What is technology and how do we define technology in our daily lives? In the essay, A Rant About “Technology”, Ursula K. Le Guin brings up common misperceptions of technology we often face. Just because a technology isn’t complex and “hi” doesn’t mean that it is something that we should overlook and misinterpret. Whether a technology is “hi” or “low”, it serves purpose in its own special ways and therefore must be respected. Moreover, technology is anything that we, humans, actively interact with the material world.
In the essay, Laurel Schwulst encourages individuals to guide the web’s future. Instead of being powered by big corporations, there needs to be a space where individuals can pour out their creativity. As Laurel stated in her essay, “A website can be anything.”, a website should be a personal space where you’re not bound by anything and a way to express yourself. Let it be a living space that gradually grows from the seed of inspiration!
J. R. Carpenter evokes the term ‘handmade web’ to bring attention to the unique, personalization of the web pages coded by hands rather than by software. Instead of web pages made and maintained by businesses or corporations, Carpenter emphasizes the value of handmade web pages that often challenge our common understanding of reading, writing, design, ownership, privacy, security, or identity. Some questions that came to my mind: How do we connect with handmade webs? What value do they bring? What does it take to build them?
Taeyoon Choi shares his experience of learning about the fundamentals of electricity and computation in his story. He describes first computers as human, and the term “computer” comes from the forgotten practice of human computation. It all begins by understanding both its essential technologies and the story behind the utopian myth. Choi reveals the component of the computer by comparing it to abstract painting and architecture through pattern and repetition in its system. As Taeyoon Choi describes the similarities and the differences between city and the computer, he brings up the question: what kind of computers do we want to use and what types of cities do we want to live in?
Callum Copley lets the audience experience what it tends to be like when we exist in an online space. As I was going through Callum Copley’s website page, I immediately noticed and experienced several distractions of multiple tabs being opened, along with ongoing notifications from each window tab. Interaction of Copley’s website was successful because of the purposeful animated effects of pages loading and other problems we often encounter in the online world which affects our emotions or feelings in many different ways.
In the essay, Frank Chimero emphasizes the importance of designing natively for screens. Because our current technological arrangement has spread out too far, we need to learn how to step back and go back to the very basics. For example, in the essay, Frank Chimero once said, “The size of what we’re making is unknown until we know what we’re putting there. So, it’s better to come up with an arrangement of elements and assign them to a size, rather than the other way around”. This means, when we start creating a web, we need to first start drawing, then put the box around it. I think this is important to keep in mind when designing, because in my previous experiences of sketching ideas for a website, I always tend to draw a box first before putting any elements inside, which then limits what I can create outside of the box. Through this process, Chimero highlights the significance of focusing on how elements build up instead of thinking about how they break down.
In response to “All the Catalogs (A-Z), Penelope Umbrico, 2002”, it was an interesting experience to imagine a web to live and die throughout the time. The web consists of names of all available mail-order catalogs (15,194 in total, at time of compiling on 2/25/02) with links to various company websites. However, as of 2022, not many links “live” (no active blue links) in the web and therefore, they are considered “dead” (turns black). Through this experience, I came to realize how quickly the web shifts over time and advances its way through another web that “lives”, leaving behind the “deads”.
In response to Frank Chimero’s essay, “The Good Room”, it is important that we live in a “good room”, not only in a physical environment, but also in a digital environment. As technology developed, the primary purpose of it has rapidly transformed into a highly commercialized space with in need of our boundless time and attention. In the essay, Frank questions, “What is it all for? What can we imagine? These questions become critical as we find ourselves in a time where we are confronted with questions about identity, self-worth, community, and citizenship in this connected world. If technology is not only for profit and ease, what is it for? We must use our soulful imaginations and be specific.”