Humble- This was one of the first TPs that we did and I didn’t think I would be able to complete the task. I hadn’t done any programming or coding since I was in high school (1980s). A lot has changed since then if memory serves. What struck me most about this was that most of the code that Emma presented to us was already laid out via the website link and all I had to do was change words. One quick word swap (green to pink) or one photo title change and magically the page looked completely different and was completely different seemingly in the blink of an eye. I did have to request help once because the web page and the HTML code weren’t aligning, but that was a formatting issue instead of a line code issue.

Much like the photogrammetry TP, much of the “behind the scenes” work of the HTML is not handled by me, the human. The mechanics of this TP were handled by the computer by the code, by the invisible. Once I changed one word (there is power there, isn’t there?) and hit enter, something somewhere in this interface went about the business of making it work. The lines of code and the text, but the textuality belongs to the end result, the web page displaying the picture. The interface becomes invisible. In the same way, I, the coder, the programmer, became invisible. My job as the human was to align the creative, the aesthetics of the pages. What color would complement which picture? What font would really “pop?” What message do I want users to read? All of those decision along with HTML become invisible when we look at the river rock picture or the aligned table or the pink background.

Reading about Christian Bök in the Kenneth Goldsmith chapter on parsing, it brought me back to this idea of human and machine working together. Bök’s massive undertaking, Eunoia, he could have let a computer sort the words into categories, but by “leaving himself with the work that the computer can’t do” (2011, p. 172), Bök was able to make aesthetic choices and create beauty from limiting circumstance. Perhaps a computer couldn’t do that. We need both to create art.

RIVER ROCK Michigan is home to some of the most wonderfully clean and beautiful lakes in the Midwest. Scattered along their shores, beachcombers can find rocks polished smooth by the endless waves lapping against them. These stones share their calming energy and remind us of patience and longitude.

River Rock by Suzanne Gut

Basic HTML Table

Basic HTML Table