I am arranging a visit to a design department at a university in Philadelphia. Some people from Boston want to come but they say traffic is terrible. I ask if they can fly. They talk about expanding the highway to 8 lanes.
When we arrive the head of the department is cold and imperious and tells us to come back later.
The staircases and escalators are like an Escher painting. I see my mother go down a staircase that’s between two escalators. I try to follow but my leg gets stuck. I cry for help. When I try to extricate myself I wind up hanging by my hands, sort of upside down. I ask a stranger if he will catch me and he says he will, but it turns out I can just drop safely to the floor.
We go back to the design department office. We’re playing Yahtzee to pass the time. Except it’s different, it’s not called Yahtzee and you want to get a series of 8. The dice still have 6 sides, though. I roll once and get some 6s, and roll again and get four 6s and a 5. I’m trying to decide what to do with that, where to put it.
There is a bathroom in the office that has been decorated by Sony Playstation. I remember seeing a similar one on campus and I assume Sony is branding bathrooms now. The decor is kind of ridiculous, all red, hanging mobiles of the Sony logo. I think about calling to see if they would do ours.
The department head comes back and we are all discussing what we’re going to ask her. I decide to ask about designing computer games. Do the principles of design remain the same? How do you account for game play and screen displays? I note that it used to be heresy to talk about screen "design."
