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Stage 01 of 9

Spark

What tugs at you right now?

Every project starts with a snag — an image that won't leave, a phrase, a memory, a material you keep touching. Don't try to justify it yet. Catch it.

Prompts to sit with

  • 01What have you photographed, saved, or re-read three times this month?
  • 02What conversation, place, or object made you feel something you can't name?
  • 03What are you avoiding making — and why?
  • 04If nothing came up, roll a constraint (see Part 9) and let it choose for you.

Small practices

  • Keep a physical notebook this week — no judgment, only collecting.
  • Photograph 50 things at random and look for what recurs.
  • Draw 100 quick studies of anything to loosen the hand.
Follow one project throughAn interactive dafA contemplative reader that keeps the argument — traced through all nine stages, in progress.A running example, one entry per stage. Click to expand.

The spark is a refusal. Most interactive humanities pieces choose one side: beautiful and thin, or rigorous and ugly. The daf refuses that trade — the page itself is the argument. I want a reader that feels like immersion and keeps the citation, the counter-voice, the gloss. The question I am carrying: can a page be contemplative and load-bearing at the same time?

Read alongside — in the book