Creating a Verancular - Asynchronous Instruments

This week, I took inspiration directly from the physical world. I visited Arcosanti and Cosanti and became fascinated by their cast forms. Many are made from styrofoam molds, but what struck me was how usable those forms could be as a digital vocabulary. I researched additional examples, fed the references into Claude, and began developing a visual language of shapes that feel as though they could be found, cast, or uncovered in sand. I turned those forms into full 3D objects set within a sand-like environment. The goal is to make the application feel calm, exploratory, and tactile, allowing users to move through the space and discover what they are looking for. I also began recasting my Arabian Nights map using this material language, including the cities themselves, so the project is gradually becoming a more coherent world. Other inspirations included vintage keychain viewers, which led me to experiment with objects containing tiny “microfilm” views of text and media, and Chladni plates, where sound frequencies create visible patterns in sand. Upon showing off this new vernacular for my work, I received lots of good feedback from the people that I showed it to. I felt proud of demoing and receiving feedback. It felt like something that could be easily understood and enjoyed.