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I was rooting for the plucky pixel, but that last story is *bleak*! I was reminded of the work of Heider and Simmel (https://www.all-about-psychology.com/fritz-heider.html) but you've pared it back even further than they did.

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Ah, but is the last story only bleak because of an assumption we could bring about the meanings of light/white/on and dark/black/off?

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Yes indeed, we learn a grammar of stories (and images, from cinema) and in this case the first story sets up the idea that white/on is a character and black/off is an absence or empty space.

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Oh that’s true! I hadn’t even realised that the first story had “taught me how to read the second”.

But… does that mean the second story is really a story in its own right? Or is it, in some sense, a sequel?

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Personally I think Toby had a good reason for putting them in that order, but let's see what he says...

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Hello James and Dave. I think I'll write something about this in the Diary, if you don't mind. It's bigger than an answer here.

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The three pixel triad is indeed a story if you invert the binary representation (effectively turning absence into presence). We then have two characters undergoing a bitter/sweet journey with a tale of togetherness, separation and reconciliation.

Further reading: Shannon's information theory; lossless compression; Turing's ticker tape; Conway's 'Game of Life'.

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