I recently attended Chia’s workshop on the poetic web and it made me really emotional because it reminded me why I got enamored with tech senior year of hs after I swore off it freshman year bc all we did in the intro class was make interest tables. When I recount why I became a product designer it was inspired by moments that were never really product design related. It was seeing creative works made with p5.js and the speculative projects in marisa.lu’s portfolio that convinced me this was the field for people who just liked making things because it was a beautiful thing.
That being said it isn’t what ux design or even the internet is nowadays. Take my intro webdesign class (1300) which was much less about the cool things you could do with an assortment of htmltags (my favorites are the details tag) and more about how do we make the most functional website that supports a business need. That being said, that is the reality of the world and jobs and society isn’t so utopian where art is treated like capital (and if it was would it even be art?), but a part of me cherishes the idea of a gentler web.
I like to think that did exist when I was younger. As of late we talk about the internet as a dangerous place, but for some reason my fonder memories of the internet arise from my middle and elementary school years. More specifically, when me and my friends made a wikispace over winter break which served as a dump of random creative things we had made (unfortunately now wikispaces is retired because they didn’t make money). It was a way we could sit around in a virtual garden and tend to flowers together in the cold Pennsylvanian months, where actually meeting up would’ve taken an hour or two of walking.
Even though the web isn’t like that anymore, I feel like the world still yearns for it? Friends have group accounts on Instagram where posts are co-owned, centered around an activity (like cooking). I have a page on Instagram where I shitpost outfits. Instagram even on the mainstream has finally understood that its page has become a stand in for identity - with features like archives and pins giving ever more control with what you want to share with the world. Although not completely malleable and still too rooted in panopticon-ish uses - in essence, Instagram has become the easiest form of a microsite and maybe that’s why I have three…
Maybe this is why I like portfolio websites so much. I think it’s a lovely thing to see the web as a form of self-actualization. This is a declaration of who I want to be. This is a bookshelf of things I treasure. Here’s my closet where I keep everything I’ve ever made. On vsco people want to be seen but they don’t want to know who’s seen it. Come into a part of my psyche but don’t tell me you’re there -
I think the real social media convergence is a reclamation of intimate spaces on the web. Instead of every social media platform copying each other’s features (ie tiktok now) I want a social media that embraces ephemeral identity. This is who I am today, this is who I am tomorrow - take a peek but only from the hours of 9 to 5 - understand me how I want to be understood. I don’t want my presence to be a loud declaration - rather a passing thought - if you care to listen.
To be honest though perhaps the researchers at these social media companies have long known this is what I’ve wanted but perhaps it’ll never materialize because it’s impossible. For now, I’ve set new sights on dreaming and tinkering one day the web as a garden.
Art is a tender and beautiful thing.
things I find wonderful lately →
SHORTBOX ONLINE COMIC FAIR!!!
when you have a very specific and niche interest and you reconnect with someone you haven’t talked to in a long time over said interest
life updates :^D →
I’m going to sf in a week! if you’re in cali… please lmk…
couch-hopped 8 times in the last month and am feeling incredibly grateful and soft for ya’ll who let me stay <3
pls text me or comment if you’ve read this my brain is too enfp to shout completely into the void