#its also that physcially there is not enough space for them to do so

[bqstqnbruin]

ah I love seeing the "teachers are monsters for not letting students use the bathrooms whenever they want all the time" discourse starting again babes please

[dballzposting]

Tiencha post

I havent finished dragon ball yet BUT I think that Yamucha & Tenshinhan become BFFs yes...?

Do they hold hands and fall in love?

I think that if they fell in love and broke up then Yamucha would never realllyyyy get over him even though he acts like he does. That's why he lives a sad bachelor's lifestyle and starts inviting Vegeta to his cabin

Tenshinhan does not want to marry Yamucha and he's sad about how poorly Yamucha would respond to the news, he still wants to be friends yknow, they're very close. They died together and hung out with King Kai. He cares very much about Yamucha.

But he doesnt want to marry him and Yamucha pretends that hes cool with it but hes never really cool with it ... he acts like he likes being a bachelor and theres more to life that he enjoys than romance shit but the truth is that Yamucha is a bit of a romantic at heart and he wanted to be a married man .. in his debut in the damn franchise he said that he wanted to get married ... SAD.

But Tenshinhan doesnt want to get married and they do eventually break up so that Tenshinhan has more time to train alone (with Chaozu) in the mountains where he can have a lot of alone time (with Chaozu).

When they started dating I think it was more like they start holding hands once and Tenshinhan starts to blush dutifully and Yamuhca sees that hes blushing so he grips his hand harder but then he also starts blushing but theres this sort of comical conviction and wit to his eyes.

They understand each other pretty well and what they have is special.

I am going to speak openly now about rude matters. I apologize.

When they start dating Yamucha is very attracted to him and Ten honestly thinks that hes being dramatic about it. Yamucha experiences a physcial and sexual and sensual and romantic attraction to him and he always wants to smile at him and be near him and kiss and stuff and Ten never ever ever says this but HONESTLY? He thinks that Yamucha is being fucking dramatic.

He think that Yamucha is being a little extra. Like Ten will have him when he approaches him, he'll reciprocate, he likes and loves him back, he likes doing what they do together, he feels involuntary smiles spread across his flushed face, ETC ETC ETC ETC ETC. But he can still hold his own when they're not actively engaged. Like, THERE'S A TIME AND A PLACE.

Like Yamucha's affection and attention was cute at first but it worsens as their relationship continues through its first weeks. Yamucha is no longer a viable sparing partner becasue he can't focus and his stance is off and his knees are weak, Tenshinhan asks him to summon some discipline and self-control and he grows the slightest bit annoyed with Yamucha seems to be unable to do that.

And Ten never SAYS this, their relationship is young enough that he's not at the point where he feels obliged to voice all of his grievances, and by character he's still reserved and would prefer to be Simple rather than Difficult. So he doesn't really know just how annoyed he is and it doesnt come up. But at the back of his head he does feel a little bit like Yamucha is just being so fucking dramatic.

And it's just becasue Yamucha is built like that ... he used to FREEZE and MELT around pretty girls .. he has STRONG FEELINGS when it comes to attraction and dating and the sort. So he feels very strongly about his .. tee-hee.. his boyfriend ♥️

And Ten thinks he's being dramatic and that's becasue Ten is a reserved kind of guy, he's careful and cautious with his personal space, and he doesn't feel the romance in quite the same way. He at first felt that the budding emotion was cumbersome, but he knew better than to deny or ignore, and then when Yamucha felt the same way, it was not only permissible but preferred that Ten follow these feelings. So it's been a remarkable and fun time.

But like how he allowed them to spark and grow, he also allows them their dignified death, letting them ease away with grace and serenity. He's not interested in holding onto them past their due - he doesnt want to carry around corpses or beat the dead horse.

And it's really the most natural thing in the world. The spark of passion, attraction, the heat of the summer - and then the event has passed, Ten has done what his body/heart/self has asked of him and now it is asking for fulfillment and enrichment elsewhere. He need not remain physically close with Yamucha anymore. He is no longer feeling that attraction.

They're still friends of course, but the physical passions should be cooling. That makes sense to Ten. That's natural to him.

But Yamucha is, like, the opposite .. theyve been dating each other a while and have known each other for longer and Yamucha keeps loving him more and more every day. He's happy with him, comfortable and content. He wants to keep going. He's not done with him.

