The error as evidence
A perfectly explained fictional universe closes itself. A faded receipt, replaced sign, glitched menu, wrong logo or damaged interface does the opposite: it implies prior use, institutions, maintenance failures and histories nobody has stopped to narrate.
Not just “grunge”
The technique is informational rather than decorative. Wear and error become evidence of systems operating beyond the frame. The same logic appears in found photographs, procedural fiction, old computer interfaces and the deliberately exposed seams of EGOTERRORISM.
Characters
Egglestone is an ontological version of the technique: the world accepts an absurd category error as ordinary social fact and thereby becomes stranger without explanatory exposition.
Related
Civic Ballast · Trace / Residue / Evidence · Documentary Instability