Relations of Formal - Informal

While attempting a hypothesis on the phenomenon of informality, it almost instantly becomes obvious that because of the nature of the phenomenon the definition is not going to result in some clear general answers or some fixed categories. According to Pierce, the only definition that can be valid is by indexing. The empirical observation is enough for someone to claim that the phenomena of formality and informality are always interdependent and context specific, depending on the given time and space (situation), therefore should be treated as spatiotemporal variables. To be more precise it seems that formality is being considered as an established condition (while it's not) while informality is a dynamic phenomenon, highly related to the established formalities but also our subjective perception.

This is why we need to realize that any definition of informality should be relative, not absolute, and should remain open-ended in order to preserve the necessary flexibility that would allow the positioning of those different, interdependent variables which are the formal and the informal. The investigation of their correlations within several different contexts could result to an index that could function as an "equation" or a set of "equations" that are able to describe the relations between several terms that are connected to the dipole informal - formal (e.g. social - natural). By various combinations of those equations it will become clearer not what informality is but what it is not. What might emerge as an outcome could be a field of possible definitions rather than a single answer. Therefore the definition is the investigation, description and establishment of those relations that in several cases might also be variables for other relations. The definition is mainly about the "how", not about the "what", the "how" will help us understand the "what". The definition is latent in the relations.


Informal - formal (the terms)

The term "informality" itself is a contradictive construction because once something is being named as informal it is being formally considered as informal, it is formalized while it attempts to encompass everything that escapes formality. But this is a necessary condition of communication that cannot be avoided because language itself is a form. The term informal is obviously the carrier of a hetero-definition; informality is not self defined but always in relation to what is considered to be the particular "formality", which is the other edge of the dipole. One could claim that the term seems like an attempt to literally formalize informality itself since it is always defined and exists through the comparison to an established idea of formality, often in ways that treat informality as the opposite.

This is something I consider as a false polarization. Informality is not merely the opposite of formality but rather the absence of formality, encompassing everything that is not formal. This doesn't imply that the opposite of formal is not informal but that the term "informal" contains both the field of the opposites of formal but also the field of the non defined as formal and are still pending for characterization. As Derrida would pose, "meaning is not a presence but a generalized economy of absences". Something is certainly not perceived at once and straightforward as informal but rather as an absence of formality. Before something, e.g. "a general condition", became formal has previously existed in the field of the informal.

Informal and formal are in a state of constant dialogue, flowing into each other, triggering each other and interacting all the time. There are several examples of informal practices that are being triggered or stimulated by formal ones while in the same time there are several examples of informal practices that in different scales they seem to be parts of formal mechanisms. On the other hand in different contexts there are several different kinds of formality because of different social structures, constructions, ideas which means that formal things are context specific therefore also informal things are. This why I consider that informality is context, time and scale specific and depends on the perception, the scope we use and the multiple definitions of formality.


Technical - natural (on perception)

As it is mentioned already above, the term informality is a construction; it is a spatiotemporal variable that takes different values depending on the context and also the person that perceives it. The distinction between informality and its perception is not valid since it seems to presuppose that there is an "essence" of informality to be found exclusively in the nature of the objects, as if informality is something "objective", which is not true. The definition of a thing as "informal" lies in the relation between the object and the perceiver, it doesn't preexist in a pure form in the objects themselves but it becomes in the moment (which is a duration) of the perception. Something is not informal per se, but it is informal because it is perceived as such by a subject. Therefore, the question "what is the informal" should rather be "how a subject perceives something as formal or informal".

Perception is never something innocent or detached from the cognitive mechanisms which are based on a social construction / formation of the subject and the tools and forms of communication and representation. Perception is the result of a both projective and retrospective process, we project everything we know, think, have seen, heard or read to the reality and we receive back as a result of a reflection a subjectively seen image, not by perceiving straightforward what something is but rather what this something is not. This is what probably Derrida means when he says that "meaning is not a presence but a generalized economy of absences". This process is not exclusively or necessarily visual and is not momentary. In that sense perception and therefore perceived meanings have origins therefore are never detached from the processes of social construction.