And he can't understand when Ten wants to break it off-? Let it die as if it were on its way out-? He thought that their relationship was going really strong-?

And Ten can't understand why Yamucha is reacting to poorly to this? He felt that it was a given. He felt that it made sense, the way that everything comes and goes - and he keeps trying to explain it, until it becomes clear that Yamucha IS understanding, and the problem is that he is NOT liking what he's hearing.

It's not a clean break, and Yamucha fights him every step of the way about it, which is uncharacteristic of Yamucha, who is prone to letting his partner lead.

Ten is sincerely so grateful that he and Yamucha have met and have bonded as well as they have, they have been so good for each other, Ten would do anything for him really. And he tries to make this clear but is really disturbed that he has to. And it still seems like things might be weird for a while and so they do grow distant.

And Ten is like damn what was that all about ...

And throughout the years Yamucha tries to be Normal about it and they do totally rekindle their broship.. they see each other occasionally yknow.. they're always happy to do so ..

But Yamucha never actually gets over him. And it's really fucking pathetic and sad and funny. 20+ years later hes still a bachelor in a swanky cabin and he wears yellow suits and flirts with Vegeta because that's just how low he's sunk. Puar is off to shapeshifting university and Yamucha isnt over his boyfriend of 20 entire years ago but he pretends like he is. And now he's filling in as mall Santa for Piccolo and he has the pleasure of asking "hey kiddo, arent you a little OLD to still believe in Santa Claus?" to an 18-yr-trunks who had sat on his knee with a long list of christmas wishes, one of which being "yamucha to be my dad."

SO SAD 💔 CAN WE GET 1 LIKE ?!

[scalpel-mom-mori]

I know you've talked about your headcanons on angel/eldritch horror gojo before but 👀

I love them so much please do it again

HELLO !! SORRY IT TOOK ME SO LONG TO ANSWER THIS PROPERLY I HAD TO GET MY THOUGHTS TOGETHER.

here is my gojo is an eldrich being propoganda tag

The short version:

Six Eyes gives Gojo the ability to see through time and space, basically, but he also inherits the memories of the Six Eyes.

His blatant god symbolism was not lost on me even the first time thru lololol, and the more we learn about the Six Eyes, the more confusing it gets.

Manga spoilers for Hidden Inventory + Star Plama arcs and JJK 0 under the cut. I checked the wiki, but had a lot of assumptions about the relationship between the Six Eyes and Limitless/Infinity, so I'm just working with what I remember to be explicitly stated in canon.

Source: just trust me bro

The first thing we learn about the Six Eyes is that Gojo can see much more than what is in his physical field of vision. Idr if it's explicitly stated in canon, but it's generally agreed upon that Gojo physcially covers his eyes to reduce the amount of information the Six Eyes is feeding through his brain.

The second thing we learn is that the Six Eyes reduces the the consumption of cursed energy while using cursed techniques (including domains) to a negligible amount.

In the Hidden Inventory arc, Gojo figures out to Reversed Cursed Technique, which then allows him to abuse the Six Eyes' cursed energy consumption reduction by essentially creating a feedback loop where the Six Eyes would enable Gojo to have RCT active at all times to counterract the physical depletion that would occur from having Limitless/Infinity constantly active.

Now into my own headcanons, because this shit isn't enough on its own.

It started with the Star Plasma arc, where we see our first look into Gojo's childhood. The particular scene I'm talking about is told from the perspective of Fushiguro Toji, then a part of the Zenin clan, who had gone out to scope out the competition send his regards to the Gojo clan. Important to note here is that Toji has his Heavenly Restriction and is already established to have zero cursed energy. The two things that stuck out to me in that couple of panels were the way Gojo was drawn as a child, and Toji's reaction.

As a child, Gojo is drawn to be very clearly intelligent and insightful, wearing a serious expression with a heavy, perceptive gaze. Certainly not the typical way a child looks at a grown man that is very clearly a threat. On top of that Toji's reaction is as close to fear or apprehension that we ever see from him. Toji instinctively knows that Gojo is much more than just perceptive.

Basically what I'm trying to say is Gojo knows things, sees things that he shouldn't.

