Alphabet Soup

"All misunderstandings will be solved
by the Alphabet Soup!"

Alphabet Soup

Contextual Definition: A clear, concise, and useful glossary. In part pulled from the Alphabet Stew

Source: The First Methods Class
Related Pad(s): x
Mentioned in: x

Reference: x
See Also: Alphabet Stew

Alphabet Stew

Contextual Definition: A loose, fun, experimental version of the Alphabet Soup. Anything goes here, and as such it exists to keep the Alphabet Soup clear, concise, and useful as a glossary.

Source: Meeting Methods (12/11/2024)
Related Pad(s): https://pad.xpub.nl/p/111224_group2
Mentioned in: x

Reference: Perpetual Stew
See Also: Alphabet Stew

Dead Web & Living Web

Dry Definition

The Dead Internet Theory is an online conspiracy theory that asserts, due to a coordinated and intentional effort, the Internet now consists mainly of bot activity and automatically generated content manipulated by algorithmic curation to control the population and minimize organic human activity.❶

Dead web is first of all referring to a conspiracy theory stating that the web is in the hands of bots and AIs to control the human activity. It also refers to the death of Internet as an infrastructure, due to lack of resources (electricity, datacenters, whatever) or some other external cause.

The living web is the place of journalism, blogs, social media...an non-stop updating web that is being altered every second.➎

Dead/Living web refers to the the birth and death of webpages, which may imply death by "domain parking pages, timeouts, blank pages, outdated TLS cipher errors"❷, or birth by publishing a new page online and launching it into the World Wide Web.

XPUB Definition

The dead web could be a 404, a dead link, a bad redirection. As long as the thing you were aiming for isn't there, we can state it as part of the dead web. Because if there is no way to retrieve this information (wayback machine, ubuweb,...) then it is forever lost.

Living web, might be living from the moment the idea for it is born OR it could be that the publishing of it.

If it's not born yet is it still alive?

Found in

Handmade Web by JR Carpenter - METHODS [1]

Source

❶ [Dead Internet Theory on Wikipedia] [2]

❷ [How websites die on Wesley's Notebook][3]

❸ [How long do your webpages live on Digimarkkinointi.fi] [4]

❹ [Internet congestionné d'ici à 2023 ? Pas si vite ! by Martin Untersinger] [5] (not very interesting in the end)
→ small sum up of the article: academics fear the end of Internet because of the increasing demand and traffic as well as the uses requiring more and more electricity, but experts say it won't happen that soon because we are totally capable of handling those increases and managing the networks and data traffics.

➎ [10 Tips on Writing the Living Web by Mark Bernstein] [6]

Design Optimization

Dry Definition

<in progress>Design Optimization, also called Engineering Optimization, is a methodology which aims to solve all problems of performance, durability and sustainability within a system design. A result-oriented working process based on critical system analysis and problem prediction. </in progress>

XPUB Definition

A design process that believes that through trying it's very best, it may predict the future, transcend time and escape the ever changing material conditions of human reality. (Charlie)

Found in

Tactical Design by Nolwenn Maudet (Doriane's Postface) - METHODS [7]

Source

❶ [Engeneering Design Optimization by J.R.R.A. Martins & A. Ning] [8]

❷ [Principles of Optimal Design - Modeling and Computation by P.Y. Papalambros & D.J. Wilde][9]

❸ [Definition of Design Optimization on Sciencedirect.com] [10]

❹ [Design Optimization in OOAD on Geeksforgeeks.org] [11]

Edgelessness

Dry Definition

Edgelessness (noun) describes the absence of a distinct boundary or end point. [1]

XPUB Definition

Frank Chimero defines Edgelessness as core of the webs structure: made of single pages, everything can possibly be linked to everything else. But Chimero sees this condition not only reflected in Links but also in the way we layout content for unknown screen sizes and presents it as a paradigm for work disciplines. [2] However I find it important to also mention that to some extentds the web has very real boundaries, for example regarding physical resources [3] it uses as much as (politically) enforced limits that ban access to specific pages or keywords [4].

