The room manipulations paradigms are the sets of actions that can be performed on interactive objects in each room of Puppet Motel. These actions often involve the user in the stories that Anderson tells in the work. The first time one enters a room, a significant amount of time is spent figuring out the room manipulations paradigm of that room. The first step in this process is to move the mouse about the screen to discover where the interactive objects are. In a room such as the Music room, changes in the cursor's appearance, indicate the location of the interactive objects on the screen.

Open Rooms Interaction - Music room

When one first enters the Music room, the default room state is active. In this state there are 5 interactive objects: 4 violins (viophonograph, tape-bow violin, digital violin and the self-playing violin) and floating plugs. Moving the mouse over any of these objects changes the cursor to an index finger pointing up cursor. Clicking on a plug invokes a room change to the hall of time. Clicking on any of the violins invokes a room state change which brings forward the target violin. Each violin has its own unique way of being played. The self-playing violin has 7 buttons on it. Each button plays the same sound clip, "listen to my heartbeat" but the speed of playback is varied. What I have called button 1, the top button, plays the clip at the slowest speed. Button 7, the bottom button, plays the clip at the highest speed. Moving the mouse over each button changes the cursor to an index finger pressing down cursor. Clicking on the button plays the sound. Clicking on the tape-bow violin activates its state with the violin coming to the foreground with two bows above it. Moving the mouse over a bow causes the cursor to change to an open hand cursor. Dragging the bow across the violin's bridge causes a sound clip to be played at a speed relative to the speed of the bow. Dragging the bow right to left causes the sound to be played forward; left to right causes it to be played backwards. The two sound clips are recordings of Anderson saying "say what you mean" and "mean what you say".

As one explores the rooms in Puppet Motel, becoming familiar with the different room manipulation paradigms, the variety of cursor actions and cursor effects can be categorized into groups.