Why Metamathics?

I picked the name, Metamathics, for specific reasons. Metamathematics is the study of math using math, a way for the eye of logic to look at itself and check its own consistency. Here, I generalize the concept as a way of looking not just at the specifics of a given system, but the broader meta-concerns in its structure.

As a math teacher, the nature of math itself outside just the content is of interest to me. It's not just about "How do I teach square roots" but when and how to teach it so skills related to other topics are covered. Thinking about how we think about math and using it in curriculum instruction has occupied much of my time.

There is another level, though. Apart from just the classroom instruction, there is the environment around the classroom: the school itself. How the school is lead, organized, and run impacts the way the math is taught. This is another meta-level to education that many forget: the context of the classroom and the layers that separate a teacher from the student.

Games are a type of formal system, with axioms, theorems, and proofs. As a game designer, thinking about games is a type of meta-level analysis of this formal system. It's not just about the game itself, but how it expresses and uses the formal system of games to define itself.

Sequential art is a form of language unique to itself, where a string of images rather than words conveys the meaning. We see the images and we absorb the information, but how do different frames and designs influence the data we absorb? What is the common meaning we assign to certain visual tricks? A language must make sense to be of use, and comics do make sense - and understanding the why and how requires generalizing across types and styles.

My influences here are Douglas Hofstadter, with Peter Senge and Thierry Groensteen added in for good measure.