[1] https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/edgeless

[2] https://frankchimero.com/blog/2015/the-webs-grain/

[3] more on energy resources and the web: https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/

[4] One of the most recent examples might be Donald Trumps executive order to define sex as only male or female, leading to crucial public health information being taken down from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website (e.g. contraception guidance; a fact sheet about HIV and transgender people; lessons on building supportive school environments for transgender and nonbinary kids). https://apnews.com/article/trump-gender-ideology-sex-pronouns-order-transgender-2d7e54837f5d0651ed0cefa5ea0d6301

Ethnopoetics

Dry Definition

Ethnopoetics is a method of recording text versions of oral poetry or narrative performances (i.e. verbal lore) that uses poetic lines, verses, and stanzas (instead of prose paragraphs) to capture the formal, poetic performance elements which would otherwise be lost in the written texts. The goal of any ethnopoetic text is to show how the techniques of unique oral performers enhance the aesthetic value of their performances within their specific cultural contexts.
In linguistics, folkloristics and anthropology, a method of analyzing linguistic structures in oral literature. In poetry, ethnopoetics refers to non-Western, non-canonical poetries, often those coming from ancient and autochthonous cultures.

Ethnopoetics refers to an oral performance using the traditional characteristics of written poetry (verses, stanzas,...) to enhance the aesthetic value of the text in its cultural context. It often implies non-Western, non-canonical poetries.

XPUB Definition

Ethnopoetics is a crafty, subjective, minority practice that doesn't rely on big tech/companies to exist. It is strongly tied to the web 1.0 aesthetics, because this era of the web was dedicated to this kind of approach along with avant-garde and outsider arts. Most probably it is questioning and destroying this particular capitalistic culture. (define the def more, detail the meaning of the adjectives)

Found in

Handmade Web by JR Carpenter - METHODS [12]

Sources

❶ [Ethnopoetics on Wikipedia] [13]

❷ [Glossary of Poetic Terms][14]

❸ [A Brief Guide to Ethnopoetics] [15]

Fabulations

Dry Definition

fabulation uses imagination to create stories that often blur lines between reality and fiction. it often takes existing narratives, adapts them, and reshapes them into different perspectives. it comes from oral traditions and has its root in the latin word "fabula", or in verb form "fābulor" for "tell stories, chat".❶❷

XPUB Definition

What is crucial to fabulations is their ability to pick and choose from pre-existing narratives and transform them into new ones, using "what if" scenario frameworks to remix familiar stories and offer alternative approaches to storytelling.

In the Postface to Tactical Design Doriane differentiates creating fabulations from building tools. While the later is more directed towards functionality, fabulations emerge from a hypothetical approach of creating alternatives and reinterpreting the web.❸

in other words: Fabulation refers to the act of reinterpreting existing stories and transforming them into a new ones in a creative way.

This machanism is very similar to how humans have been passing on stories for centuries. As the stories are conveyed through time and across culture, certain elements are added, removed, altered and reinvented --reflecting the spirit, mindset, environment, and era in which they exist.

The focus of fabulation is on imagining alternatives to an already existing narrative, understanding how it shapes reality, then rethinking how we engage with that reality by deciding which aspects to keep, modify, or reconstruct. This decision making process is a key aspect of fabulation.

Source
❶ [wikipedia] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabulation
❷ [wiktionary] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fabulation
❸ [Tactical Design, Nolwenn Maudet + Doriane] https://declarations.style/drafts/tactical-design.html

Folkloric

dry definition

Relating to the verbally passed down communal knowledge, which includes, yet is not limited to tales, beliefs, rules, ideas, legends and values. [source] Folklore as an academic practice is the study of collective inventiveness between members of distinct sociocultural settings, as well as the relationships these instances share with different manifestations of shared identity. [source]

found in

"I would like to simply list some of those Websites fabulations as folkoric tales of the web instead of practical tools. Not something to scale or improve to a large amount of user, but more as doors to stories." - https://declarations.style/drafts/tactical-design.html