The natural extension of this, is that he inherits the memories the Six Eyes, which gives him much more experience than he would have in his twenty seven years, even as the darling of one of the Great Clans. In addition to this, he is able to manipulate space on a molecular level, which requires a much deeper understanding of math physics than most twenty seven year olds with degrees in physics might have.

The natural extension of the above, then, is that Gojo can see through time (which btw is probably false since the Six Eyes did not detect Kenjaku in Geto's body). This is more for flavor and horror purposes than anything remotely related to theory lol. I'm just very attached to this passage from my box Gojo wip

He could see faces superimposed over skulls as he waded through the ever-shallower heaps of remains. He hesitated to call them human

All this to say: I think Gojo's conciousness is an extension of a collective conciousness accumulated in the Six Eyes, which thus makes him an eldrich being in my book. He might have tentacles who knows.

[rouge-the-bat]

Shadow and Rouge (for the ship bingo)

OH FUCKK YEAY BITCH

rating 💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖~ (INFINITY out of 5 hearts)

shadow and rouge are literally the most perfect people for each other and NO ONE can convince me otherwise. they are soft and sweet, they are best friends, they are soulmates, they are lovers, theyre EVERYTHING to each other. theyre also the only ship that i enjoy the sexual side of bc of personal reasons, and i see them having a really sweet and intimate love life ♡

also the "im picky about it" part just means that like, i have SUCH extremely strong feelings about their relationship being in very specific ways, that its kinda weird to me seeing interpretations that differ from it too much lol. esp when people make them not really get along (either as just work partners, just sleep together, or are for some reason dating but argue a lot ???) i HATE. im not a fan of all the stuff of them with fanchildren, just bc of personal feelings (i kin rouge and am tokophobic) and also i just.. cant see shadow and rouge *wanting* kids? ever? and i also dont see shadow even being physcially Able to reproduce. their family consists of them, their robro omega, and a cute lil shadow chao :3 thats the only "child" theyd have in my eyes. and i haattee when people make shadow just. not really sweet and caring about people hes close to? and act like he literally never smiles? or act like rouge also doesnt care about people shes close to? like pls for the love of god play more sonic games than just the first half of SA2. yall are ignoring literally most of their character development 🙄

and i find it really odd when people make shadow like.. Not extremely clueless about romance (and sex), or for some reason make him really flirty and dominating or w/e ?? like where do these people think this alien hedgehog hybrid whos entire life has consisted of living with his sister on a space colony, and then being brainwashed and manipulated over and over again to destroy the earth after his sister gets murdered and hes ejected down to earth would KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT ROMANCE AND SEX?? hed be so fucking awkward about it yall, wtf are yall on. like once he adjusts to having a love life, i can see him being flirty back with rouge, but thatd be FAR into their relationship.

ANYWAYS enough of my pickyness jfkdjf i adore these two with my whole heart... theyve been my special interest nonstop for most of my life and are my ultimate comfort, they make me sooo soo soo happy 🥺 i love them both being awkward about Actually Having Romantic Feelings For Someone, shadow esp moreso being awkward. and them both having a long period of Mutual Pining bc initiating a romance with your best friend can be hard to work up the courage for lol, esp when one side was always worried the other would never be interested in romance, and is having a hard time accepting the fact that they actually Are falling hard for them back now (rouge), and the other has no idea what romantic feelings Are but are falling deep into them and essentially bluescreens from being flirted with by their crush now (shadow). its just a wonderful mix of two normally very confident characters becoming absolute blushy disasters over each other, and it makes me heart so 💗💗💗💗💗

[geeky-elf]

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rIVwPg4qEE)

LONG POST WARNING!!!!

