While reading A Vernacular Web I found the point that web design in the 90s and the early 2000s was very collaborative quite interesting. I didn’t think of the fact that people making websites had no foundation to build on for web design and had to rely on others creations and building on each others work. The ubiquity of early of design was quite shocking to me, especially with the continually copied Mobile Telecom site design made by Artemy Lebedev. It was just very interesting to see how far the aesthetic and technical aspects of web design has changed in such a short amount of time, especially with the way many of the aspects of design like the caution signs, stopped being used in the name of “professionalism.” I wonder how fast things could change in the next 20-30 years.
I feel like my viewpoint on the internet and websites has shifted slightly after reading Laurel Schwulst’s piece. I never thought of the metaphor of internet being a cloud very much. But as Schwulst continued to give metaphors of what websites and the internet is like made shifted my perspective on it all. I also liked the quote they included from George Lakoff and Mark Johnson’s Metaphors We Live By, and emphasizing how the web should be seen as a collaboration and collection of works and not as a singular unit.
This article was interesting to me as I learned more about the connection and more solid establishment of digital typography. I learned what WYSIWYG was, and how that and the development as laser printers enabled more reliable digital typography and printing. Like last the last readings I tend to forget that there was a period of time where things that seem so trivial or things I never thought of was something that was at the forefront of innovation and progress. I also found the conversation on fonts and designs that utilized pixels was quite interesting too.
I really enjoyed the metaphor Chimero used for responsive web design. Introducing David Hockney’s work with the array of singular images that don’t make sense on their own, but create a piece that work well together was a perfect analogy for creating something like a responsive website. I think it changed my view where now I feel like I can think of it more as a collection of different assets that require each other to make one piece, one website, rather than a predetermined piece that I would have to go back and piece together with the different puzzle pieces. I think that at times I can worry too much on what I want a final piece to look like that I forget that the most important this is that the different parts of the whole need to marry and work well with each other for the whole piece to work well, and not planning in a way that is part-focused goes against that way of thinking.
I found this reading really interesting. If I understood it properly, I found it really thought provoking how the author compared how Blackness is the foundation that many white people in tech used to get to the top positions they dominate in. The white people have used Blackness to create “echo chambers” of their own ideals at the top of the tech pyramid. I think comparing that to the black GUI / gooey in tech, and the lcd screen how blackness in a physical sense in screens is the base for whiteness and other colors was a great comparison. It makes me remember how most things we use and enjoy, were most likely built on some form of exploitation. It is sad to think that many forms of innovation in the past and even in the present were built off o the hard and exploited work of others that will not get credit or recognition for their work. The spoils of their work, especially in the US, will most likely go towards a white figurehead.
This reading is really interesting to me as I always hear and think about the relationship of form and function in design and I never really gave too much thought to the nuances in the conversation. I found it thought provoking how the author talks about how you cannot say that form and function is not related, but at the same time, the function the designer designs for the form is not always going to be what the user will use the thing for. This was exemplified in this quote: “Form follows FUNCTION predefined by designer, but user can accept, reject or develop this prefabricated FUNCTION.” I also like how they always kept the word function in all caps too, it is something very simple when just thinking about it, but it was quite impactful with the whole message of the reading.
I thought this essay was interesting as I never tend to give much thought towards the information on the internet, and the storing of that information. I found the opening of the piece quite interesting as the saying that if you post something on the internet, that it’ll be there forever, is something I was told all the time as a child. I was always told about this sense of immortality that was present within the internet. I didn’t realize how that conversation is not so exact. I found the conversation about the Internet Archive, and the Wayback Machine, quite interesting. Especially as it was inspired and compared with the Library of Alexandria. Something that is somewhat mythical in a sense as its a story people are told but are never able to confirm or deny. But here we have in real life in the present, a form of an archive with much of the information and things that have been posted in the world present. But at the same time I also found it interesting when Lepore talked about how the internet itself is a constant present. Since I was always raised with the idea that the internet is archival in nature, when it truly is more inherently present than it is reflective of the past, as Lepore supports with the existence of broken links and deleted pages.
I found this reading quite interesting. It reminded me of the Black Gooey Universe reading. Specifically on the topic of race in tech. I think it was interesting to start the reading off with the mapping of the death of black kids killed by white people on this specific intersection. I think the conversation on how minorities in America, specifically black communities here have so much pushed against them. I found this quote quite interesting: “Who makes maps and who gets mapped? The redlining map is one that secures the power of its makers: the white men on the Detroit Board of Commerce, their families, and their communities.” The reading also expands on racism in tech with how, even though the white people in power would like to convince us otherwise, there are racial prejudices seen throughout so many aspects as tech, and like the reading talks about, algorithms are the same. Algorithms contain data that have been collected with factors effected by racism, making the algorithm have the prejudices present in its processing. Like the other reading stated too, the bias of a designer will always be present within the creation, especially by the white people who make up the highest positions in tech.
