There are three by three cells in the first layer of the interface. From the Three Little Pigs to the Holy Trinity, three has an interesting position, always beyond duality - here on in things get complex it promises. The third in a series always suggests the onset of a series, elaborating a something between the preceding numbers causing things to move on - a factorial, a function, a game. Constraining the number of image cells in the Linker allows it to be filled fast at a basic level. It also forces users to make choices, to discriminate about the use of a particular graphic in relationship to the others within the fixed number of cells available.
Formalism becomes a machine for affect.
Adding sounds, images, words and video together in a pattern for the first time is really quite a powerful experience for many people. Importantly also, viewing a Linker with elements made by or about them, their peoples, creates a very intimate relation with the process of using and viewing. This might have something to do with being able to create a cluster of media with strong presentational authority in terms of coherence of design and function. Alternately, for instance, when used as a kind of miniature family album with sound recordings, photos and so on it might also have something to do with the sense of openess inherent in the formal system of the database. Formal constraints repress what is underneath them at the same time as allowing their articulation in certain ways.