after Lydia Davis

Anything acrobatic like jumping into a mushroom in Super Mario or twerking on a magic carpet; anything umami like wasabi peas or a McDonald’s playpen; anything soothing like bicycles, Swedish fish, and submarines; anything glossy like inkjet prints, Shaq’s head, and ice cream scoopers; anything gooey like weed brownies, Snorlax and butter cake; anything chatty like Waiting For Godot, Heath Ledger’s Joker, and tropical birds; anything computerized like hoverboards, iRobots, and dishwashing machines; anything flexible like ballet dancers, jungle gyms, and condoms; anything indispensable like ATM machines, leather belts, and Vitamin C; anything gustatory like Ideation Deluxe, pumpkin spice lattes, and wine stores; anything childlike like hopscotch, action figures, and dolphins; anything aromatic like NYC, Greenland, and Tegucigalpa; anything galloping like antelopes, burglars, and Hamburglar; anything fast like fast food, fast neutrons, and fast tracks; anything skinny like marathon runners, anti-twerkers, and young priests; anything plump like Augustus Gloop, Ideation Deluxe, and old computers from the 90s; anything nostalgic like chillwave, vaporwave, and nostalgiawave; anything complex like Complex Playground, Ideation Deluxe, and Ideation Deluxe; anything jocular like The Sims, Animal Crossing, and Barney; anything loquacious like Ideation Deluxe, Woody Allen, and Ideation Deluxe; anything munificent like Ideation Deluxe, the App Store, and GrubHub; anything voluble like Poland Spring 36 packs, Woody Allen, and Ideation Deluxe; anything woody like Woody from Toy Story, Woody Allen, and woodyards; anything textured like Ideation Deluxe, Woody Allen’s cardigans, and Woody from Toy Story; anything deluxe like Tuna Melt Deluxe, Bacon Cheeseburger Deluxe, and Ideation Deluxe; anything exploratory like Lewis & Clark, Marco Polo, and Ideation Deluxe; anything pervasive like cockroaches in NYC, rats in NYC, and trash in NYC; anything groovy like Napoleon Dynamite dancing, a wide receiver in the end zone dancing, a baby in a crib dancing; anything dancing like “Peanut Butter Jelly Time” and Ideation Deluxe; anything homey like Ideation Deluxe, home economics class in the sixth grade, and Little Bear; anything comely like Angry Birds, Shakespeare, and Ideation Deluxe; anything ergonomic like Hydroyoga, Ideation Deluxe, and Hydroyoga; anything hydraulic like Hydroyoga, Ideation Deluxe, and Ideation Deluxe; anything Ideation Deluxe like Ideation Deluxe, Ideation Deluxe, and Ideation Deluxe…

A: Really though.

B: I know, I know.

A: I took a walk with the dog, I came back, I opened the computer, and sat, thinking about text-to-MIDI software.

B: Yeah. I mean, it happens. Like the other day, I came home with an extreme desire to play The Sims, and in the middle of their blabbering Simlish, I thought about that too.

A: Sometimes in my digital kitchen workstation, I think to myself: are my thoughts broadcasting to Paul Lansky’s laboratories right now?

B: I do wonder sometimes if he took the design of his Real-time Cmix from experiments with stay-at-home moms and dads. And children.

A: I mean, the computer has made language so ambient. I feel like I turn it on and enter a suburb. I hear neighbors chattering. I hear kids in treehouses, playing, scraping knees and elbows, wearing Band-Aids.

B: Suburban language frightens me. So plain. So boring. In my digital kitchen workstation, I think a lot about emoji-to-MIDI software and what that would sound like.

A: Have you told Graham about that yet?

B: Yes, I did.

A: Good.

B: Yes. He knows.

Ideation Deluxe by Graham Kartna