Social order and the blank figure

Our aim in this paper is to introduce the figure of the underdetermined 'bl ank' into issues of social and spatial order. We argue that forms of social order habitually make tacit use of blank figures. Beginning with examples of blank figures as they appear in games of cards and dominos, we show how the 'joker' and the 'double-blank' domino, respectively, allow for conditio ns of both stasis and change to develop within an order. Such blanks are un derdetermined or ambiguous figures that are constitutionally indiffierent t o heterogeneity. Blanks have the capacity to figurally represent the presen ce of absence in a known social order. Through the indifference that absenc e has to order, blank figures are able to form links and coordinations with in heterogeneity to produce what pass for homogeneous social orders. They a re figures of topological complexity that allow for connections and spacing s to be made that unsettle Euclidean geometric assumptions about order thro ugh its representation in terms of regions, scale, and boundedness. Further more, this same indifference ensures that any such coordination remains ope n to change. We describe blank figures' ability to provide the conditions o f possibility of both stasis and change in terms of their motility. The bla nk figure allows us to build an account of social order as a switching betw een stasis and change which treats both as emergent effects of the same ord ering practices.