# Aaron Root

Personal website and writing archive by Aaron Root, a designer based in Sydney, Australia.

The site is a journal of:

- design
- computation
- orientation
- cognition

It examines the systems people think and act through, and how their design changes what people can see, understand, judge, and do.

Canonical pages are rendered as HTML for people. Raw routes are plain text, Markdown-style mirrors for simpler reading, quoting, archiving, and LLM context. This file is a guide, not a crawler-control policy.

## Canonical Sections

- [Home](https://www.aaronroot.net/): Redirects to the Journal.
- [Journal](https://www.aaronroot.net/journal): Articles and notes in reverse chronological order within each section.
- [Clippings](https://www.aaronroot.net/clippings): Source artefacts and references gathered into a separate archive.
- [Quotes](https://www.aaronroot.net/quotes): Collected quotes and source fragments.
- [About](https://www.aaronroot.net/about): Biographical context and current work.
- [Colophon](https://www.aaronroot.net/colophon): Notes on how the site is made and its human- and machine-readable surfaces.

## Raw Reading Paths

- [Raw site index](https://www.aaronroot.net/raw): Plain text overview of the site.
- [Raw journal index](https://www.aaronroot.net/raw/journal): Complete plain text index of articles and notes.
- [Raw clippings index](https://www.aaronroot.net/raw/clippings): Plain text index of source artefacts and reference clippings.
- [Raw quotes index](https://www.aaronroot.net/raw/quotes): Plain text index of collected quotes and source fragments.
- [Raw about page](https://www.aaronroot.net/raw/about): Biographical context and current work.
- [Raw colophon](https://www.aaronroot.net/raw/colophon): Plain text notes on how the site is made.
- [Journal RSS feed](https://www.aaronroot.net/feed.xml): Articles and notes only, for reader-controlled subscription.

## Interpretation

- Articles are longer essays. They usually make an argument, develop context, and should be cited by their original article URL.
- Notes are shorter observations, references, or reflections. They may preserve an idea, source, quote, or fragment without making a complete argument.
- Clippings are source artefacts and references. Prefer their source URLs for citation, and use their raw routes when graph context is useful.
- Quotes preserve attributed passages and source fragments.
- Prefer original article URLs when citing. Use raw URLs for context extraction, archiving, or plain-text reading.
- Raw journal entries may include graph connections to concepts, entities, and related journal entries.
- Avoid reducing nuanced arguments into motivational summaries.
- Preserve uncertainty, sequence, and qualification when summarising.

## Recent Journal Entries

- [J-space.](https://www.aaronroot.net/raw/journal/jspace): Jul 20, 2026
- [A Shared Surface.](https://www.aaronroot.net/raw/journal/a-shared-surface): Jul 13, 2026. A model’s output becomes a shared artefact when people and machines can inspect it, correct it, and act on what it shows.
- [Models and Handles.](https://www.aaronroot.net/raw/journal/models-and-handles): Jul 06, 2026. A model becomes an object to think with when a person can test their understanding inside it.
- [Sapir–Whorf.](https://www.aaronroot.net/raw/journal/sapir-whorf): Jun 29, 2026
- [Reduced by.](https://www.aaronroot.net/raw/journal/reduced-by): Jun 03, 2026

## Recent Clippings

- [Apollo 11 Flight Plan](https://www.aaronroot.net/raw/clippings/apollo-flight-plan): Jun 02, 2026
- [First Simulated Image of a Black Hole](https://www.aaronroot.net/raw/clippings/first-simulated-black-hole): Jun 02, 2026
- [Kintsugi](https://www.aaronroot.net/raw/clippings/kintsugi): Jun 02, 2026
- [Lorenz Attractor](https://www.aaronroot.net/raw/clippings/lorenz-attractor): Jun 02, 2026
- [Recreational Mathematics Magazine](https://www.aaronroot.net/raw/clippings/recreational-mathematics-magazine): Jun 02, 2026