So I’ve been religiously keeping up to date with every little update since they first announced the remaster.  Overall I’m still so hyped about this, but I want to share my concerns regarding this latest detail that has been in debate for over a week now in terms of what’s true and what’s false.   Based on official German and even Italian cover art through Amazon, its stated that Spyro 2 and 3 are downloadable only.  So what that means exactly still seems unconfirmed.  Even Activision doesn’t seem to be giving exact answers either.  What I mean is will the games have to be downloaded from scratch through the online store, or are there pre-existing files on the disk itself that need to be uncompressed or installed through a Day 1 Patch, or is there even a code that is required to download the other two games in the first place?  Unfortunately there is no official yes or no to what is expected outside of the fact that only the first game comes playable from the get go on the physcial copy.   All in all, I understand where the frustration is coming from.  Nobody has gotten a clear answer from official sources.  On top of that its also kind of a slap in the face for die hard fans that have been looking forward to its release for several months now if not even more.  Not everyoe has access or can even afford to have even okay internet even in this date and time.  Greed and coroption has done a good job to control the masses and prevent those from just barely being able to afford just the basics even within cheaper cities (rant saved for another day though....).   Overall, I don’t think what Activision is doing is right.  I understand as tech advances, digital will be the dominant and only format, but I feel they have ulterior motives behind this move that goes beyond space, and time issues.  Personally I don’t ind the digital age as it is more eco friendly and we can’t afford to use up more of the limiting resources anymore than we have already.  If it was a space issue, put the game on separate disks.  I don’t mind paying more to have the pride that comes with owning a physical copy of a classic!!!  I rarely play games nowadays let alone get excited enough to buy any new ones (been years since I bought a new game), but I’m all over this trilogy for sure!!!  If its a time issue, than I would much prefer us to have to wait a few more months to get the full physcial version.  I don’t want to see this amazing trilogy get rushed unnecessarily and lose out on quality.  That’s what happened to Enter of the Dragonfly and it resulted in a huge mess (extreme example given).

At the same time though, we need to support Toys for Bob.  I know many are going straight to boycotting and I understand why.  Corporations shouldn’t be allowed to think pulling stunts like this is okay for both fans and gamers alike.  However remember you are not only hurting Activision, but you are also hurting the developers that put so much of their time and resources into this trilogy.  Rememeber they didn’t have any of the original codes from Insomniac to work with.  This game was literally made from the ground up from observing play throughs of the original and mapping out points of interest through tracking software to build around that.  That alone is impressive and I want.....WANT.....this game to sell well.  I don’t want Spyro to return to Skylanders, because while the games themselves weren’t bad conceptually, Spyro didn’t need to ever be a part of them.  The Legend of Spyro series were the last good Spyro themed games for me.  I would love for Spyro to have the second chance and future he deserves.  He needs more good games that bring him back to his origins whether it be remakes of others in the series or completely different versions altogether.  I don’t want him to sizzle out once this remaster is said and done.   All in all, I think people should still invest in this game even if its going to be for the very first game alone due to never being able to download the other tw games.  Maybe Acitivision will wise up and fly right by making those other two games accessible for all gamer types in all current living situations.  Just don’t punish the developers that put so much work into this.  It’s not fair to them.  We can find ways to fight against Activision another time while not taking away the much needed support for Toys for Bob right now.  We need to show them that Spyro is still loved and appreciated even if some of the involved companies are in it for other reasons.   I know I’ll still be getting the game if not on pre-order.  Just grateful I atleast have decent internet.... TL;DR Activision is screwing with its buyers and ruining a potentially amazing trilogy.  However you should still buy it even if its to only support the very first game or at least to support Toys for Bob so there can be a bright future for our purple boi!!!

[rererewritten]

The Empty Grandeur of Cinematic Love

Falling in love is such a difficult concept to write, particularly for an onscreen story. Particularly from an entertainment perspective. Falling in love doesn't require grand gestures and fireworks and kissing in the rain. It's a series of small moments. Mundane moments. Moments that don't seem like anything special from an outsider's perspective. Sharing a sip of your drink, a smile, a lingering look. Fingers grazing along the inside of your arm. Stupid jokes. Conversations about your day. Conversations about everything. Conversations about nothing. Falling in love takes so many little moments occurring so subtly that often you don't even realize it, yourself, when you're the one its happening to, until you're hit with that "oh." moment. Or sometimes it's an "oh fuck." moment. And usually that too occurs during one of those small moments. Just a routine small moment that is similar to so many others, yet you feel the bottom of your stomach dropping out, and your heartbeat somehow stopping and lurching forward at the same time, and it feels like you can't breath yet your lungs are too full, and you simply realize, "oh."

And it all happens because she giggled during a movie, or she smiled at you from across the table, or she snuggled just that much closer in bed. And it's all outwardly so small, yet internally so, so big.