Therefore, informality is neither exclusively innate in the nature of things nor the mere result of an external projection (of a social construction), it is both. Something has the innate recognizable capacities to receive the external projection and reflect back those properties that make it to be perceived as informal or formal in a specific context.

This is why informality is to be found in the realm of the technical, not in nature since it presupposes a structure, an authority or a system that defines (constructs) what is formal through which informality is hetero-defined. Of course there are things that are not defined as formal or informal but this is because they are outside of the realm of the technical, they belong to the natural. Wide and large one could say that anything could be perceived either as formal or informal or natural. Of course there could be an extensive discussion about the relation of ecotopia and technotopia to clarify if the technical is a part of the natural (an idea which I support) or they are distinct and detached. What is critical though is to understand that no matter it takes a social context to define and perceive "informality" nature also participates playing a major role. Informality originates in the realm of the natural, it is linked to natural phenomena, needs and often instincts, but something becomes informal once it is named and this always happens in the realm of the technical.

Nature is for the technical a realm of possibilities and one could say metaphorically that technotopia occupies more and more space inside it through constant activations of possibilities. This is why informality could be considered as the state of the constant negotiation between the natural and the technical, this space of negotiation is the realm of the social.

What informal is cannot be taken for granted and is never something fixed because this would mean that we take the subjective perception as something static. There are various and different scopes that are being developed in different social contexts by different and multiple social structures. What might be taken as more stable but still not fixed are those things that derive from the natural no matter that certainly in many cases it is really difficult to distinguish between the social and the natural probably because of the fact that their interrelation does not constitute a dichotomy, a nesting or an articulation but rather a continuum. For instance, the act of building or occupying space (territoriality) for habitation is clearly the result of both natural and social necessities. Still, in all cases the characteristics of the natural needs, no matter if they are clear or not, play a major role in the emergence of informality.


The context

Discussing about the phenomena of formality and informality is a discussion about formal and informal as actions or practices informality refers to actions and practices with or without material traces. Informality is in the perception of both the action and its traces (perception is a relation).

But perception apart from being subjective is also situation or context specific. Since informality is in the perception it should also be considered as context (includes time) and scale specific because it is not only something that a thing carries within itself but also something projected to it from outside by a perceiver. In that way informality becomes a spatiotemporal variable depending on the definition of the context. It exists in the very moment of the perception of an action or object and is relative to both the object and the subject that perceives it.

All kinds of informality are context specific. It is the context that defines what is informal and formal. Of course it's never absolutely clear what the context is precisely since any context has a context for itself therefore there are infinite sets of exteriorities that affect what we consider as formal and informal. This is why the definition depends on the scope, the scale and the point of view which is defined by the intuition of a subject or a convention. This means that there is the possibility that several practices seem to be informal within a certain context but once we zoom out we often realize that they are parts of broader formal structures. On the other hand practices could be formal or informal depending on their timing (e.g. the day - night cycle often changes the formal to informal and vice versa). This would certainly mean that informality is not something inherent to things but a relative exteriority.


Informal object

As it is mentioned above informality refers to actions, objects are not formal or informal per se; they merely convey formality or informality becoming the tokens for recalling the memory of the action that produced, constituted or situated them. What this action is or how it is perceived according to subjective intuition or dominant conventions is critical for defining the object as formal or informal. Of course then we have to start from scratch since we need to answer the question, "what charges an action with formality or informality"? The most obvious answer is that probably another formal or informal action or maybe a formal or informal context is the charger. Then of course again we need to find how another action or a context is charged etc. The idea is that there are relations and relations among relations. Let's say that everything is constituted by sets of relations. In that case we need to think of the objects and practices as the nodes of these formal and informal relations with their exteriority. Considering a thing or a practice as formal or informal simply means that among the infinite sets of relations that constitute a thing, according to our perception, in a given situation of time and space, what prevails are the informal relations. This doesn't mean there are not formal ones but the informal ones prevail either in number or in strength (or importance if you prefer) or both. This is how then we name it as informal but this is only a convention because certainly, there is nothing like a purely formal or informal thing or practice.


