A continuum is a group exercise where two positions are set at opposite ends of a space — physical or conceptual — and people place themselves along the spectrum between them, based on where they stand on the question being asked.

The technique has roots in sociometry, the study of social relationships developed by psychiatrist Jacob Levy Moreno in the 1920s and 30s. Moreno's core idea was that the relationships between people could be made visible and worked with experientially — in space, with bodies, rather than just in language.

The specific form of the continuum exercise was first formally described as the Spectrogram by Delbert M. Kole in a 1967 paper published in Group Psychotherapy. It has since spread through education, conflict resolution, and group facilitation under many names: the Human Barometer, Spectrum Lines, Continuum Dialogue, Four Corners, and Values Clarification.

All versions make abstract positions concrete, they reveal nuance inside apparent consensus, and they let people see — literally, spatially — where they stand in relation to one another.

In 2000, Josh On built the first digital version as his graduate project at the Royal College of Art (Computer Related Design). Called Prototype World, it moved the spectrogram online for the first time — turning what had been a physical, room-scale exercise into something that could happen across a network, with strangers.

In 2002, the project was rebuilt at Futurefarmers with Amy Franceschini and illustrator Brian Won. Built in a very early version of Flash and PHP.

Watch the 2002 version on Vimeo →

In 2026, Josh rebuilt communiculture from scratch with Claude — with a real-time, multiplayer web app with 3D avatars, live positioning, mobile support, all building on the original Futurefarmers design.

Someone poses a question with two opposing positions — early bird or night owl, books always or cinema is the highest art — and everyone in the group drags their avatar to where they stand on the spectrum.

You see the crowd form in real time. You can leave a comment. You can see where your teammates, friends, or strangers placed themselves, and why.

The result isn't a poll. It's a picture of a group — where it agrees, where it's divided, and all the texture in between.