SI26

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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.

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 specific 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:

1. exploring the linguistic aspect of web-languages
2. investigating & documenting cultural uses of specific CSS properties
3. 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 propeties, what does it mean for certain things to be block and other the be inline? what does it mean to be inline-block? What does the words block and inline means? how where they chosen? by who? How are they implemented, what complexities or differences are often unseen in those processes?

The subject will be introduced and expended in the dedicated page CSS linguistics.

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 exercice Declarative companion, in group, on a pad, using Octomode.

Monday 13 January

todo for Doriane:

• small page that present display, and position, i will need iframes to start them!
• space to drop lot of images?

morning:

• sharing moment about the Declarative companions made last time.
• presentation of the special issue.
• meeting: `display` and `position`, the two properties we are going to look at
  • outside of CSS what does those words means to you in graphic design?
  • outside of graphic design what does those words means to you?

afternoon:

• starting a media collection, to drop images of thing that echoes with the words: display, block, inline, flow, root, outer-inner, position, static, sticky, fixed, absolute, relative, inherit, initial.
• browsing exercice: go through website we know and try to pick up interesting example of all those uses, through the inspector and screenshoting
• starting reading the standard page
• looking at the practice of arpentage (land surveying in EN)

Monday 20 January

todo:

• to read for that day: Nolwenn maudet - tactical design translation

morning:

• introduction to browser extension, the tactical interest of browser extension, how do they work concretly

afternoon:

• **using CSS to reveal CSS, by styling element differently according to which property they are using**. making of the "lens" extension: when extension is activated it reveal in a graphical way the `display` and `position` properties on every website (ex: all element using `display: flex;` have a cyan outline, and we get information when hovering them)

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

Chapt.2 Parallel sessions

Tuesday 11 February, with Manetta

nb: ONLINE OPEN DAY 10-11 (Joseph?), 17-18 (Manetta?)