Personal Making Assignment 5: A Webpage of One’s Own

For this assignment, you are to submit a single, stand-alone .html file (with embedded CSS and Javascript via <style type="text/css"> and <script> tags) under 64KB. This means:

  • There are to be no external links, CDNs, images, etc. I suggest turning off your internet, dragging your .html file to your webbrowser, and making sure it displays as intended
  • You can’t have any images, videos, audio, or other file types that need to be external to your HTML file. Instead, you can get creative with svgs, <div>s, CSS, and Javascript.

For inspiration, see the online literary magazine Taper which publishes computational pieces under 2KB (you have 32x the space)! The good news about Taper poems is you can right click -> inspect source to see how they’re built. Before starting, I would recommend clicking around 3-5 poems to see if any inspire you in their simplicity yet interactivity.

What should the webpage contain? Anything, as long as it’s 1) somehow self-reflective and 2) is an entry in the internet you want to see. Thus, you could use this assignment as an opportunity to…

  • Write a small computational poem, like those published in Taper or the HTML Review.
  • Create a very lightweight skeleton for an image-less, link-less portfolio (and you can add the images and links later. If you wish to publish your site online, I suggest using Github pages.)
  • Create a tiny constrained computational tool as practice. What does creation mean if user input is only clicking a button, or moving their mouse around?

Background / Motivation

As I ranted about in class, the modern web is dominated by unreadable source code and complicated tech stacks, and is more concerned with collecting and selling user data than gathering around interests. Thus, this assignment is going back to basics of pure HTML/CSS/JS so you can have a foundational understanding before jumping to whatever tech stack makes the most sense for your final project implementation. Drawing from Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own, how can you make a small resistance to the current internet space? What kinds of websites would you like to see more of that intentionally resist our doomscrolling algorithmic social media feeds? Now is the chance for you to create your own.

Resources

  • Check out the last slide of the lecture slides for links on learning HTML and CSS.
  • Prof Li learned HTML through Lissa Explains it All, which to their delight, is still online.
  • W3Schools has popular tutorials on Javascript, HTML, and CSS.
  • Neocities is the modern day Geocities; feel free to browse these websites for inspiration as well.

AI usage

You are allowed to use LLM assistance for the coding aspect of this project. Please cite conversations in the write up by either pasting a link to the conversation or pasting your prompt verbatim. Failure to do so will result in a 0. (I hope the idea behind your webpage is your own.)

Grading & Submission

On Canvas submit two files:

  • A webpage of your own: A single standalone .html file that is < 64kb
  • A PDF 1) plainly explaining the contents of your webpage/vision/artist statement, and 2) the usual feedback paragraph: How long did you spend on this assignment? What felt challenging or easy? How did you use AI (please cite conversations or at least prompts)? How is the workload of the class matching to your expectations? I know this assignment was due at the same time as reading responses, which I apologize for – same for next week’s PM.
  • Please bring your computer to class as we will be sharing our small webpages with partners, like in the PM1 zine crit.

Estimated/expected time: It is my hope you spend no more than 4 hours on this assignment. One hour generally brainstorming (try taking a walk), and then three hours implementing. It is purposefully a small, light, constrained assignment.

Rubric

  • ✓+ : Students put substantial thought into their webpage (it could be featured on Taper)
  • ✓ : Students created a standalone, small webpage
  • ✓- : Students submitted a webpage > 64KB, that is more than just an .html file, or that uses external links/is broken when there is no internet connection. Students are missing the write up.