We are surrounded by devices that are designed to respond to us. They have been given a language of rhythm, movement, attachment, repetition, and layering. They are both overwhelmingly present and unseen. Mutably flowing together, they lose their distinctness in an anonymous field. They are notations of a system, each a reference, a hazy outline. This dual nature is echoed by our own nature. In this world of stimulation, we have learned simultaneously to seek out this stimulation and to flee from it. Increasingly, our houses have become shelters and retreats from ever-present demands. Instead, the house must allow the inhabitant to dwell cyclically. It must allow us to have stimulation and also allow us to escape from it. It must be a device that reflects one's desires in relation to our mechanized existence.