Question 1

Why? But asked like a child, twenty times.

Question 2

The world is ending tomorrow, maybe today. Is there anything design is good for in the meantime? Rephrased, what can/should I be doing that actually matters? Do we *really* need more fonts?

Question 3

Where does theory meet practice? What about where it meets people? What about where it meets me? And what about where it meets you?

Question 4

What song could we sing together?

Question 5

After we finish telling this story, what’s next?

Definition

One thing that says what another thing is, usually to try to make things clearer. Sometimes, definitions make things more complicated.

Things

Depends on who you ask. I think most of everything is a thing. But also, that’s in the word, “everything,” so maybe I should try again. I think you’re a thing, and so am I, and so are these letters, and so are these ideas. Places can be things.

Place

A location. That’s not super helpful. A place is everything around a thing — where the thing can be or end up. Sometimes, a place is where things gather, or act upon and/or with each other.

Act

A kind of performance. That’s not super helpful. Something a thing can do, or something a thing can pretend. Sometimes, an act is for, or against, another thing. Sometimes, an act doesn’t do much at all.

Performance

An act on a stage (usually), within a set timeframe (usually). A show. A thing that transforms another thing, maybe even you.

Show

A performance in a time and place, duh.

Stage

The place where a show happens, duh.

Transformation

A thing, changed. It’s become a new version of itself, or a new thing. Or maybe it’s both those things.

Performativity

A quality. I don’t fully get this one. I think it means a thing that can enact transformation on another thing, maybe itself. Or maybe it’s just something like a performance, just for show.

Autopoeisis

A (feedback) loop. An actor acts, and a spectator reacts. By reacting, the spectator actually acts. By watching and listening, the actor actually spectates. Then the actor acts anew.

Feedback

An oscillation. One that goes back and forth.

Oscillation

A change in states. A transformation.

Gamut

The extremes for something to oscillate between.

Sound

A kind of oscillation you feel, physically.

Play

A kind of oscillation you do, but don’t perform.

Playfulness

A quality, This is different from play, like performativity is different from performance. An ability to impose play, somehow.

Computation

A kind of oscillation you define.

Pedagogy

A kind of oscillation you teach.