Make a thing
small enough to exist.
Karl Weick’s work on “small wins” argues for tackling overwhelming problems through bounded, concrete outcomes rather than waiting for a grand solution.
Read Weick (1984) ↗AN INTERACTIVE SPECULATION ENGINEVOL. 098 / SAHILWHO 100
✳ THE FUTURE DOES NOT ARRIVE IN ONE PIECE
ONE
SMALL
MOVE.
You make one thing. It meets another thing. The next thing is suddenly possible. That is not a guarantee. It is an invitation.
MAKE → SHARE → CONNECT → RECOMBINE → REVISE → MAKE AGAIN MAKE → SHARE → CONNECT → RECOMBINE → REVISE → MAKE AGAIN
01 / EXPERIMENTAL PLAYGROUND
THE DOMINO
DEPARTMENT.
Give your first act a name. Add or remove steps, rearrange the sequence, then release the chain. Consequences are illustrative possibilities, never predictions.
CHAIN STUDIO / LOCAL SESSION05 DOMINOES IN SEQUENCE
01 / Start anywhere 02 / Build a sequence 03 / Let it fall
The first domino is waiting for a nudge.↘ = NEXT POSSIBILITY
CONTROL CONSOLE ✳
BUILD THE POSSIBILITY SPACE
A conceptual simulator, not a forecast. No data leaves your browser. No accounts, no trackers.
TRANSMISSION LOGAWAITING FIRST CONTACT
Your sequence will appear here as an accessible text narrative after the cascade. You can also read and edit every step before running it.
02 / IDEAS, NOT INCANTATIONS
WHY SMALL
DOESN’T MEAN
TRIVIAL.
A small act has no magic multiplier. What it can do is create a concrete object, start a conversation or reveal information you did not possess before.
Make a thing
Let ideas cross
the wrong borders.
Research on technology brokering shows how bringing knowledge from one domain into another can enable combinations that feel new.
Read Hargadon & Sutton ↗Uncertainty is
part of the design.
New combinations can produce uneven results. Fleming’s research suggests unfamiliar recombinations have more variable outcomes—not guaranteed breakthroughs.
Read Fleming (2001) ↗FICTIONAL EXAMPLE / NOT A CASE STUDY
03 / A FICTIONAL PATH
THE ZINE THAT
ACCIDENTALLY
BUILT A LAB.
A maker prints a one-page zine about a smell they cannot describe. A friend sends it to a musician. The musician proposes a sound installation. A teacher asks whether students can remix it. An unexpected project emerges—not because the universe owed anyone a reward, but because each step created another occasion for exchange.
This is an invented teaching story. The chain could just as plausibly end after the first zine.
01One strange scent zine
02A friend forwards it
03A sound artist responds
04Students request a workshop
05A new shared experiment
04 / FIELD NOTES
DON’T CONFUSE
A DOMINO
WITH DESTINY.
The camera always makes a cascade look inevitable after it happens. Research asks what else might have happened, which links mattered and which paths never became visible.
ANALYTICAL DISTINCTION / 01
Possibility ≠ probability
A domino describes a conceivable next step. It does not measure how likely that step is, or which hidden conditions would be required.
ANALYTICAL DISTINCTION / 02
Sequence ≠ causation
Events occurring one after another do not prove that one caused the other. Opportunities, resources and other people’s choices shape outcomes.
ANALYTICAL DISTINCTION / 03
Visibility ≠ value
A quiet draft, an abandoned prototype or an enjoyable experiment may have value even if no spectacular chain follows.
ONE QUESTION TO TAKE WITH YOU
What is one small, reversible act of creation you would enjoy doing—even if nothing follows from it?
Take the illustrated Field Guide ↓