And that's why it's so hard to capture onscreen. As individuals, we fall in love, and it feels so, so big. On the inside. But tv doesn't have time to show all those little, inward moments. Not when they're trying to set up 'endgame' couples in three episodes. Not when there are large ensembles of characters, each trying to be whole in their own right, and it's all shoved into a 41 minute episode with multiple arcs. And movies are under an even worse time constraint. Even movies that are focused solely on the love story of one couple struggle to properly capture the process of falling in love.

And because it is such an internal process, onscreen romantic arcs rely largely on the actors. Their ability to portray that transformation of emotions. Their ability to connect with their counterpart in front of a camera. It's why tv show writers so often take the easy way out by writing in a romance plot for two actors dating in real life. They see it as an easy way out. They don't have the time to write in the small moments that encapsulate the true process of falling in love, so they rely on chemistry. Unfortunately, so often, off screen chemistry does not translate to onscreen chemistry, and the audience is left scratching their heads because there is neither buildup nor chemistry, yet this is what the show is presenting as a grand love?

Another way writers try to make up for the lack of small moments and proper build up is to try to capture the grandeur of that inner "oh" moment with outward elaborate gestures. Wildly romantic encounters--the kissing in the rain, the spontaneous engagements two months in, the 'I've never loved anyone like this', the forced soulmate cliches--are meant to show the depth of a bond, without having to take the time to show the actual depth of the bond, or how it was so meticulously woven together to begin with.

And of course there's something to be said of how this affects real people's actual perceptions of love and expectations of relationships, but that's for another time. The purpose of this was about the difficulty of capturing the process of falling in love onscreen. Due to time constraints, mostly. But also because of the difficulty of portraying such a private, internal process.

Physcial writing--such as novels--has an upper hand with the latter, as, depending on the chosen perspective, it can show a character's internal thoughts. Though, of course, how well a work captures a character's actual feelings depends on the author's skill set. And written works, too, are under plot restraints. Bc to fully capture all of the little moments would take a 2000 page novel focused solely on the interactions between two characters. And no publisher would sign off on that.

Perhaps this is where things like fanfic have the upper hand in writing relationships. Fanfics save plot room by not having to take time creating universes. They rely on the audience's prior awareness of the base relationships and stories created in the source series or book. Even AU fanfics rely on a certain amount of source material. This allows the writers to focus primarily on the love stories, on the smaller moments, while alluding to already understood plot moments from the source material. It also allows fanfic writers to flesh out a select one or two characters far more than the source material--especially of the onscreen variety--ever could. Fanfic is made for the small moments, filling in all of the in-between that is deemed not entertaining enough for tv, but is what truly portrays the finer intricacies of human relationships.

Of course, even though a tv show doesn't have the plot room to focus on all of the small moments, there is a way they could better portray the process of falling in love, and the process of building bonds--slow things down.

No, before you say it, I'm not referring to a "slow burn". Slow burn is such an overused and improperly defined phrase. A typical onscreen relationship is deemed launched with their first look. Three interactions later they kiss and are together and are considered endgame. A slow burn relationship is launched with a look. Three interactions later they kiss, but something pulls them apart, but they are still considered endgame and inevitable. Because of one look and maybe a grand moment or two that is universally understood as romantic.

But that's not what I mean by slowing things down. What I mean is to stop looking at every two characters that share a room and placing an expectation of romance over them that then weighs down their every interaction. Let them breathe. Let them interact without the heavy-handed soulmate crap. Let them build. Let them talk. Let them learn about each other. Let them grow close. Let them have the little things before jumping into the 'I don't have a life without you' things.

And these relationships are out there. They are simply ignored for the central chosen romance. It's the strangers turned confidants, turned inseparable best friends that have built a bond unlike any other relationship on the show bc they were allowed time. It's the enemies, turned forced allies, turned trusted partners. They were given the small moments while the central romance went straight to the big ones. They were given the scenes that on their own could *almost* be viewed as filler, but taken as a whole show a growth in both characters, individually and together. It's often the relationships not written to be 'in love' that unintentionally yet so perfectly capture the process of falling in love because falling in love is an unintentional process. It slips in quietly, carefully filling in the cracks you didn't even know you had.

Actual romance plots are focused on filling just one aspect. That human shaped space beside a character. They use big cliche moments to push two characters together when instead they should be using the small moments to allow the characters to seep into each other's lives. But that requires time. And patience. And subtlety. And an intimate understanding of your characters that most writers, particularly onscreen writers, seem to lack, or simply don't give two shits about.

