An initially unstoried cup

This hypothetical case follows an ordinary cup supplied by the organizers. Staff record its actual acquisition and condition. They place it among deposited possessions, make it available for appropriate use, retain the limited history initially presented to visitors.

During the first event, a guest serves tea in the cup. Another notices a mark, invents a possible history during a labeled exercise, later learns the actual supplied context. Researchers compare the material affordance, initial assumption, imaginative account, response to explanation. The cup's record distinguishes those contributions.

During later House Sitting, participants repeatedly use it in a particular place. A visitor writes a note about a conversation associated with it. Someone asks to borrow it for another gathering. Staff record condition, custody, contributed accounts, return. The cup now carries documented social history through the project.

A future conversational interface can retrieve those permitted accounts and explain their sources. Its available context develops through actual encounters, including the early uncertainty and invention. Comparison objects, foundlings, accumulated memory explain this process.

Researchers can compare the cup with a deposited vessel carrying substantial prior attachment. They examine the visitor's available information and opportunity before attributing a difference to biography alone.