Tumble Cards
The elements, told by the cards themselves
Ten cards. Each one is the thing it explains.
World
Tumble Cards
The world of the medium itself. Every card here is one element of the card system — two sides, a DNA, a number, a world, a stack, a seal, a compass — and explains it by being it.
The first thing about me
I have two sides. Turn me over — everything you can do with me lives on my back.
This is my other side. My front says what I am; my back says what you can do. No menu, no page behind a page — just me, turned.
Front · What I am: a name, a picture, a few lines. Enough to decide whether to turn me.
Back · What you can do: read on, buy, download, or walk into my world.
The strip · Edition, world and 'turn' — the same on every card, so you always know where you are.
Copper·Trail·Ridge
gtc tgt cga gct aag cac cct tga tat tct cgc ctc cgc aaa acg gac agc gac gtt acc cat t
Integrity checkEdition 1
How you find me again
Three words are my name. They come from my DNA, and nobody else has them.
Look at the bottom of this side: three words and sixty-four letters. That is me, whatever address I live at. Print me, scan me, type me — you land on the living me.
Codons · My three words, read from my DNA. The name I go by.
DNA route · dna.tumblecard.com followed by my DNA always leads to me, even when I move house.
Paper · The QR on my printed self carries the same DNA. Paper and screen are one card.
Oak·Moon·Red
ata acg aag cac gag tat ata ccc aaa att act ctg tcg taa acg gac agc gac gtt acc cat t
Integrity checkEdition 1
Look at my top right corner
TUM-003. That is my number, and no card
will ever carry it after me.
Every card gets a number when she is born: a world code and a count. Mine is TUM-003. Numbers are never reused — not even when a card is withdrawn. A gap stays a gap.
World code · The three letters say which world I belong to. TUM is Tumble Cards.
Count · The third card of my world. Not the third on a page: the third ever made.
Not a position · When I sit in a stack as 2 of 4, that is where I sit. My number stays mine.
Ridge·Black·Moss
cga cag aac act tcc ggt acc acc gaa cct aag tag gtg aaa acg gac agc gag gaa ttt gaa a
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Where I get my meaning
I belong to a world. It gives me my colours,
my letters and the company I keep.
A world is not a website. It is a context: a maker's universe with its own colours, type, language and tone. I am from Tumble Cards; my neighbours are from Eo Ena, Vic Boomer or Stoutenburger. We can stand on the same page and still look like ourselves.
Skin · My world decides how I look. The anatomy is shared; the skin is mine.
Language · Each card speaks the language of her world, wherever she appears.
Family · Inside a world I belong to a family: the cards that are about the same thing.
Wren·Salt·Fig
tcc cca tta aag gaa cgt cga ggt gaa cac gcg aca ggg caa acg gac agc gag gaa ttt gaa c
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STACK
When I have more to say
I am one card. When my story is longer,
I carry a stack of bigger cards behind me.
A trading card fits a few lines. For the full story there is a stack: larger cards, in order, with a cover. I stay the small card you met; the stack is where I go on. Every card in it has her own number.
Stack card · That is me: the small card that opens the stack.
Members · The bigger cards inside, each with her own number, read in order.
Order · A stack carries order. A family does not; a world does not. Only the stack.
Key·Green·Arch
gat gag agt gga ggc cca tcg tgt tgg gag ccg cca tca caa acg gac agc gag gaa ttt gaa c
Integrity checkEdition 1
Why you can trust what I say
Everything I say is signed. Change a letter
and my seal breaks — that is the point.
My maker signs me. The signature covers my words, my picture and my number, and lives in a public manifest. 'Integrity check' on my back compares the card you see with the card that was signed. A new version gets a new seal; the old one stays on record.
Version · When I change, I get a new version. The earlier me is still there to read.
Integrity check · One click shows whether I am still the card my maker signed.
Edition · Many cards are printed and placed at once; that batch is an edition.
Deer·Plum·Red
gaa agc aag ttc ttg taa gat tat act tgt tcc aac cat taa acg gac agc gag gaa ttt gaa c
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How you find your way back
No menu, no map. I carry a compass:
back to where you came from, always.
A website has a menu and a map. I have neither. My compass remembers the path you walked — card by card — and 'Back' takes you one step up it. No path lives in my address; the compass keeps it for you, on this device only.
Back · One step back along your own path, not a page I chose for you.
The traveller · Your path is yours. It is kept with you, never with me.
No sitemap · You do not need the whole map to walk one road.
Lamp·Bone·Mead
cat gtt ggc acc aaa agg cgc tct gaa cgg gtg act aag aaa acg gac agc gag gaa ttt gaa c
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What changes without changing me
My buttons can change tonight. My words,
my picture and my seal will not.
The actions on my back — read on, buy, download, visit — are not part of me. They are a living layer that my maker can switch on, off or rewrite without touching the signed card. That is how I can be for sale today and sold out tomorrow, and still be the same card.
Call to action · A door on my back. Doors can move; walls cannot.
Buy · Buying happens in a stack of cards too — no cart, no account. Just me, turned, and a few steps.
Sold out · A door closes; the card stays.
Reed·Salt·Comb
gta cca cgt tca gct cga ccg cga aga tgt ggc cct gaa aaa acg gac agc gag gaa ttt gaa c
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The same card, written for a machine
Give me to your assistant. I come as one
plain file: no menus, no guessing.
Next to 'PDF' on my back sits 'AI'. It hands your assistant one plain text file with everything I am — words, number, DNA, maker, version — in the order a machine reads best. Nothing in it tells your assistant what to do. You get the card, not my wishes.
card.md · One file per card, or one per stack. Readable by any assistant.
Same card · What is in the file is what is on the card. Two forms, one card.
Your assistant · I do not choose your AI, and I send no instructions along.
Night·Wax·Forge
agg tca tat aac tgg atc tgg cgg tgt caa atc ctc cac taa acg gac agc gag gaa ttt gaa c
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Print me, cut me, keep me
I print as a real card: two sides, my DNA
as a code, and a path back to the living me.
'PDF' on my back gives you me on paper: front and back, trading-card size. The paper carries no buttons — buttons are the living layer — only one QR code with my DNA. Scan it and you land on the living me, wherever I am placed by then.
No buttons · Paper does not click. It carries what lasts: words, picture, number, DNA.
One QR · The code holds my DNA, not an address. Addresses change; DNA does not.
Trading-card size · 63 by 88 millimetres. Fits a sleeve, a pocket, a binder.
Frost·Birch·Shore
tcg cta tga tat cca ctt gca ggc gat tcg gaa ctg cag gaa acg gac agc gag gaa ttt gaa c
Integrity checkEdition 1