it is an organization of the ensemble ordering/favoring such chance instants.
the constructed sit[uation] is thus in the perspective of the Lefebvrian moment (against the instant) but at a level (of organization) intermediate between instant and "moment." Thus, although repeatable up to a certain point (as direction, "meaning") -- it isn't in itself repeatable as [is] the Lefebvrian moment.
Personal ex[ample]: the moment J has contained and surpassed such-and-such instants. And lasts plus or minus.
The difficulty for Lefebvre is drawing up a list of his moments (why 10 rather than 15 or 25, etc.)
The difficulty of the "situationist" moment is, on the other hand, marking its exact end (its reversal? and another), its transformation into a different term of this series of situations that (can?) constitute such [a] Lefebvrian moment.
because the "m[oment]" leads to pure body
the sit[uation], more indef[inite], close to an infinity of combinations. From whence diff[erence] characterizing a sit[uation] and its frontier (what characterizes it is its praxis, its deliberate formation).
Thus H.L. says "the moment of love."
From the point of view of the creation of moments, of the point of view of sit[uations], it is necessary to envision the moment of the love of such person, in other words, of such people in such circumstances. This can be partially constructed -- not purely.
The maximum of the "constructed" moment is the series of situations linked to the same theme. (This love of such person.) It is very particularized and unrepeatable in comparison to the Lefebvrian "moment." But very extensive and (relatively) durable, in comparison to the unique-ephemeral instant.
Moreover, the moment is at first temporal (zone of temporality). The sit[uation] (narrowly articulated in the place)[,] not pure but dominant[,] is completely spatial-temporal. (Cf. A[sger] Jorn on the space-time of life.)
At a more extended (more objective) spatial level, the neighborhoods[,] states of mind of G. Ivain [Ivan Chtcheglov] are an urbanism corresponding exactly to the Lefebvrian moments and to his idea of choosing and leaving them at will (the disalienation in G.I.[3] sinister neighborhood). Finally, to resume the probl[em] of the encounter of the theory of moments and a working theory of the construction of situations, it would be necessary to pose these questions:
which mixture[?]to suddenly happen between the unfolding (and the resurgences) of the "natural" moment in the sense of H.L. and certain of his artificially constructed elements, thus introducing its unfolding and its quantitative disruption and (especially) qualitatively.
H.L. is right to do this: the moment tends to the absolute, and becomes undone. It is, at the same time, proclamation of [the] absolute and consciousness of the passage.
And in this: it is indeed the road of the STRUCTURAL-CONJUNCTURAL dialectical unity.
the sit[uation] is that: at attempt at structure of (in) the conjunction.
And here is his programme (end page 654 - beginning [page] 655):[4]
This intervention translates itself, at the level of everyday life, into a better distribution of its elements and its instants as 'moments,' in such a way as to intensify the vital yield of the everyday, of the capacity for communication, information and also especially pleasure, by defining the new modes of pleasure of natural and social life. Thus the theory of moments doesn't situate itself outside of the everyday, but articulates itself within it, in uniting itself with critique, to introduce into the everyday what its richness lacks. Thus the theory of moments -- at the heart of the everyday, in a new form of particular pleasure, united at the local level -- supercedes the old oppositions of gracefulness and clumsiness, of the serious and the absence of the serious.
[1] Notes sent to Andre Frankin on [Henri Lefebvre's] La Somme et le Reste, which served in the drafting of the article The Theory of Moments and the Construction of Situations, I[nternationale] S[ituationniste] #4, p. 10.
[2] Henri Lefebvre.
[3] Gilles Ivain [Ivan Chtcheglov].
[4] La Somme et Le Reste, volume 2, Editions La Nef de Paris.
(Published in Guy Debord, Correspondance, Volume 2, 1960-1964. Footnotes by Alice Debord. Translated from the French by NOT BORED! May 2005.)