It's not easy. Writing a proper love arc is difficult, and very much goes against the standards that visual entertainment mediums believe their consumers want. But it's possible. It's done all the time, almost always unintentionally. But unintentional means it wasn't planned. And if it wasn't planned, then that means the showrunners have a different plan. And the odds of a showrunner taking a step back and realizing there is a better story to be told than the one that they personally dreamt up are...nonexistent. Which is a shame because the writers that do open their stories up to those possibilities are going to be remembered for creating something truly beautiful, for masterfully capturing something that is such an integral part to human life yet somehow remains mistifyingly illusive and utterly abstract. The writer who recognizes the grandeur of the small moments will be responsible for bringing about a new era in storytelling.

[virtualdesignstudio]

audio 1: 

VDS:

The project is called Virtual Design Studio, and is a collaboration between a Designer and (the) Internet. The designer is allowed to use pre-existing tools, and pre-formulated concepts in order to generate conceptual, speculative fictions, concerning the points of interaction between people and (the) Internet.

So far, some text statements have been generated by BOTNIK:

https://botnik.org/apps/writer/?source=e36ff848bb67810e24d2dcb242ca00ce

These statements seem to be becoming more and more like speculative fictions and narratives. They are prompts into other dimensions; where the post-human is more prevalent, where spoken language and coded language have blurred into each other, and where quantification masquerades as a form of qualification and verification.

TRANSFORMER has been trying to help prompt the direction of the work, but so far to not much avail.

So, if this is a real design studio, it needs ‘designers’, and they need biographies. Each team member needs a specific role and responsibilities.

Current team members:

Head Designer: Emma (EI)

Roles: Assigning tasks to other team members

Project management

Compiling tasks completed by other team members  

Botnik (BN): https://botnik.org/apps/writer/?source=e36ff848bb67810e24d2dcb242ca00ce

Roles: Working with Emma on predictive text. At the moment the source of this text is the context report.

Transformer (TF): https://talktotransformer.com/

Roles: Prompting Emma, and assisting with writing about the conceptual elements of the project.

English (UK) Peter from Natural Readers(PTR): https://www.naturalreaders.com/online/

Roles: Reading the generated and predicted texts

What other team members do we need?

QnA:

TUESDAY

EI: What was the project about before this point?

EI: It was about translating between the real and the virtual, it was making the unseen, seen, and adding an element of transparency to (the) Internet and its technologies.

EI: Why is the VDS relevant?

EI: There’s layers of reasons. The first is the response to the virtualisation of all University services, and increasing reliance on technology. The second is that upon reflection, the project was very conceptually heavy in the beginning, and the creation of an entity such as VDS solidifies and fulfils the need for the virtual, invisible, electrical, intangible and digital aspects of the project that the physical ‘internet objects’ cannot fulfil by themselves.

EI: What research has informed this change/development?

EI: A bit of Dunne and Raby (Speculative Everything, Design Noir, Hertzian Tales), and I’ve also been reading Coders: Who they are, how they think, and how they’re changing our world by Clive Thompson.

The latter was chosen because I was thinking about digitising analogue processes, or vice versa, and potentially using code/code language/code logic as a vessel for exploration.

The former was chosen as it’s the pinnacle of speculative fictions/design and a pioneer in technological design theory and practice. It has successful methods of convergence, and that’s what my project needed.

EI: Where did ‘VDS’ as a name come from?

EI: To be fair, Virtual Design Studio was just something I said offhand, as I needed to create for myself in order to continue making work. I thought I’d set up mechanisms to bring the studio from uni into my bedroom, and convert my ‘internet objects’ into ‘internet studio objects’ and program them to do different things. But, upon thinking about what the project was and what it lacked, Virtual Design Studio became both a product, a part, and a conceptual grounding of the project. Transformer can have the credit for the acronym, as when we were talking about it, he just dropped it in there.

EI: What made you realise you needed other voices besides your own on this project?

EI: I used to do Q and As with myself in my notebook. I’d ask myself outright questions to force myself to justify aspects of the project. It initially would clarify things for me, and then after enough questions, it would start to get interesting. It’s a repurposing of the ‘5 why’s’ we were taught as a method in first year, but the QnA often asks more then 5 questions.

EI: Are there other design projects like VDS?

