“Terms and Conditions”

Entries are written through the working group. This page describes how a term is brought in, written up and published.

An entry should be neither purely a technical history nor a media-theoretical critique of a term, but a way to open further thinking on both fronts. Entries are short, around 5 to 10 paragraphs, and refer to one another where they can. We prefer several entries for closely related terms over one entry covering many.

Each entry aims at one or more of the following:

1. Locate the paper or papers that introduced the term into the technical literature, and the reasons they gave for it.
2. Track how the term has spread and changed in the technical literature since.
3. Surface historical precedents and uses of the term in other disciplines.
4. Offer a philosophical, critical or media-theoretical framing that keeps the term’s technical specificity.
5. Propose questions for further inquiry.

A term comes to the group through a steward. Any member can volunteer as a term’s steward, and each session opens with a call for new stewards. A steward brings some of: a technical understanding of the term, where it is thought to originate, how it circulates now, and a historical or critical reflection on it. The group then discusses the term.

After the discussion, the group chooses an editor, who works with the steward to write the entry. The entry is submitted as a pull request to the repository on GitHub. Entries are written in Typst and published as this website through Rheo. There is no deadline; each session checks in on the terms in flight.