering the ontology of entities, taking seriously their multiplicity into account, surfacing the different modes of ordering that take place simultaneously through the same entity, as mundane as a trash can.