Kinagram

First Appearance and Context

Kinagrams are brought into view inside the math during conversations with an artisan in the New Library, where a jacket tag displays a grid of tiny moving images identified as Kinagrams. At a public opening of the gates (Apert), visitors hand out leaves written in Kinagrams; the Avout note that they cannot read them. Extramuros during an opening of the gates, faded examples were seen on roadside advertising and packaging, fidgeting beneath grime alongside logos and snack names.

Roles/Actions and Affiliations

• Used extramuros for labeling and simple, universal readouts (for example, clothing care tags and official devices that display a named offense).
• Appears on consumer advertising and packaging extramuros.
• Presented by visitors as the successor to earlier pictographic symbols known as Logotype, and contrasted with reading words written in Orth inside the maths.
• Treated outside the walls as an everyday standard for conveying information without Orth text.

Relationships

• Discussed and probed by Fraa Orolo during structured interviews with artisans from outside; his questions explore how Kinagrams compare to Logotype and whether the difference is substantive or conventional.
• Related systems: Orth (written language used in the maths) and Logotype (older, static icons said to be displaced by Kinagrams extramuros).
• Community relationship: avout commonly encounter Kinagrams during controlled contact with visitors and may be unable to read them.

Descriptions/Characteristics

• Appears as small, animated icons arranged in a grid (“tiny moving pictures”).
• Even when faded or obscured by grime, the icons continue to "fidget."
• Often paired with logos and product names in commercial contexts.
• Can depict specific actions in stick‑figure form; one observed example showed a large figure striking a smaller one on a tab attached to a spine clamp worn by a visitor, serving as an official readout.
• Functions as a quick‑interpretation symbol set meant to be understood at a glance.

Current Status/Location

• In prevalent use outside the maths, including on personal items, official readouts, advertising, and packaging.
• Within the maths, Kinagrams are not part of ordinary practice; avout report receiving materials written in Kinagrams during gate openings but not reading them.