Sep 20, 2012

103 notes

The other day I realized that “interactive” anything is the wrong word. Interactive makes you imagine people sitting with their hands on controls, some kind of gamelike thing. The right word is “unfinished.” Think of cultural products, or art works, or the people who use them even, as being unfinished. Permanently unfinished. We come from a cultural heritage that says things have a “nature,” and that this nature is fixed and describable. We find more and more that this idea is insupportable - the “nature” of something is not by any means singular, and depends on where and when you find it, and what you want it for.

Brian Eno (via austinkleon, via ajay)

This has to do with civic engagement, too, I think. Cities, towns, run in a way that’s interactive - that’s where the sense of something gamelike creeps in. What if cities were, on the other hand, unfinished without the public’s hand in shaping them?

See also: leaving a rough edge, and why squishy > slick.

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/selin's scribblings and digital field notes, home for stories, runway for hunches.