My Notebook

My Website is a Shifting House… by Laurel Schwulst

My key takeaways:

• Many students want to know the real world implications and examples of making a “website”.
• While many student graphic designers know how to create the “real” things, it can often be difficult to envision what the real life product would look like and how it can interact with the “real” things we see everyday. .
• “…websites is their duality: they’re both subject and object at once. In other words, a website creator becomes both author and architect simultaneously”.
• “Whatever it is, there’s potential for a self-reflexive feedback loop: when you put energy into a website, in turn the website helps form your own identity.”
• The web should be for the people. Corporations aren’t looking out for others but for their own wallets
• By bringing back websites made by individuals, this makes the web more personal again and honestly opens up the human touch to something so technological.
• “Websites are living, temporal spaces. What happens to websites after death, anyway?”
• The analogy between websites and homes reminds me a lot of the homes you can make in the Sims as there is a lot of customization and you can really build these homes for yourself and then you can share with a larger community. There is also the inspiration aspect as well that also continues the relationships with websites as artists.
• By having more personal websites, it allows for more inspiration and connection in the artistic community that doesn’t really come from corporations and more cookie-cutter web designs.
• “Plant an idea seed…let it grow”
• “...for a website is an individual act of collective ambition.”

A Rant About "Technology" by Ursula K. Le Guin

My key takeaways:

• You can’t make a dystopia story without tech because its form is every where. Doesn't mean just electronics
• “How society copes with physical reality”
• Technology has often been misused
• Because of many advances in technology over the years, more simple technology isn’t as high regarded
• This make me think back to the point about making a “real website”. Because of shiny and new things, we disregard the basics.

A Handmade Web by J.R. Carpenter

My key takeaways:

• The term “handmade” often refers to making something by hand without the assistance of technology. I agree with this statement as I also find that when I see something labeled “handmade” it means that there is a human presence in control. But I do also agree with the fact that handmade can also include the presence of machines like in web design.
• Handmade websites offer a new opening/opportunity for online archives to be built and thrive.
• Internet “noise” continues to grow and overwhelm average users. An article referenced in this reading speaks on this and opens the idea that an average user yearns for the opportunity to have a “quieter” space that a handmade web can provide.
• “The more proprietary, predatory, and puerile a place the web becomes, the more committed I am to using it in poetic and intransigent ways.”

Rediscovering the Small Web by Parimal Satyal

My key takeaways:

• “Every website redesign begins with inspiration.”
• Going back in time can be important as it can open space to inspiration, especially when creating websites using older methods like html and css
• Back before my time at least, people were more free to create tiny websites, about virtually anything. These were not professionals or companies, just people wanting to have fun.Free web hosts allows this internet freedom.
• Interaction used to be more extensive. I find that now people go to certain websites with a purpose and a need to be in and out.
• Geocities: This is the site that Sophie talked to me about. I checked it out and it was pretty cool :)
• I do agree that the internet has become an overwhelming amount of content continuously being pushed at us. While it can be fun at first, it becomes seriously overwhelming and I feel like I’m drowning in content.
• Handmade websites offer a new opening/opportunity for online archives to be built and thrive.
• Internet “noise” continues to grow and overwhelm average users. An article referenced in this reading speaks on this and opens the idea that an average user yearns for the opportunity to have a “quieter” space that a handmade web can provide.
• Google really is everywhere (and maybe all powerful…)
• “Today’s web is mostly commercial”
• For many companies/people, the web is used a marketing tool rather than artistic practice
• The commercialization of the web

The Internet’s Back-to–the-Land Movement by Becca Abbe

My key takeaways:

• Club of Rome- commissioned MIT researchers to do a computer analysis of the Earth’s resources vs growth of human activity
• This data was used to then look at the future of sustainability
• Disputes over managing a broken system or creating a new one
• Back to the land movements and the almost rejection of capitalist beliefs was large in the 70s, specifically with larger communes
• Things like the World Wide Web were then created to replace these communes after the 70s, but were quickly turned capitalistic, rather than the original communal purpose
• The internet might seem like free space for exploration and our imaginations, but it’s run by the same systems that discourage growth in our real world.
• WWW is the cause of 10% of our global electricity consumption (and growing)
• The “cloud” isn’t a free roaming space, but actually large data centers that use resources and take up large amounts of space
• This reminds me of the large data centers in Ashburn, VA
• Off the grid websites might be a radical way of building a system that is better for the environment and reminiscent of the back to the land movement.

The Good Room (on the blog of Frank Chimero)

My key takeaways:

• “it must not only look good and feel good, it must also be good”
• Our society is overwhelmed and overstimulated
• “how do we fix the way technology fits?” its not going anywhere, so how can we personalize it to feel less overwhelming.
• We lose so many spaces in favor of conveniences. There are very little “third spaces” in our American society.
• But we also want inviting spaces. We won’t gravitate to a closed off depressing space, like the example Penn station. We want spaces like The NY public library. Open and inviting (and free).
• We want less commercial spaces that force capitalism on us. It becomes overwhelming. This extends to both technology and tangible spaces.
• Social media is shifting from technology to media (but not very trusted media)
• “Out of complete nothingness we were harnessing a virtual commonwealth.”
• The web from a free space to experiment and roam to a commercial space
• Google really is everywhere (and maybe all powerful…)
• “Biology is always such a nuisance for business.”
• “the web is a marketplace and a commonwealth, so we have both commerce and culture”
• There is an argument that we need more spirituality in technology, and that most apps that we find bring happiness are ones not found in desperation, boredom, or loneliness.