AUGUST 26 (SATURDAY)
Laurel Schwulst
Ursula K. Le Guin
I've read Le Guin's article one or twice before, but it's always a good read. I'm reminded again the appreciation for the simple or basic things that we utilize in everyday life that are considered "lo-tech". For whatever reason, I really appreciated the paper comparison--it's probably one of the most simplist forms of technology that I know, but it's a lot that goes into it, just the same as a handmade website. As primative anything seems, it's all technology. That thought alone makes me feel more appreciative of everything around me. Schwulst's piece makes me a little more reflective of what websites can be. I had always seen in, or at least the majority of it, being used to be serve a bigger body (attention, time, money, sales), which is fine by all means--it's just mostly what I saw. My boss, after me telling him that I was taking web design, jokingly told me that I could use what I've learned to help create the company website. In a way, I could, but this line of thinking of a website just as a space is much different than what he's expecting. Imagining a website as a ~space~, comparing it to a physical area, a website just equates to a an emppty room where you could put whatever you wanted into it. It's also strange to think of it as something tangibly intangible. Probably reaching with that one, though.
SEPTEMBER 1 (FRIDAY)
J.R. Carpenter
It's becoming more apparent how much more of a "craft" website building is then previously thought. The assumption already was to use presets and templates and learn composition or what typeface goes best with what for corporate use. It's what I've thought of it my entire educational career. But clarifying what consists of handmade objects basically makes it so that website building is on the same level conceptually as sewing a quilt together. It's even more compelling to me to now, for the first time, that I can see websites as an art piece.
It's also interesting comparing websites to a 3D or tangible object, when I've always seen it as 2D flat spaces on a screen, just moveable on different screens. Now I imagine it more like a room, and you can decorate it however you want. As of late, now it feels more like a store with a whole bunch of stuff it's trying to sell you. With those kinds of spaces, you don't really get consent with what you see. Some overstimulating to the point where I can compare it to TikTok. In your own space, however, it's whatever you want it to be.
SEPTEMBER 19 (TUESDAY)
Taeyon Choi
I heard somewhere the more complex and advanced the computer or other technological devices become, the stupider humans get. Probably from a Facebook meme or somethin. It's kind of an intense and harsh thing to say, but I can get it. There's like a teetering balance of convinience and inconvinience where the interface is "frictionless" and great, but then the behind-the-scenes coding is inaccessible. The little snippet that talks about how infrastructures are designed similarlily to circuits and the flow of information and how we basically are all living in a computer, I found really compelling. It really is that everything in some way is part of a machine or system, no matter how you design it.
SEPTEMBER 21 (THURSDAY)
Callum Copely
This website was the most annoying thing ever in the best way possible lol. It's working as intended! It's so annoying also, think at myself, that I am so bad at messenging back but I always get so spiked up when my phone goes off. Like when someone calls, I sure a tame response is to say "Oh cool, I wonder what they'd like to talk about". Me? I get so anxious and think something bad has happened that someone had to tell me lol. But it really is something to think on how everything is on a mission to grab your attention, and after some time you lose control of what you give your attention to. And how sometimes it makes you hold your attention, like waiting for a response but you can visually see that they're typing so it forces you to stay. I've said it a whole lot, but a lot of new stuff isn't design for human wellbeing in mind.
OCTOBER 24 (TUESDAY)
Becca Abbe
From the random explosion of the Bitcoin and NFT stuff, I had a small idea of the amount of physical space they require. To be honest, I didn't really believe it (I found that information off of Twitter) because it didn't make that much sense to me how something that I can describe as basically "untangible" take up space? You're telling me that these things and servers take up acres of land? It's like telling me ghosts are real lol. But learning about it a little more in our class discussion, it feels ironic (paradox, as Aidan put it). Hard to believe that AI servers require water?? Of course us humans manage to make it so that a space that's virtual still is environmentally unstable. But of course the more I think about it, it does make sense because I literally use that kind of stuff all the time. The only one my brain can conjure up right now are hard drives lol. In a way, I guess how we store information just changed. I referenced Margaret Hamilton, the computer scientist that wrote the code that sent a rocket to the moon. The code took thousands of pages, the stack literally her height! It went from that to us now storing information that infomation in different ways. It makes the online consumerism world a lot less appealling learning about this, to be quite honest. But also, I'm still addicted. Additionally, I hope more of the world knows about the physical internet space. Would it help people deter from using those too? I'm thinking pessimistically because I don't trust humans to always do the right thing sometimes or make choices for its own wellbeing (that's a whole other conversation), but if we blow this shit up even louder, maybe it can make a dent.
NOVEMBER 1 (THURSDAY)
Frank Chimero
There's a lot of stuff from my other classes within the past couple of weeks that I can make connections with what Chimero points out in his article. This was a great read overall that I'd love to refer back to for whatever reason in the future. I'll keep a little collection of online articles over the years, maybe become a digital hoarder. Not trying to make it about myself, but I did a panel with some groupmates about Third Spaces and it turned out that I felt surprisingly passionate about them. The introduction of libraries made the topic instantly spring into my head because it is such a quitessential example of third spaces: where humans can be humans with no expectations of being anything else. It's a shared pace for everybody where we can come together and interact. Not just libraries, but third parties are such a vital part of human life. We are social creatures, and these spaces allow us to be connected with the community. And sucky enough, they're disappearing because more and more of them are becoming commericialized. The majority of activities out there require money. The reading also took me to my classmates' presentation panel about mobile games. More specifically, how they've become more and more littered with ads, which makes it feel less like a game with character and more of a predatory attention seeking money scam. Not only do they show up in these mobile places, but in the physical space, which leads me back to how most public spaces are commercialized. I have to admit, I'm one of the unfortunate victims that get so easily sucked onto their phone and all of my attention is stolen away from more important things in life sometimes. Not that I'm neglecting anything or anyone, but I do feel like shit: I'm more irritable, that achy feel when you haven't been productive, less connected to the space around me and myself, and just generally unhappy. And just like hte article predicted, it was right. Oof. I feel like I gotta reread this article over and over to remind myself to be more mindful and concious of my screen time and how it's affecting me. Might as well add it to my daily regimen. And on top of that, I feel mildly attacked because I am a mass communication minor, and I'm gonna be literally participating in these kinds of and creating in them. I'm gonna be minndly about the footprint I leave behind too.