Paradigms and theories are the primary boundaries we must crack in these crystalline systems. They strongly affect the way that we are allowed to perceive (Kuhn 114). Maybe this is what Marshall McLuhan meant by "the medium is the message" (McLuhan, Causality, 24) or "experiments designed to confirm the old normally conceal the new" (McLuhan, Causality, 10). Our existing internal representations are the frames or hoops that new ideas must always jump through. But when you try to fit a square idea through a round hoop, you lose the interesting corners. How do we loosen these constricting boundaries? Perhaps the best way to get around this is by shaping one's own paradigm for creative work. This, after all, requires an enticing amount of freedom, creativity, and innovation. Inventing our own perceptual technologies will help us reshape the rigid hoops we jump through. Here is where the crystal opens up again into a shifting territory, accommodating the interesting corners.

These new territories of representation must be explored by the outcast, intruder, or pioneer. They ask questions about the limits of existing territories. But questioning the limits of scientific paradigms, for example, needs to be supported as a necessary catalytic activity. An ever-changing province requires these pioneers. It is difficult for me, for example, to claim that I'm indeed a scientist within our specialist culture, but I continually strive to design a diverse array of perceptual technologies to help us to see in new ways. “The Flocking Party” is a set of these perceptual technologies, which range from fiction and metaphor to interactive animation and multilinear narration. They are technologies for catalyzing reactions between the bordering strata of art and science. I am lodged between the two strata, pulling resources from either side to create them.