I found this reading quite interesting as Cyber Feminism has always been something I’ve heard about, and seen people around me talk about. But I never really took the time to look more into it and to gain a deeper understanding of it. I enjoyed learning more of the history and how Cyber Feminism evolved through the years. I found the bit about the authors talking about how the concept of Cyber Feminism was originally an oxymoron quite interesting too. Especially on how sexism was quite prevalent in sci-fi and in media that would be considered “cyber.”
I definitely found this reading really interesting as Skawennati’s work is like nothing else I have heard of or seen before. I thought that the use of her avatar xox left an impression on me as it was a new way for one to represent oneself and talk about inclusivity especially with indigenous people and communities. I think that using avatars and other forms of digital media is so interesting, especially since so much of the time I feel like activism is portrayed more as a physical process.
This is the reading I am leading.
This reading talks about Alt Text. Alt Text is text that accompanies images online as a description. This is primarily made for people with disabilities in relation with their vision or cognitive abilities. Most times Alt Text is read through a screen reader which is a software blind people would typically use to be able to understand information on the internet. The authors, Bojana and Finnegan, are not trying to teach audiences the ins and outs of Alt Text in this piece, rather, they are just trying to raise awareness and share to others the creative aspects that can be seen within Alt Text. There is even more information seen within their book and resources they have linked in the website. They showcase Alt Text and talk about the perspectives of the authors behind the Alt Text and how there is something beyond just the descriptions, hence, the topic of Alt Text as poetry.
Throughout the reading they talk a lot about accessibility and making websites and online exploration more accessible to those with disabilities relating to vision, cognitive ability, and motor ability. They talk about the way the website was designed and how they tried to make everything simple and accessible to ScreenReaders, easily maneuverable, along with using simple high contrasting colors, with a black and white option available too, and a easy to read font styling. They talk about who took part in the process in building the website, along with why they made the decisions they did. One part of the reading that I think was quite provoking says:
“Maybe sighted people (who translate images into words in order to create alt text) could consider alt text this way too. Similar to how the relational view of a flower only deepens one’s appreciation of the flower’s aesthetic beauty, writing (or reading) the alt text for an image only adds to our understanding of the image, making it richer and deeper. If sighted writers of alt text approached their role with such curiosity, the resulting alt text could better support different modes of understanding and learning.”
A question I have is, personally I have always wanted to get better at more flashier styles of coding, but I am wondering, at what point does more complex coding become more disruptive, and taking away from the website rather than contributing, for those with disabilities?
How can Parsons and other institutions bring up Alt Text, and other forms of accessibility within design into the curriculums?
I found this reading quite interesting. I think the part where Legacy Russel talks about how white, cisgendered, and heterosexual individuals continually get the recognition for many developments within cyber culture, when in reality it has been primarily queer people and people of color who have been developing cyber culture. I feel like this thing happens in so many fields. So many people of color and queer people have been discredited and over shadowed by white people who do things that have been done before. It feels very common. White people like to take all for themselves and they more often than not they don’t share the limelight or wealth.
I definitely found this reading really interesting as Skawennati’s work is like nothing else I have heard of or seen before. I thought that the use of her avatar xox left an impression on me as it was a new way for one to represent oneself and talk about inclusivity especially with indigenous people and communities. I think that using avatars and other forms of digital media is so interesting, especially since so much of the time I feel like activism is portrayed more as a physical process.
This reading was quite compelling in its discussion on environmental issues and activism. For all my life environmentalism and activism has always been apart of my curriculum. It was always something that I have talked about and continued to be surrounded by. Yet I find that many times I am somewhat numb or desensitized in a way to environmental issues. I feel like it has become so regular for me to hear about it that I forget how severe or pressing these issues are within our lives. Especially in connection with the virtual. Like I mentioned with the previous reading, I often forget about the need of energy and space required with digital experiences. With the factor of how fast technology is progressing how do we keep up with the need of resources in a sustainable way?
I found this reading quite interesting. A lot of what Kazemi writes in this reading reminded me a lot of private chatrooms or servers on existing applications like Facebook and Discord. I think many of the points he brings up are quite compelling, but I feel like the problem with trying to have smaller run applications or servers is that the many of problems that come with larger apps or social media people use, people do not tend to know the downfalls and the more invasive aspects of websites. Not only that but I feel like that there a lot of people that might just not care. I wonder what are more ways people could be persuaded to leave websites that take and sell their data.
I found this reading very interesting as our data and information I feel is not something I tend to think about as something that could be commodified and sold, yet I am aware of it happening too. I never took that time to think and link this occurrence with capitalism. I find that at times we are just not told clearly enough about how are privacy is being invaded on the internet. I also think that this is a deliberate choice that many websites have done. There is not much transparency, especially with the ways that people are told about cookies. You would have to go into the manage cookies or other similar tabs to see what is truly being offered up when you accept all cookies.