Journal Entries

Laurel Schwulst, My Website is a Shifting House ...

• This article made me think about how a website can be anything. I used to think a website has a certain structure as the commercialized web, not really considering other possible intentions for a website. I liked how the author talked about how building a website is like building a world, and "a website, or anything interactive, is inherently unfinished."
• "If a website has endless possibilities, and our identities, ideas, and dreams are created and expanded by them, then it's instrumental that websites progress along with us. It's especially pressing when forces continue to threaten the web and the internet at large. In an age of information overload and an increasingly commercialized web, artists of all types are the people to help. Artists can think expansively about what a website can be. Each artist should create their own space on the web, for a website is an individual act of collective ambition."

a K. Le Guin, A Rant on Technology

• It made me think about what "technology" is
• Technology is how a society copes with physical reality
• Technology is the active human interface with the material world
• "Technology" and "hi tech" are not synonymous, and a technology that isn't "hi," isn't necessarily "low" in any meaningful sense.

J.R. Carpenter, A Handmade Web

• "'handmade web' to refer to web pages coded by hand rather than by software; web pages made and maintained by individuals rather than by businesses or corporations; web pages which are provisional, temporary, or one-of-a-kind; web pages which challenge conventions of reading, writing, design, ownership, privacy, security, or identity."
• Unconventional, made and maintained by individuals
• "correlation between handmade web pages and handmade print materials, such as zines, pamphlets, and artists books."
• Interesting format of website such as the last page connecting to the first page. Circulation
• amateur web aesthetics
• unindexed
• 'handmade web' in order to draw attention to the physical body.
• 'handmade web' to suggest slowness and smallness as a forms of resistance.

Taeyoon Choi, Hello World!

• "The first computers were human. In fact, we get the term 'computer' from the forgotten practice of human computation. Well before computers became 'personal,' an entire profession of arithmetic labor (mostly women) were contracted for scientific and military production."
• I like the part where he talks about the beauty of abstraction in computers is similar to minimalist art works: "The art object reveals itself if you give it enough time. You find yourself inside of the work"
• Proprietary ecosystem. frictionless: accessibility and speed are considered as good things. But is it really?
• Certain programs only works in certain devices
• Limit the construction in the website building
• Recognize the walls and work around them

Callum Copley - A Friend is Writing

• The format of the site was very interesting, how I have to wait for the texts to pop up
• It felt more interactive, like having a conversation with someone through a program or an AI
• "7. YOU ARE THE PRODUCT" reminded me of the documentary that I watched on netflix. It talked about if you are not paying for the applications/programs that you use, you are the product being sold. It was interesting how social media collect your data and use those informations to show advertisements/posts that matches your interests to make you interact more and stay on the platfrom for longer period of time.

Frank Chimero - The Web's Grain

• It was very satisfying to watch the letters move based on the screen size on the first video
• responsive design
• vertical bias
• design solutions
• visual challenges in interaction design
• "an edgeless surface of unknown proportions comprised of small, individual, and variable elements from multiple vantages assembled into a readable whole that documents a moment"
• Edgelessness: "the edgelessness of the web tears down the constructed edges in the company. Everything is so interconnected that nobody has a clear domain of work any longer—the walls are gone, so we're left to learn how to collaborate in the spaces where things connect."

Mindy Seu - The Poetry of Tools

• "Tools shape the way we behave. We point, swipe, skim, type, click, send. How can we reconsider the actions we perform in our daily interfaces? Identifying the constraints of these tools can help us recognize their poetic potential. The limited capabilities of technology shaped the appearance of early computer art. Newer works identify these limitations and exploit them as critical, often humorous acts. Some also compile, reconfigure, and build from found content."
• The combination of physical objects and action with computer (human-computer interaction) was very interesting. I was surprised that Artifical Reality existed in 1985
• I like the aesthetic and pace of the early works

Frank Chimero - The Good Room