“Conversation is a cybernetic technology.” is a short zine written by Dan Taeyoung (self-described as a “learner, teacher, spatial designer, technologist, and artist”). I recently shared on Instagram an exercise I used with my students that’s from this publication and folks were curious, so I’m sharing it here with you.
 

Cybernetics is the study of communications, the science of self-regulated systems, the study of circular feedback, and is concerned with closing loops and forming structures. It’s a whole bunch more things that I’m just learning to grasp.
 

Taeyoung says this: “If we think of conversation as cybernetic technology, what kind of playful programs, algorithms, or code exercises can we enact to formally structure how we converse, and how our feedback loops tangle with each other?
 

In my personal experience, when we formally structure our conversations with each other, we can create conversational containers and spaces to talk about things we may not have otherwise spoken about. By placing the focus on the conversational structure, we are not just talking, but talking about how we are talking, which is a chance for us to change how we are talking.

When we consensually set explicit norms and boundaries, we can play with being more vulnerable, more direct, more understanding, more shared.”
 

Today I had one-hour tutorials individually with two students and taught a class of 25 for four hours. I came home at the end of the day with a poor assessment of my end of those conversations

 Revisiting this zine, I see how I fell into the norms of default conversational structures without actively questioning where those norms came from and if they were helpful. It may be frustrating to constantly interrogate routine, but I believe it winds up taking us somewhere more rewarding. I don’t want to talk just to talk and to only talk the way I’ve been led to believe talking takes place. Hope you have as much success (or more!) with these recipes as I have.