User:Charlie/HTML New punk folk explosion - Notes

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

Protocol for Annotation

Based on Methods

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

Summary

In this text, the author argues that the skill of basic HTML-coding could be viewed as a form of emerging folk craft and as having an innate punk-attitude. Using rudimentary HTML to create personal websites, he says, reflects the D.I.Y. nature and community-shaping potential of folk traditions and punk culture. As main examples, he draws parallels between early web design and older counter-cultural movements. More specifically, he names zine-making culture of the 80's Punk movement, as well as the folk revival of the 60's and 70's Hippie culture, in the United States; Both movements based in the believe that:

"Learning about older skills gave you tools for your modern passion."; Learning new skills from scratch and passing-down knowledge as a means to shape communities and alternative modes of societal structuring.

The longing for handmade, authentic and human

[..] homemade websites are a type of Punk.

Word Stew Entries ✎

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