Adopt-a-Word!
Seeing as the conditions at the IGF pavilion weren’t optimal for poesysteme-ing, I decided to go towards the “performance” approach and have every visitor collaborate to create and maintain a poesysteme every day. The game only got rebooted when the game crashed and at the end of the day.
People could add one or several words and see how they would trounce or get trounced by the other words that were there already there, adding their contribution to the gene pool. Before they left, I asked them if they wanted to adopt a word, based on a “Love at first sight” algorithm. Upon seeing a word they liked, they were asked to write a quick sentence depicting what the word meant.
Their collaborative efforts result in this dictionary of the absurd.
Bredinateur (noun): The engine by which bright, new thoughts are generated and populated through the universe – Juliana
Breimag (noun): Knitting magazine – Fulko
Cantiscient (adj.): Awareness of the colour purple – Matt
Cantsome (adj.): Good at poetry, proeficient with flow and pace – Michael
Cerveale (noun): Topping for salads that are tasteless. Eg: parsley – Bard
Chednote (noun): A musical sound that makes you feel sick when you hear it – Jon
Compoeze (noun): A composer of musical accompagnment for poetic readings – Tom
Cowdatan (noun): An electronic representation of a spherical bovine in its singular, neuter form – Zach
Deflesca (noun): A disarming move, with a flourish. (Words are disarming) – Chris Hudak
Delusthal (noun): A rare herb that grows in spilled garbage. Consuming it makes a person delusional – Austin Spafford
Dodora (noun): A small portal suitable for the passage of animals. Eg: a mousehole – Brian
Dynana (name): A warrior princess at the far away planet (Theinde) captured by the evil spacelord “Asshole”. She’s really beautiful – Nils
Hackerbacker (noun): A person funding illegal computing activities – Warren & Marcus
Ininple (adj.): A hard to unravel situation. Eg: Being lost in an ininple situation – Rutgen
Kinkinvana (name): The mythical home of Hrothgar in the Icelandic sagas – Mary F
Naestist (noun): A refutation of aesthetic principles – Sam
Nagorgor (name): A distant land where hairy giants stomp the earth – Roki
Phargrapharty (noun, swedish): When you visit a drug dealer and he is throwing a sweet party at the crack house – Jared
Pingship (noun): An ocean-going vessel that visits a port somewhere in the world, then returns to it’s originating port, reporting how long the trip took. Sometimes, these ships fall out of the world & go missing – David H
Porshock (noun): Sticker shock when you see the price of a Porsche – Nick
Saqnist (verb): To apply the “Mystical Method” to derive conclusions from data. 1) Theorize 2) Apply 3) see 1 – Chris
Tercoterries (name): A Space Dog Pirate captain searching the world for his lost sheep – Micah
Torstyligre (noun): A striped, spiked candy – Jon
Wabieogwa (Yoruba word): Greetings in early afternoon indicating slight itch in left thigh – Colm
Wemithapend (name): A small town in Iceland where nobody ever dies – Josh
There are still some words generated during the GDC that went unadopted (I didn’t have the guts to put them in a bag and drown them in the river, they’re all SO CUTE! ^_^), and if you, reader, happen to see one you love and can feel the love back, please adopt it in the comments!
Unadopted words: Chuniboudanwa, Constiontit, Theriencus, Rakavenira, Mingun, Goticau, Mouthorcrom, Tisather, Wordhubkan.