The Mass of Zero Notes #2 You sent a long message to clear up a misunderstanding, and things only got more tangled. You explained your circumstances carefully as an apology, and were told it sounded like nothing but excuses. Have you ever had that experience? In the last note, I wrote that words carry only about 30% of an intention, and that the listener fills the remaining 70% blank with their own experience and bias. Face to face, the bodily "Tone" present in the room — a t

The Mass of Zero Notes #1 You chose your words with care, and yet the other person took them to mean something entirely different. Most of us have had that experience. In improvised performance, this kind of misreading can actually generate new energy in the room. But in everyday communication, where the aim is to convey an intention accurately, the same gap can be fatal. In this note, I want to look at how these gaps in interpretation arise, through the lens of what I call "

The Mass of Zero Notes #0 Whenever I give an artist talk in English abroad, the same thought crosses my mind: if 40% of what I say gets through, I'm doing well. I don't think this is only a matter of language skill. Even between native speakers, the moment what lies inside us becomes words, most of it falls away. And yet we keep trying to reach each other, held up by the tone of a voice and the air of a room — by what I call "Tone." After more than twenty years in the world o