While Manovich states that the relationship between paradigm and syntagm is reversed in new media, in Puppet Motel, the relationship is not reversed but changed. As one works through Puppet Motel, each action taken serves to reveal more about how things work or what is possible (the paradigms). Each action or choice adds to the linear sequence of events for that user along the syntagmatic dimension. Only as one uncovers the paradigms in Puppet Motel, does one see what trajectories are available in the syntagmatic dimension. In the classical interpretation, the syntagmatic dimension is present and the paradigmatic dimension is absent. In new media, the paradigm is material and the syntagm is dematerialized. Puppet Motel entangles the relationship between the paradigm and the syntagm.

To follow all trajectories available in the syntagmatic dimension, one must become fully acquainted with the paradigms. Once one becomes familiar with one paradigm in a given room, a variant of that paradigm may appear in another room. In the Plug room one fairly easily discovers that moving the mouse causes a light on the screen to move, revealing 12 different plugs. The paradigm here is: moving the mouse will reveal the interactive objects. In the Chalk room, chalk brush state, moving the mouse causes a chalk brush to move around in space on the screen. The walls are covered with unintelligible chalk scribbling. When a user moves the cursor in most areas, the scribblings smudge. However, in some areas, moving the cursor erases the scribbling revealing a room icon that can be clicked on to invoke a room change. The essential paradigm here is: moving the mouse will reveal the interactive objects. The need to erase the scribblings is an additional dimension added to the paradigm, but the paradigms are intimately related. Once one becomes familiar with the basic paradigm, additional dimensions can be accommodated easily. As one learns more about the workings of the paradigms, more and more of the trajectories in the syntagmatic direction are available.

The way in which the paradigmatic and syntagmatic dimensions are intimately related in Puppet Motel, foregrounds one of the primary artistic goals behind the work: exploring connections between experiences in our lives.