House

Martin Wattenberg and I are thinking of a project called ‘House’ : People move through a space, if they go up to a wall, openings appear, if they go through an opening a space beyond is created. So you ‘path’ the space into existance. Its interesting that Rama is interested in that which we touch in our space, and John in the combinations of unfolding of a space.
Marek Walczak

Pathways & preferences

I think a very under-explored aspect of information presentation, especially on websites with dynamic content, is the reinforcement of pathways and preferences. I identified with Rama’s path example, especially with the ideas of pattern formation/learning and amplification. The junk filter in Apple’s mail program is so good that it makes me hopeful for adaptive news filters and intelligent presentation. Consider someone using a piece of software, not from scratch each time, but evolving patterns and growing with it. The software should have the capacity to learn.
John Simon Jr

Trails

It deals with trail making, a design approach seen in 60’s university architectural planning. Students were allowed to freely traverse their newly built campus for a period of time before the designer instituted their paths as permanent walkways. Perfect interface allows for pattern learning and amplification of what’s working. Interface here is not a plan but a process.
Rama Chorpash