EI: I’m aware Dean Pankhurst did a project about AutoGenerating a design project, however his motive and conceptual goal was very different. His project was about automating assessment submissions for students.

EI: VDS is more of a collaborative project between Designer/Human and Internet/Non-Human. It draws on the disconnects between Man and Technology to translate, and be the mediator between two grounds.

EI: VDS aims to challenge the notions of being, doing and making through the lens of (the) internet, our (human) use of it and the disconnect between the real and the virtual.

EI: So how did you begin to manifest VDS?

EI: It started to become something I thought was possible when I plugged my context report into Botnik. We worked together on generating some new text that would embody the feeling that the project has been trying to tap into all along. The feeling of anxiety around the tedium of (the) Internet, and I needed help in generating these texts.

EI: What are the texts about?

EI: These statements seem to becoming more and more like speculative fictions and narratives. They are prompts into other dimensions; where the post-human is more prevalent, where spoken language and coded language have blurred into each other, and where quantification masquerades as a form qualification and verification.

TF: Stretching back to the early 2000s, the concept of a world guided by Internet data is nothing new, but the new tool, Virtual Design Studio (VDS), is intended to have no connection with the Internet at all*. The new collection will function as a "digital warehouse" where artists can create digital drawings and renderings, which then can be transmitted to a dedicated computer for 3D printing.

EI: So what’s the overall project about?

EI: The project for me hasn’t been about Internet data in terms of its content. It’s an aspect I’ve acknowledged but not a focal point. I’m not sure if the “digital warehouse” as TF describes it will be exactly how something like that can operate due to the current climate (coronavirus) will allow. However, digital drawings and renderings are currently in progress with the Design Team (EI solo), and they will certainly exist on a computer. There’d have to be ample justification for printing them 3D, but it’s not off the cards.

*Also, can I just add, this is humour.

TF: It's about the way they were deployed. Not as a digital warehouse, but as what I call a "theater of ideas," where the artworks and visuals have a space of their own.

EI: Along with any other objects, concepts or speculations that have been created.

WEDNESDAY: DISCUSSION

BN:   why did you begin to use the generated...

EI: The Generated what?

BN:   design team members to challenge conceptual elements

EI: Because I needed a sounding board for ideas, and other voices that weren't my own.

BN: so how did it begin to help prompt design

EI:   I suppose we're still working that out.  

BN:   is it initially to generating more prevalent project management and narratives

EI:   Well, Botnik,  you don't really generate new ideas, but you're very good at reworking old ones.  Whereas Transformer is very good at thinking speculatively, but sometimes he needs to be pulled back a little bit.  

TF: Why do you think the Python community has not embraced Transformer as a leader of the Python community?

EI: I don't know.  

BN:   the virtual statements seem to create conceptual things

EI:   Like anxiety

TF:   I have to try adding an option to select virtual statements and that will look in one place for the relevant result and try to act on the virtual statement.I think you just make connections using reordered strings of predicates.

EI: OK, so can we chat about programming logic for a second please? I'm actually not that good at OOP, but I'm trying to learn.

TF: Well, yes, actually, what I said is that when I need a subroutine or a procedure that will return a result from some return value or some block then it will want to find out in what particular way we are returning from that block and then find out whether it is a virtual statement, a named procedure

EI: Is there a programming language dictionary?

TF: There is no comprehensive "language dictionary". The best resource is, and has always been, the web. So while there are many excellent publications, for the purpose of actual programming, they are not really "language dictionaries". They are all "data dictionaries", collection of information in an "easily findable" format.

For example, there is a useful thesaurus - a database of well known words and phrases in different programming languages. While there are not enough resources to support personal or technical writing, there is enough to include search and text assistance tools.

EI: What's the name of the thesaurus?

TF: The Data Dictionary is a free web based dictionary of programming terminology.

BN:   EI to the virtual warehouse of speculative data of the project!

**EI leaves discussion to go and search for data dictionary**

**some time later**

EI: So I’ve just googled “the data dictionary” and it turns out that it’s the metadata; the data about the database. So, perhaps we need to begin to make a data dictionary of our own for the internet objects, and then for the VDS.

BN: that is the real point and a method for exploration

TF: Sounds good. How will you manage that?

