thanks for these, Bret!
I was riding the BART back last night, and was feeling quite stunned at seeing what you’ve created.
you probably know this; I hope you know this, but: what you have created is really, truly amazing. magical.
it’s so magical, in fact, that it almost even seems so obvious, effortless, like you write in the report. even now, my awe is already quickly sliding into acceptance, the way that you might 'accept’ a beautiful world of an ursula k. le guin novel. of course that’s how making works, in a world where realtalk always exists everywhere.
but, as a former visitor to that world in 2019, who got to speak RealTalk a little bit, I feel both privileged and strangely confident in being an outside perspective, and feel the urgency to communicate my fresh awe to you before it sublimates, so I can share what I see — especially since you mentioned that you haven’t had a lot of people respond to your progress in-person. it’s really, truly incredible.
—
(speaking of 2019 — I never got to formally thank you (and Josh for hosting me!) and allowing me to spend some deep time at Dynamicland in summer 2019. I’m sorry! that experience indelibly changed part of my life, and how I see computers. zero exaggeration or flattery there. these days, I do most of my writing with pen and paper, and I love the way paper moves thought around a space, has spatial and cognitive affordances, fun intimacies, tucked in books, on tables, slipped notes, on the fridge. I think that much of this was re-discovered through my brief experience at Dynamicland. so: thank you, very much, for that time)
—
So - I haven’t seen much of Dynamicland in the past four years, so I know I’m missing out on a lot of progress, but: I have to tell you: it seems: there is something truly magical and powerful about the page layout kit in a way that I haven’t seen before, perhaps even at dynamicland...
The box maker is amazing also, so incredible. But the page layout kit has a particular kind of magic. I’m struggling to put my finger on it:
perhaps what’s so stunning about the page layout kit, at least to me, is that it keeps the act of writing in the spatial realm: spatial, in terms of the spatial layout of the page, the space of the bulletin board, but also, the space of the room.
perhaps it’s that page layout kit seems like it’s not about a seeing space, but about "thinking in Space” in which ‘in’ is not ‘in’ as in “in California” but instead “in English”. Or: “writing on Space”, in which “on” is the “on” in “Ruby on Rails”. perhaps it’s simply that it makes me feel free with ideas; looking at those pages on the board feels like a breath of fresh, crisp air.
perhaps: it’s that, more than anything, the Dynamicland you’ve shown me makes me want to write. it makes me want to make something new - a novel, a short story, an essay, in a way I had not ever thought was possible. I imagine writing out out a lot of ideas, move them around a space, pace around the desk at home, move pages around, cut out paragraphs, add photos, go for a frustrated walk, gather up a bundle of pages and move to the kitchen table, take a pair of scissors and cut them up into pieces, reshuffle them, reprint them.
—
okay, I think I have it:
when I was there, what I wanted to do in dynamicland was to (happily) make more things in dynamicland.
to play, explore, create, learn, discover, experiment.
but this, the page layout kit: imagining interacting with it pulls me towards:
the desire to ponder, to contemplate, to reflect.
not many mediums do that. slow walking, and pens and paper do, for me.
most of my computers allow for much thinking,
but I didn't know any computers that really encourage deep contemplation,
until yesterday.
perhaps it’s fitting that it was created in the process of creating your annual report:
in reflecting in a report, you’ve created a process for reflection.
—
thank you for reading this long and excited ramble, and thank you for sharing your work. what you’re making is deeply exciting, and inspiring. I can’t wait for the future when I can play with dynamic media with a Dynalamp, too, in the future you foretell. thanks for sharing your work!
cheers,
Dan
On Sat, Mar 11, 2023 at 12:05 AM Bret Victor wrote: