DIASTASIS: AN INTRODUCTION TO DISTANCE THEORY

The word “distance” itself is ambiguous: it means both the gap between two things, and the very ability of a thing to be at some distance from another, to stand at a distance. In the first case, we are simply talking about the impossibility of things to interact in the usual mode, while in the second about the thing’s own position, its individuation, which does not allow confusions. The superposition of these two meanings is productive for thought: from Plato’s reasoning about the causes of civil disorder through Nietzsche’s melancholic concept of elitism to 20th century theories proceeding from “social distance” (R. Park) as one of the starting points for constructing social reality. Although the translation of this word into different languages is not a problem, since the visual metaphor suggested by the geometry course (segment of a line) is clear, in all cases it is necessary to take into account rather explosive potential of its semantics.