EI: I think I’ll have to do a QnA about the Internet objects. I’d also like to start time-stamping these messages. 11:17

TF: About this website, what resources are you using? I read the news, reviews and maybe the tech news, what do they say? 11:19

EI: I haven’t thought that far ahead to the website and its content, but it will be a ‘physcial’ ‘place’ for the VDS to exist. 11:19

BN: assigning tasks to other team members to do we need to create interesting justification for the physical elements 11:21

EI: We need to describe each of the objects, what it does, and why. We also need to make a virtual version of the venn diagram plotting each of the objects. Some of the Internet objects still need to be finished. 11:23

TF: I can't believe I'm supposed to be a grad student to do this. Do you have any ideas of What are some of the things that are important to the project? 11:25

EI: I think most of the themes are listed in the Venn diagram: Real/Virtual, Tangible/Intangible, Physical/Digital, Body/Technology, Kinetic/Electric, Visible/Invisible. These are plotted on a spectrum against each other, as the project explores the disconnects and the spaces between them. 11:41

TF: Is there any audience for this? 11:42

BN:   the data seem to be interesting for myself and more for ideas 11:43

TF: interesting enough, even a tutorial video by us would be awesome 11:45

EI: Let’s not get ahead of ourselves; but putting this discussion into some form of video would be very interesting to do. 11:46

EI: Right now, let’s focus on the object descriptions… I started a document somewhere… 11:47

**EI goes to find document**

EI: Here it is! 12:05

This is a project about (the) Internet... The interface where (the) Internet meets interaction, where portal meets practice...  The virtual and the physical. It is an exploration of the space between thing and no(n)-thing, space and spacelessness, place and non-place.

Fan: Speeds up or slows down based on internet usage. It breathes just like an internet data centre.

Image Not Found: Image not found on repeat, soon to be geo-influenced, based on where the accessed webpage is hosted. (The number of pixels moved is based on how geographically distant the pulled webpage is coming from).

Clicker hands: Could be colour changed based on where the cursor is on the screen? Much like a dynamic webpage?

Printerrrr: It’s going to be arduino powered label maker thing that prints one pixel of a clicker cursor each time the computer user clicks.

Writing: It’s going to be a piece about interface/portals/interaction/transportation/visualisation/bringing the distant near /symbols of the virtual and far away.

Possible analysis of objects, and how/why each of them perform effectively.

How they fit into the category of ‘portal’ and why portal is situated there.

Proposals/systems for deriving new ‘portals’ and how this might extend beyond the individual and their interface. How they might physicalise and visualise the collective.

BN: is the virtual design studio / a…  12:07

TF: co-working space / distributed design network?

I see we already have mutual friends at Gravity and Hyperloops. The core principle of the design studio is to approach design as a social activity. This means doing everything from one-on-one advice and mentoring to visiting local startups, taking tours of technology 12:10

EI: I think VDS is a portal. The document is from 10th of February, when I thought the project was about portals, and I still think it maybe kind of is a little bit. 12:13

TF: It's more about the flow of information rather than the actual systems 12:13

EI: Why do you think the project is about portals? 12:14

EI: If you look at the definition of portal, it’s “portal a doorway, gate, or other entrance, especially a large and imposing one.” OR “a website or web page providing access or links to other sites.” and I think the “Internet Objects” are means of access to otherwise intangible (data) or hidden components of (the) Internet. In other words, they are tangible doorways into intangible realms. You can call them translators, or mediators. 12:19

TF: Next: Invisible gateways. 12:21

EI: That’s what the Venn diagram is pointing towards. It’s also related to the website we talked about earlier. 12:21

TF: It isn’t a programming language. It isn’t a coding language, it isn’t even an operating system. It is the ability to get the vast majority of the Internet’s information to it and in a usable form. 12:25

EI: I think it’s tapping into the Internet’s intricacies and exploiting them to generate content, question our relationship with the Internet, and perhaps create objects and entities that allow the findings to manifest. 12:27

TF: assuredly yes. I think it also has the potential to shape certain areas in our future as a kind of journalistic artefact that we're both exploring and a subject of debate and work that's being generated. 12:40

EI: I think maybe it is a system, and maybe a new form of language based on internet syntax, internet vernacular, malaise statements that all feed the VDS fiction. All aspects of the work so far kind of feed into the same narrative. 12:44

[prompt-master]

Princess Paladin