small web
references:
- smallweb.site shameless plug
- sheetsites
- a website is a room
- feral.earth
- neocities
- substack
- discord servers (and adjacent)
- are.na
i think there are contradicting philosophies looking at the future of the internet right now. at the root, both camps are founded upon the discomfort of the highly algorithmic, corporate invasion of the worldwide web. we have all noticed the way that high personalization of the internet has led to a paradoxical depersonalization of the internet… that we are all forced to participate in the infrastructure of the internet in order to be perceived as someone or something worthy of social place.
but what is the natural progression?
- decentralization: reclaiming ownership of the infrastructure that is already put into place by web1-2, redistribution of power, dependent on participation
- intimacy: scaled down usage to reclaim the internet as a medium for expression, individualized, low participation/directed participation
what is the internet?
- what do we do with something that is infinitely public? we find intimacy again…
- it’s like the inevitability that we will never see specific corners of the ocean… when you exist at infinite disposal, you simultaneously exist to very few
does the internet become what we lack?
- connection in times of isolation, intimacy in times of publicity
- the tendency of the internet to contradict itself (the internet as its own antidote, as its own contradiction, the paradox of the internet)
moodboards
The following notes are snippets from interviews with chia amisola, a non-anonymous steward of the intimate web. i admire their work a ton and i highly recommend taking a deep dive
a web is a place where people gathered with Chia Amisola
- “I try to be intentional about how much I reveal at each entry point. Some of my links are buried deep within an old blog post. I have the mentality of entrusting that whoever is willing to do the work to unearth them has the right to know me in that particular way.”
- ” It’s hard to prevent myself from doing the misattribution of thinking that how I am delivered by this Algorithm is how others are really receiving me. So I’m doing as much as I can to plant these seeds to get people to connect with me in a deeper sense. It’s an exploratory tool, but not what we should use to know all of each other. It’s something I resent the Algorithm for, but not people. It’s something I wish that we had better alternatives to.”
- “The ideal internet would be one that values maintenance, and the labor of maintenance. In a culture in which people and the Algorithm continuously reward the making of new things, it’s such a radical and inward act to continue the work of preserving the systems and institutions that have long been before you. Many of the problems ‘new things’ attempt to solve are age-old. “
- “it’s in specific, smaller scale communities that we get people to care for things deeply, truly feel connected with their technologies and communities, and subsequently put in the effort to invest in these spaces and put in the labor of maintenance.”
why arent there more websites about love?
- “I read love as a condition and practice of stewarding in each other something that might outlast us both.”
- “A website is an act of demanding space for yourself and the people you love and constantly tending that space. It’s a way of naming: to take on a URL and courageously ask to be witnessed, visited. I understand certain sites that I frequent as continuous labors of love, whether they’re directed to a specific person or something broader. I see making websites and making in general as nothing more than a way of asking to be loved.”
- “Whereas for a website, it’s so malleable and never really finished and it’s hard to define the moment in which it’s ready to find an audience. But maybe that quality of softness and ambiguity is what makes websites feel human. So what if the ritual of human gathering and celebration around the website happens not when you hit publish but every single time someone enters it? How can we see websites as sites for an ever-infinite moment that feels entirely special and momentous?”
- “Websites are templated, heavy, constrained, seen as a place for performance rather than sincerity. They aren’t seen as places where we can put our whole selves into. So we put all these gifty artifacts on other platforms, but then their purpose and their intention towards love gets appropriated by the profit-oriented goals of large corporations. We’re always performing in some way, but it’s hard to say it’s a performance you control when you’re unfamiliar with the stage you’re on.”
- “With a website that you own, you’re really able to take up space and dictate the environment in which you want to give and be received. I think so much of love is also that, right?”
- “the internet has its own wonderful navigational structure, in which everyone can visit the same link and experience it differently, which lets you communicate and love in a more directed way.”
- “I’ve been thinking about preservation, in which there’s a politics of optics and power that determines whether someone is worthy of saving — and thus, being known. Who doesn’t want to be a part of history? Who wants to, simply, be known? Don’t we all, in some way?”
concept: living zine
- it’s a webpage but it’s a zine and it scrolls sideways and it’s not mobile friendly because who cares about mobile friendly
- layouts will have to be made separately and then embeds will sit on top
- clickable popups should glow/shake/move on hover
- how do i make videos/media autoplay when the screen is focused on, but then stop when it moves past? resources
- scroll behavior
- scroll margin in line
- scroll snap stop – see “x, always mandatory”
- autoplay on scroll snap stop and then autopause