My website is a shifting house next to a river of knowledge. What could yours be?
I think the feel of the internet has shifted in an abstract way over time, as we continue to be funneled into a small handful of websites. I liked the metaphors that Schwulst uses to represent the web, using a flock of birds or a school of fish (or a spiderweb) over the cloud and galaxy imagery that we see a lot. It's easy to forget that the internet is still an interconnected web that we have some ability to attach our own creations to.
A Rant About "Technology"
I hadn't really considered how we define technology only as more modern, complex machines and we neglect the simpler technology that we have used for centuries. The tools that we use say a lot about our life - they shape the way we live, and the way we live shape the tools we make. I think it's important not to neglect the smaller, less flashy things.
A Handmade Web
I like the term handmade web, and how it reminds us of the physical time and effort that goes into the creation of hand-programmed websites. Carpenter describes the atmosphere of the 90's internet as hopeful, personal, and scrappy. It can be easy to forget these kinds of websites in the modern internet.
Hello World!
I feel like we are very separated from the technology we use. Modern technology especially is made to keep the consumer as far away as possible from the workings of computers, so they can feel almost like magic, even though they were made by humans.
A Friend is Writing
I really liked the presentation of the text on this website, it really captured the feeling of having your attention caught between five different things at once, like writing an email and texting two different people and watching a show all at once. It did make it a little hard to keep up with the text, but once it was done I agreed with a lot of what it said about how the internet, social media, and texting has changed how we communicate, and how we think about communicating. What it means to be online at all times, what it means to be able to communicate with anyone instantly, and be communicated with instantly, and what it means to always be multitasking.
A Friend is Writing
After reading The Poetry of Tools, I decided to look more into Apple Talk, by Jürg Lehni. In the piece, Lehni set up a game of telephone by placing two computers with text to speech and voice recognition across from each other. I like the concept of setting up the pieces of this work, and stepping back to watch how the message slowly
The Internet's Back-to-the-Land Movement
I like the idea that the internet gives us the ability to create and experiment with our own world, and our own communities. I also like how they mentioned that we don't think about how much actual resources the internet uses. It's really easy to imagine that the internet is just magic, or to just ignore how it works because the internet is described in such an abstract way.
The Good Room
I really agree with Chimero's assertion that when it comes to designing spaces (either physical or online) people and companies are often at odds with what they value. Our technology is made to be profitable and addictive, and being useful is mostly incidental. Despite that, there are still a lot of people who are creating things online that are a good use of our time.