School
for
Poetic
Computation
Hypertext makes the language of the web: we browse through linked, interconnected, and interdependent systems of media, text, and sound. Beyond the document, we might also imagine our own engagement with the web as hypertext as well: branching, clicking, and lagging that our bodies perform to choreograph its software. Can the desktop be a canvas? What happens when we reimagine ourselves as 'hypertext', linked, layered, and living? How can browsing the web become an act of authorship and citation in itself? Can we treat websites as poems, and turn our movement of the browser into a dance with the web? Drawing from electronic literature, Octavia Butler's primitive hypertext, and choose-your-own-adventure game design practices, we'll visit the operating system's built-in gestures, alt text, hidden source code, the interactive defaults of HTML and javascript, and our browser's structure. With deeper attention paid to these once-obfuscated reading mechanisms, we'll explore ways of breathing new life into them—not just browsing, but reading websites like a poem. This class invites us to create small internet art compositions and expand upon them with hypertextual performances. The work of making a website doesn’t end when hitting publish. We become active agents in reading new narratives, connections, and hyperlinks with browser-based texts. New ways of consumption are just as important as new ways of creation. Altogether, we perform a poetic web.
Images courtesy of teachers.
We require everyone to wear a mask while at the event to help keep the space safe for all—especially our disabled and immuno-compromised community members. If you’re feeling under the weather, we kindly ask that you sit this one out.
Secret Riso Club, the venue where the event takes place, is wheelchair accessible at the main level. Restrooms are gender neutral and ADA compliant. Please note: there are stairs leading to the basement, which is not wheelchair accessible.
Students will spend the weekend engaging with a series of performative lectures and workshops that invite them to reimagine their relationship with the browser, reading it anew.
A background in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript is encouraged, but not required. This class includes technical discussions and projects focused on the creative potential of the web. students should feel comfortable performing their work to an audience, as presentations and interactive performances will be a key component of the class.
Students must provide their laptop with web browser. SFPC has a limited number of laptops which can be provided upon request at least one week before the start of the intensive
This class may be for you if you:
This class may NOT be for you if you:
Secret Riso Club is an artist-run space that fosters a creative practice at the intersection of art, design, learning, publishing, printing, activism and community building. In our practice, we work to build a platform that serves as a collaborative space for developing ideas and new projects. SRC is run in collaboration between Gonzalo Guerrero and Tara Ridgedell. Read more about them on their website.
Chia Amisola is devoted to the ambiences of the internet and its loss, love, labor, and liberation. Their offline/online work explores the intimacies of infrastructures, the labor of tools, and the poetics of machines from the domestic to the divine. They make websites, performances, and games that construct agencies and atmospheres as their 'internet ambient' practice. Chia founded and stewards Developh and the Philippine Internet Archive, communities of practices dedicated towards archipelagic internets. They are based between San Francisco and Manila.
they/tham
· website
· twitter
· instagram
Applications are not required for weekend intensives. Signups will remain open as long as seats remain. A limited number of scholarship tickets will be released via the SFPC email list two weeks before the date of the intensive.
For classes, it costs $1000 + processing fees, for a one-time payment. We also offer payment plans. Participants can schedule monthly payments of the same amount. First and last payments must be made before the start and end of class. *Processing fees apply for each payment.
SFPC processes all payments via Withfriends and Stripe. Please email admissions@sfpc.study if these payment options don't work for you.
For more information about what we look for in applicants, scholarships, and other frequently asked questions, please visit our applicant FAQ.
Interested in more learning opportunities at the School for Poetic Computation? Join our newsletter to stay up to date on future sessions and events, and follow us on Instagram and Twitter. Support our programming through scholarships. Get in touch over email.