Interactive episodes
Handle objects, learn a craft and choose your next step. Each story has four complete chapters.
March 44 BCE · Rome · A bakery and the forum’s surroundings
Hearing the republic tremble from a bakery
Set out bread, prepare the shop and hear news at the forum’s edge through a woman excluded from formal political decisions.
Around the third century CE · Late Yayoi period · Yoshinogari, Saga
What remains until the next harvest
Divide a harvest for food, seed and exchange, obtain a vessel and prepare for the next season.
Around the eighth century · A fictional local stage near Samarkand
The blue cloth, into the next hands
Entrusted with his father’s load, Arman heads to a nearby depot, choosing a route and supplies and learning to disclose what the next carrier needs to know.
Around the twelfth century · A fictional settlement near Angkor
Once more, after the rain
Checking canals in his father’s place, Dara learns to look beyond the fields to neighbouring homes and the next rain.
Around 1430 · An Indian Ocean port · A Ming vessel, port warehouse and lodging
Check the words at port and wait for wind
Follow cargo jars, an interpreter’s words, seasonal winds and departure work beneath the expedition’s larger orders.
Around 1455 · Mainz · An early movable-type workshop
Set type is not yet a book
Follow type, a locked forme, a hand press and gathered sheets through a workshop combining printing with handwork.
Around 1600 · Benin City · A workshop in the West African Edo kingdom
From wax pattern to metal form
Follow wax, clay, fire and a cooled casting as a form disappears and survives in another material.
Around 1730 · Dōjima, Osaka · Warehouses, Dōjima market and the canals
A day when the bales stay put
A clerk connects rice samples, receipts, market voices and warehouses through an ordinary day.
Around 1780 · Edo period · Dejima, Nagasaki
Waiting for news at Dejima
A list and a cargo label disagree. Check the delivery, then turn a conversation into a letter.
Around 1810 · A coastal survey · A Japanese coastal village and lodging
Carrying a coastline to the lodging desk
Stretch a cord, wait for stars and compare notes to discover how a walked coast becomes a map.
Around 1830 · Edo · Publishers and workshops in Edo
Before a print reaches the shop
Follow a blank sheet through publishing, carving and printing until it becomes someone’s souvenir.
Around 1840 · A Sea of Japan port · Coastal ports and a trading ship
Sell one cargo and load another
Through warehouse, hold, changing weather and another port, discover cargo as both merchandise and weight.
1872 · Opening of Tomioka Silk Mill · Tomioka, Gunma
Hands that learn to reel silk
Reel silk from cocoons, investigate a break and pass a lesson to someone learning next.
July 1969 · Earth, lunar surface and lunar orbit
All three, back to Earth
Follow what comes after landing with fictional training assistant Ellen, using models to explore spacecraft reunion and the return of all three astronauts.