017: the hyperlink called you and me
Two websites to share tonight. A poem on hyperlinks and a manifesto contained in the tab of a website. Both are trying to get to the root of what the web, the internet, technology is. One is through the entanglement of thoughts and ideas that connect us, the other is examining an always present, but rarely thought of structure on a web page. We have to break it down to the basics if we want to find what is worth salvaging.
The thing is that the hyperlink, the link that you click above to get to the site is not really an invention. Bourges had a garden of forking paths, if anything it feels more like our modern education system conditions us to foreclosure on multiple truths, expansive thinking, or branching paths. The web existed before industrialization.
Hyperlinking as a way to mix form with content, instead of: “There are many kinds of fruit (such as apples, oranges and bananas).” and applying hyperlinks to the words fruit, apples, oranges, and bananas. The sentence can be: “There are many kinds of fruit.” and applying hyperlinks to the words: many, kinds, of, and fruit. What happens when the form and content mesh in this way? The hyperlink is not just making connections between things, it is just changing what and how the thing itself is.
A while ago I had an idea to create tiny.sites that revolved around different components of what the web is and how its constructed. How could a space that promised so much—global interconnectedness, and had a rich history of anarchist contributions, result in a space so dire that many are clamoring to log off? I never got really far, but at least I made this poem on the thread that connects the thoughts in the machine, the anchor, the hyperlink, the blue text.
One of my fascinations when it comes to tiny.sites is just how tiny we can get. What is the role of minimalism in website design, what is the role of minimalism in contemporary art? What if we just had some websites that were for taking a break?
Here we contemplate the structure of a website, what can we utilize? Similar to Print This Doc, are there parts of the site beyond the page that can be used as a space for expression? We stumble upon the title tag, the title that shows up on a tab. This tab can be more than a title.
The content of the title tag/tab printed below:
A website that takes place entirely in this tab. A virtual crawlspace that is usually reserved for just the title, but it's actually surprisingly spacious here. There is plenty of room for other thoughts. Of course, this isn't the intended usage of this section. This is usually where the title resides, a short descriptor of the page or the site. But when so many websites are dictated by profit, when the virtual architecture we create prioritizes endless commercial endeavors, then perhaps there's a little something to repurposing these parts and places. Brick by brick, byte by byte, can we imagine something beyond, beyond technology as we understand it. Like a website where all the content does not reside on the page itself, but in its title. A declaration of beyond.