Autonomy - Heteronomy (time)

Concerning the parameter of time, formal processes are, or tend to be linear; we often hear, "this presupposes that or the other". In the formal, the temporal connection of particular ends resembles walking, one step at a time, one end at a time. Even when a formal system is more complex linear processes take place in parallel towards different ends and they have clearly defined relations that do not intersect straightly but only through their ends and after their fulfillment. This is because formality has a predefined superior "universal" end to fulfill and all particular "singular" ends are working towards this fulfillment. It resembles the way how a machine works and how individual parts of it connect and function towards a goal. Therefore, the particular ends within formality are heteronomous, they are constituted by a superior end.

On the other hand informality, no matter that it has a cause, doesn't have a superior predefined end but finds the end during the process and is constantly altering it without ever concluding. This is why it is much more complex, the connections of ends are not linear but they rather resemble to a network where there are intersections, interactions and constant redefinitions of particular ends. Additionally while formality grows from top to bottom, from the general to the particular (universal - singular), according to a generic idea or goal, informality grows in the particular, therefore it is relatively autonomous since it doesn't depend on a generic idea of informality, the contrary. The general "idea" of what informality is, is formed by all the particular cases of informality. Informality emerges from the autonomy and often as autonomy.

To be more precise everything that is defined by an exteriority is heteronomous to it and in the same time is autonomous to itself. No matter if these autonomies or heteronomies are considered as formal or informal there is the tendency for informality to grow. This means that informality could often exist even as the outcome of the collision between formalities, for example formalities of different scales, that have relations of autonomy - heteronomy. Of course the question here is which is the formality that defines it as informal and the answer is that the definition that prevails is usually this of the heteronomy because it is the one that establishes the formality of the higher level and since formalities and their strength are relative to their scale (top to bottom), heteronomy usually prevails over the autonomy.

At this point is necessary to make clear that the formal and the informal are both vital because they offer different approaches that are effective in different scales. Concerning different scales, such as the general and the particular or the universal and the singular (they seem to refer better to the idea of a continuum), formality dominates in higher scales (general) while informality is dominant in the small scale (the particular). The fundamental questions that emerge at this point and need further investigation are three, a) if there is something like an absolute general formality an idea that all formalities are connected to it and defined by it b) if there is something like a minimum informality (element or relation) and in which scale c) in which scale, or field of scales do the informal and the informal merge and if there could be a threshold among the two.


Recognition

Concerning the material reality the plausible question that emerges as a consequence of the above is if we can really recognize informality or traces of it and if there are some certain recognizable characteristics that could help us. The answer cannot be a straightforward yes or no but it should rather be a huge set of questions that refer to the overall context and need to be answered before. What kind of informality do we refer to, who are we, what we seek for, and what do we intend to recognize, how do we define the formal, who do we refer to etc? The "equation" for defining something as formal or informal is obviously so complex that it cannot really exist in an effective way. Especially when space is concerned things become much more complex since space is the field for the expression of several different kinds of informality (economical, social, cultural, political) that are being expressed in multiple ways (application, appropriation, performance, construction). The answer for the formal or the informal nature answer can only be particular, as particular as possible in order to be as valid as possible without ever being absolute. Informality and its recognition are relational therefore something is informal in a particular scale, in a particular context or situation, in a particular time, by particular people and its informality is a particular one. Something is informal because we recognize it as such or better, it is informal because we don't recognize it as formal.

Since the validity of a generic definition is doubtful, instead for drawing knowledge from the general and projecting it to the particular in order to define it, it is more valid (especially when informality is concerned) to access straightforward the particular, trust our intuition - recognition in every singular case and attempt to understand the particular reason we recognize something as informal. The only definition that we could give would only be indexical, trying to encompass all the particular cases, situations and reasons that make us perceive and name an informality.