Aura (due 7/5)
Description
Imagine a website based on a feeling, an emotion, or some kind of intangible experience/phenomenon. What does a scream look like as a website? A cry? How might a website feel like a maternal space? Or like a dream aimlessly drifting between different states? Try to convey this feeling using qualities that are unique to the medium of the web (ie. interactivity, flexibility, scrolling, clicking, viewing things through a window, etc.).
Start by writing a short prompt/expression of that website, in whatever way makes sense to you — a paragraph, a poem, a description. Try to examine and pull apart the feeling you are trying to capture. What makes that feeling unique? How does that feeling escape attempts to clearly describe it? How do you personally experience that feeling?
Avoid writing and thinking about the technicalities and functionality of a website at first. While writing, just focus on the feeling and imagine a website that is unmoored from technical realities. If drawing and sketching helps, do that as well!
After writing, start to consider how you might translate those qualities technically using what we've already learned in class or by exploring something new!
Considerations
- What are some existing functionalities/material realities of websites that we can use to help express that feeling? How might scrolling feel like falling? How might clicking blindly through hyperlinks feel like getting lost?
- Would the expression of the feeling benefit from interaction of some kind? Or might interaction distract from it?
- Reflect on feelings you have while navigating the web and websites. What are those feelings and what is it that provokes them? Is it the particular look of a button? Is it an onslaught of pop-ups? Is it a small, barely noticeable detail, tucked in a corner?