Triptych

I'm using the idea of the triptych as both a visual and structural tool—not just in the historical sense of hinged altarpieces, but as a way to organize ideas, voices, and perspectives across time and space - wikipedia

The classic triptych has three panels: left, center, right. Often the center is dominant, flanked by supporting scenes or contrasting ideas. It was used in medieval and Renaissance painting, especially in churches, to tell a layered visual story—central truth, side mysteries. But for me, it's less about religion and more about rhythm and Perspective.

## A Cinematic Structure

I'm especially interested in how the triptych maps onto the Three Act Structure—the kind used in screenplays, theatre, and storytelling in general.

But I’m not using it just to tell stories with characters and plots. I’m using it to Stage Deliberation, Perspective, and Dialogue.

I’m not always using this structure chronologically. In video, it might all appear at once—three vertical zones on a single screen. In prose, I might write three short paragraphs or monologues side by side, like three windows looking out onto the sea of ideas - the same storm.

# Using It in Dialogue

What excites me most is using the triptych for **structured dialogue**: - Three characters - Three internal voices - Three versions of the same event - Or a conversation split across time—past, present, imagined.

Each panel becomes a **persona**, or a **mood**. Sometimes they argue. Sometimes they harmonize. I think of them like theater masks or nested selves.

- Zaphod, Marvin and Trillian

This lets me show thought in motion—not a conclusion, but a circuit. One voice speaks, another complicates, and a third one either withdraws, reframes, or laughs at them both.

# Threefold Lineup in Federated Wiki This idea works beautifully inside Federated Wiki, where the interface is naturally built for **side-by-side pages**. When I open **three wiki pages across a wide screen**, they form a perfect digital triptych: - The **left page** introduces or proposes - The **center page** holds the focus—the main narrative, artifact, or contradiction - The **right page** responds, critiques, reframes, or lets the idea echo into silence.

This linear structure is not my preference, but rather an invitation to the reader to betterment - to hack and improve this three-way verse. For now it is just an experiment that I have held in my head for too long, and it is time to put it on paper.

This is what I call a Threefold Lineup. It's a way of **thinking in panels**, not just reading linearly. It’s native to wiki. It makes philosophy feel like set design.

# Animating the Lineup The real magic happens when I **replace** one of the panels: - Swap out the **left** page and the premise changes—what’s being asked shifts - Swap the **right** and the echo becomes sharper, softer, absurd - Shift a new page into the **center** and suddenly the whole conversation reorganizes around it.

It feels like Deliberation in Motion. Each panel is a tile on a chessboard of thought. With one flick—one drag—I can move the emphasis, reroute the energy, tilt the meaning.

- Memetic Beats

Even just watching the center page glide sideways into another position creates a kind of drama: a moment of cinematic tension where the whole frame reorients.

# Not Just Aesthetic Yes, the triptych is beautiful—especially in a **16:9 cinematic format**. Three vertical columns in one wide rectangle feels like a **cathedral window built for the web**. But I’m not using it just for aesthetics.

I'm using it to: - Slow things down - Hold contradiction without resolving it - Invite deliberation, not just persuasion - Echo how people actually think when they’re being honest.

# Whimsical Use Cases - A film scene where three versions of a conversation play simultaneously—optimist, realist, cynic - A prose poem in three overlapping but asynchronous stanzas - A silent video in three panels: birth, dream, decay - A wiki page where each paragraph is one part of a triptych: question, tension, drift - A federated wiki lineup where the **center page gets “haunted” by replacements**, but the flanking pages hold memory

The triptych gives me a place to **pose** things, not just declare them. It’s a folding frame for multi-perspective storytelling, or non-linear thought. Something like a cabinet of reflection.

# See - Threefold Lineup - Go see them at the tate.org.uk - Tryptich in Comedy - youtube