One True Thing*
● Nature of knowledge
A comic exploring the importance of nuance and the limitations of binaries.
ILLUSTRATION • COMIC
01 / sam galison working on "one true thing*" 02 / sketch of "words have specific meanings*" 03 / sketch of "rocks are inanimate objects*"
04 / sketch of "we get our energy from the sun*"
PROJECT OVERVIEW
Created by Sam Galison in collaboration with other members of The Plenary team, one true thing* is an exploration of what it means to be “true” by breaking down seemingly noncontroversial claims into all of their component parts. Driven by Sam’s imaginative guides called “beasties”, each comic leaves the reader what, if anything, is “true”.
Project Goals
01/
Breaking Binary Thinking
It’s easy to fall into “this or that” traps, but most of the claims we encounter fall somewhere in between.
02/
Comfort with Complexity
We need to give ideas permission to be complicated; the value is often in the nuance.
03/
Comfort with Uncertainty
We often have an aversion to ambiguity in our culture, but we need to leave space for “I don’t know”.
Rethinking what it means for something to be “true”.
LED BY SAM GALISON
We live in a culture of “pro” and “anti” thinking that leads to political divides where there should be discourse. While some values-based beliefs may call for steadfast claims, most of the ideas we exchange leave plenty of room for nuance.
By taking everyday claims that most of us would assume to be true, and breaking them down into their nearly-comically-nuanced parts, one true thing* offers a micro-journey into the nature of knowing, and questions why we’re so attached to being “right’.
