SI26
Declarations
Declarations is an ongoing trans-disciplinary artistic research project into the poetic materiality of the CSS web-standard and its echoes on design and artistic practices.
A presentation of the declarations research project, with quotes and some illustrations of how the research is looking at declarative web-languages. It is important to read the first and second part (what is CSS, and the research questions).
We will watch the video essay by Miriam Suzanne Why is CSS so weird as an starting point to untangle some questions of the research together.
So far what is CSS:
- if HTML is the structure of the house, CSS is interior design (paints, textiles, flooring, etc.), how we feel in a room? (laurel's pdf)
- as an interface, CSS is the infinitessimely thin shared boundary that mediate our relation with the web, that is very close to us, individuals, in the vaste ecosystem of the web, also called front-end. (doriane's scheme)
- as a declarative language, CSS is giving up control and designing in a device-agnostic manner for unknown canvases, similarly to a script for theater piece, that will always be re-interpeted in its context of execution (miriam video)
An evolving selection of declarations experiment, Doriane will present some of those progressively through the sessions.
Reader
A selection of references to go further.
| Author | Title | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Nolwenn Maudet | Tactical Design | 2023 |
| J. R. CARPENTER | A Handmade Web | 2015 |
| Zach Mandeville | Basic HTML Competency Is the New Punk Folk Explosion! | 2016 |
| Laurel Schwulst | My website is a shifting house next to a river of knowledge. What could yours be? | 2018 |
| Femke Snelting | Dividing & Sharing | 2008 |
| Frank Chimero | The web's grain | 2015 |
| Olia Lialina | A Vernacular Web 1,2,3 | 2005, 207, 2010 |
| John Allsopp | A Dao of Web Design | 2000 |
Special issue: display and position
In the context this XPUB special issue, Declarations will focus on something quite specific. The idea is to take a weird angle on the learning of CSS: to be linguists at the same time than learning the language.
The special issue is structured in 3 chapters:
- exploring the linguistic aspect of web-languages
- investigating & documenting cultural uses of specific CSS properties
- speculation as a tool to think about it differently
Two CSS property have been choosing in that regard: display and position.
They are interesting because they show how CSS is a language, notably by the use of non-numeric value and keyword with meaning. They also both have been subject to many change in the standard: unfolding a whole cultural history of the web that lies in the words it uses.
By reading the standard it appears that this is a rather complex properties. For example for display we can ask ourselves:
- What does it mean for certain things to be block and other the be inline? what does it mean to be inline-block?
- How and why where table, flex and grid invented? Do we need more? What are the motivations and by who was it done?
- How are they implemented, what complexities or differences are often unseen in those processes?
- What does the words "block" and "line" means outside of CSS but through design history?
The subject of becoming CSS linguists will be introduced and expended in its dedicated page .
Chapt.1 Words are events, they do things, change things (Entering CSS linguistics)
Monday 6 January
morning:
- A presentation of the declarations research project, with quotes and some illustrations of how the research is looking at declarative web-languages. It is important to read the first and second part (what is CSS, and the research questions).
- We will watch the video essay by Miriam Suzanne Why is CSS so weird as an starting point to untangle some questions of the research together.
afternoon:
a first declarative warmup exercise Declarative companion.
Monday 13 January
morning:
- sharing moment about the Declarative companions made last time.
- presentation of the special issue, through becoming CSS linguists
- meeting Display and Position, the two CSS properties we are going to dive in
afternoon:
- trying to complete the prompt for both Display and Position
Monday 20 January
todo:
- ✓ read Tactical Design, Nolwenn maudet
morning:
(Notes are being taken on our main pad, https://pad.xpub.nl/p/declarative-companions)
- second round of presentation on declarative companions
- collective sharing moment on display and position
- introduction to browser extension, the tactical interest of browser extension, and how they work
- install Scratch together
afternoon:
- making extensions
Chapt.2 Every language has a grain (CSS Deep dive in ethymology & cultural usages)
from now on, we'll be dividing in two groups: one group focusing on `display` and `position`. groups will have moment to share back to the rest of the students their research progress.
Monday 27 January
No Class Meeting
Doriane in Berlin for a Declarations workshop