Grain

dry definition

A grain is a tiny, individual piece of a solid material [1]. For example an edible seed from a grass plant like rice or wheat [2]. Grain also describes the pattern or texture of a substance or its surface, for example relating to wood or film photography. [1]

xpub definition

The "webs' grain" emphasizes the web's materiality: the specific ways it is built and the possibilities, expectations and restrictions that this material brings forth. Going "against the grain" is a saying that means acting different from or opposing a materials inherent fiber. According to Frank Chimero (Author of "The Webs Grain") going against the grain of the web leads to the following experience:

"What is this monstrosity? Why does it feel like docking a spaceship? Why can’t I scroll? And why is there lag on my fancy laptop? What’s that sound? My computer’s fan?" [3]

[1] https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/grain

[2] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/grain

[3] https://frankchimero.com/blog/2015/the-webs-grain/

Self-reflexive feedback loop

Dry Definition

A continuous cycle of self-reflection and influence, where you keep looking back at yourself, and that process keeps shaping you in return.❶❷

XPUB Definition

Self-Reflexive Feedback Loop refers a process of mutual influence that occurs between the act of building and maintaining a website and its creator.
As the creator builds the website, they reflect their identity and creative intentions into it. Over time, as they manage and interact with the site, its structure and functionality begin to influence the creator’s way of thinking and perspective.
This reflection leads to further changes, with the creator’s evolving identity and perspective is once again woven back into the website. It’s a back-and-forth process that keeps repeating.

found in
My website is a shifting house next to a river of knowledge. What could yours be? by Laurel Schwulst

source
❶ Reflexivity(social theory), wikipedia
❷ Feedback loop definition source

Tactical

Dry Definitions

<work in progress> 'Tactical' is often referred to in combat tactics, relating to the employment of weapons and forces to the battlefront. [source] It too relates to the methods used to achieve something [source] or accomplish a particular result. As well as actions, that serve a larger purpose. [source]

It strongly relates to its own etymology, which was derived from the Greek term for the 'art of arrangement', taktike techne. [source] Where nowadays tactical is most often used in terms of warfare, its history stronger relates to the art of publishing; of artfully arranging and/or planning. </work in progress>

Related References

• Cambridge Dictionary definitions of 'Tactical': https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/tactical
• Merriam-Webster definitions of 'Tactical': https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tactical

XPUB Definition

(1) A method that is considered, planned, and designed to outmanouver an opposition, in order to achieve a predefined goal.

(2) An object, any object, featuring one or more or all of the following features:

• A camouflage pattern
• Hard plastics on cloth
• Inexplicable metal bits
• A matte black paintjob
• Inscriptions of 'cool' and/or 'badass' imagery (i.e. skulls, predator animals, predator animal skulls)
• Attachment rail(s)

See Also

• Tacticool
• Weaponized Incompetence
• Quiet Quitting
• Pro-Climate Sabotage
• Investment
• Starcraft II
• Terrifying Marketing Department Terms
• Sun Tzu
• Hiking

Vernacular

Dry definition

<in progress> It is commonly used as an adjective, specifically to refer to something connected to a particular custom or tradition which is not well known by the general public. The word is used in different contexts, from language to architecture, design etc. Sometimes it is also used to convey societal status, as a way to classify something which is not widespread [source]. <in progress>

XPUB definition

synonyms: origin, foundation, tradition, local, native,ancient

<in progress> When something is said to be vernacular, it means that it is local or unknown from a  general point of view. It seems that the word comes from high-status groups. <in progress>

*sembra che chi la utilizzi si distanzi dalla tematica associata, come sottrarsi da qualcosa che pero ci si arroga descrivere.*

Found in

A Vernacular Web: Olia Lialina https://art.teleportacia.org/observation/vernacular/

Source

For dry definition: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vernacular

WYSIWYG

(I swear I had to google this one):

   what you see is what you get.  refers to software that allows content to be edited in a form that resembles its appearance when printed or displayed as a finished product, such as a printed document, web page, or slide presentation.

related pad: https://pad.xpub.nl/p/A_Dao_of_Web_Design

found in:

https://alistapart.com/article/dao/