HTTPoetics

< Fridays 1pm-4pm ET and Sundays 6pm-9pm ET >
< Todd Anderson with Kayla Drzewicki and Tyler Yin>
< todd@sfpc.study >
< @toddwords, @coolgroceries (kayla) and @tylryn on Discord >
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A website is a poem that is already in everyone's pocket, a house built from photos of other houses, a book where every chapter is another book where every chapter is another book. In this class we will be studying the poetics of the web: the raw material of HTML, the systemic visuals of CSS, the endless interactive possibilities of Javascript and the browsers, servers, protocols, and infrastructure that holds it all together. Each week we will make websites. We will make small websites that only convey a single, tiny idea. We will make large websites whose clutter and convoluted interlocking pages feel like exploring an abandoned mansion. We will make websites that speak, websites with secrets, and websites that tell one perfectly executed joke. And as we build the web we will also learn its history from the early geocities days to the ways we tried to be fully present over the pandemic, and all the wonderful and useless websites artists have made in between.

Homework

Weekly websites: Each week, you will be asked to create a website based on a prompt related to the topics from the previous class. The first hour or so of each class will be spent looking at these websites (with your permission) and saying things about them. The course isn't graded and you can of course skip a week, but the progression of the course assumes an hour or two of work spent outside of class each week to build familiarity with the technologies we're using.

Final Anthology: At the end of the class we'll be putting together an anthology of websites created during the class to share with the SFPC Community. As we go, think about what you might like to come back to.

Places to find interesting websites

• The HTML Review - a literary/art journal for websites
• Naive Weekly - Newsletter of small, poetic websites
• Taper - a journal for tiny websites
• The Tiny Awards - better than the Webbys
• The Useless Web - curation eccentric, single-serving websites, often with simple interactions
• Gossip's Web - a directory of handmade websites
• Rhizome Net Art Anthology (1984-2019)
• Internet Is Beautiful Reddit - more startups on here than i would like, but some cool art too
• Cloudhiker - modern Stumbleupon, plenty of junk but some gems
• Artists who make interesting websites as part of their practice such as: Everest Pipkin, Chia Amisola, Spencer Chang, Neal Agarwal, Jackie Liu and Morry Kolman to name a few

A Note on Using LLMs

Learning something new can be challenging and uncomfortable at times, and LLMs are quite good at producing valid HTML. But what's the rush? This class isn't graded, and the projects we'll be making aren't overly slick or technically complex. Learn to make websites with the simple tools in front of you, imperfectly and with your whole heart. It won't look like much at first, but soon you will discover your own little tricks and things you like, and then you will your own personal style rather than a generalized one.