The **hinged altarpiece** is a mechanical marvel of sacred storytelling. It was in a real sense the paper of the day. Popular across late medieval and Renaissance Europe, it consists of a central panel flanked by two (or more) wings, each joined by physical hinges - wikipedia 
These artworks were built to open and close—often daily, sometimes only on feast days—revealing dazzling inner worlds when unfolded, and more muted exteriors when shut.
> This wasn’t just practical. It was performative.
The act of opening the wings created a ritual transformation of space. Closed, the altarpiece offered restraint: saints in monochrome, donors kneeling in prayer. Opened, it exploded into colour and glory—crimson robes, golden halos, lambs, martyrs, angels on fire. The hinge was the drama.
Constructed from wood (usually oak or walnut), painted in tempera or oil, and joined with brass or iron hardware, these altarpieces were often architectural in ambition. Some even had hidden compartments. The structure itself was part of the theology: **truth, but revealed slowly**.
# Folding Worlds
The idea of hinged visual objects isn’t limited to Europe. Japanese Byōbu—folding screens used in homes, temples, and palaces—functioned as both art and infrastructure - wikipedia
Light enough to reposition, beautiful enough to contemplate, they turned rooms into scrolls. Painted with cranes, pine trees, or waves mid-crash, they offered serenity that moved when you did. Could we do the same for the internet?
Whether sacred or secular, East or West, these folding formats suggest a deep human desire to **stage meaning**—to conceal, to reveal, and to decide when we do which.
# From Hinge to Meme
This is where we shift—not just in content, but in metaphor. The hinge is no longer merely physical. It becomes a conceptual pivot. A hinge is what keeps a door on its frame—or a theory on its rails. To say something (or someone) is **“unhinged”** is to say it’s lost that structure. Off balance. Flapping in the wind.
It’s no surprise the internet adopted the term. “Unhinged” now lovingly describes a rant, a meme, or a tweet thread that has veered gloriously off-course. If someone posts a **completely unhinged Google review** of a haunted sandwich shop, we treasure it. Unhinged has become a kind of anti-canon—a badge of narrative chaos.
Meanwhile, “hinged” is a thing, usually with irony: - “Finally, a hinged take.” - “I’ve never been more hinged in my life.” - “Douglas Adams: hinged in structure, unhinged in tone.”
# Adams as Triptych
If the hinged altarpiece is a spiritual device for revealing deep truths behind closed panels, then Adams wrote **sci-fi altarpieces** for atheists and absurdists. His structure was always tight—deliberately hinged—but the content burst outward like a winged bowl of petunias.
- Panel 1: A perfectly reasonable setup - Panel 2: An interstellar bureaucracy run by sadistic poets - Panel 3: A philosophical punchline involving towels
> Adams was hinged enough to build meaning, unhinged enough to let it wobble.
And that’s the sweet spot, really—the triptych mindset. One panel to propose, one to pivot, one to laugh.
## Future Triptychs This structure isn’t just an art historical curiosity—it’s alive in current and future frameworks too. The triptych lives on in cultural rhythms like: - **Work, rest and play** — A tripartite life rhythm still echoed in design, education, and urban planning - **Head, heart and hands** — A whole-person learning model used in both Waldorf education and post-industrial craft practice.
These aren’t arbitrary groupings—they’re ways to **hinge** different modes of being. They allow us to fold intellect, feeling, and action into a single canvas.
This is especially relevant in Future Science, where we begin to ask not just what is true, but what is **meaningful**, Motivsted, and **usefully entangled** with human purpose. Perhaps it’s time science itself evolves beyond its lone central panel—the rational head—and restores its side wings: **ethical heart** and **practical hands** - not in silos, but in a better hinged-way.
> That would be a very hinged future. With just enough risk of becoming gloriously unhinged when necessary.
# See - Future Science