User:Charlie/HTML New punk folk explosion - Notes

Text: Basic HTML is the new punk folk explosion[1]by Zach Mandeville

Protocol for Annotation - Methods

• Short summary of the text
• Agreement - why?
• Disagreement - why?
• Key insight(s)
• Lingering doubts/thoughts
• Connection to Special Issue 26
• Glossary Words
• One question to the group

Summary

The author talks about his early fascination with (American) folk traditions, as well as punk culture (mentioning Foxfire and Our Band Could Be Your Life). He names the similarities between the two being their passed-down traditions and the D.I.Y. nature they embody. More specifically,

80's Punk movement:

• Doing things yourself → therefore learning new skills
• → Sharing skills with others
• F.ex.: Zine making teaches you printing, type- & layout design skills

60's - 70's Folk revival/ Hippie movement:

• Valorization of earlier folk traditions from "simpler" societies

• Source of inspiration for other societal structures and ways of living

Both:

• Alternative ways of organizing and communicating
• Learning about older skills gave you tools for your modern passion.

The author has begun learning HTML and building his own website, as a creative outlet. However, he doesn't want his creations to look neat or ordered, but instead, have a "clumsy" hand-made quality.

The longing for handmade, authentic and human web experiences are reflected in f.ex:

• Web Brutalism"In its ruggedness and lack of concern to look comfortable or easy, Brutalism can be seen as a reaction by a younger generation to the lightness, optimism, and frivolity of today's web design." [2]
• tilde.town or tilde.club tilde.town and "tilde.club (are) not a social network it is one tiny totally standard unix computer that people respectfully use together in their shared quest to build awesome web pages." [3]
• TinyLetterUsed to be a email newsletter platform created by Mailchimp

[..] homemade websites are a type of Punk. (Basic) HTML could also be viewed as an emerging folk craft.

But how is a folk tradition defined? The given examples of the 60's and 70's folk revival drew from folk traditions of the 30's.

Comparably, new web aesthetics draw inspiration of 90's and early 2000s websites. Therefore contributing to the revival of these early web traditions.

Notes

I think that when considering the examples mentioned in the text, it would be useful to distinguish between aesthetic trend-based folk revivals and the actual continuation and/or re-conceptualization of folk tradition.

Word Stew Entries ✎

• Punk (80's Movement)
• Web Brutalism
• Folk Tradition
• Web-Ring