Tiny Awards
Tiny Awards
Tiger Dingsun, Maya Man, Eva and an update about Naive Yearly
Dear reader
We (Matt and I) are doing another season of Tiny Awards.
And let me make my position clear: Awards are silly. They are given to arbitrary projects, chosen by arbitrary people, and for arbitrary reasons. Awards add a questionable layer of competition and extrinsic incentives and seem better at extending existing power structures than paving the way for new voices, practices, and creative expressions.
So why are we doing Tiny Awards again? Simply because the internet projects we love — the quirky, non-commercial, odd, experimental web — rarely get nominated or win any awards, which is strange because those sites are the foundation of the internet. Without the small, crafty internet projects and spaces, the web would be polished, gated, and, arguably, boring.
Since last year, I have seen more than one professional resumé mentioning the Tiny Awards. This brings me to the second reason why we do it again: maybe Tiny Awards can be a Trojan horse that brings personal websites, community archives, and HTML poems into rigid arts institutions? Maybe, one day, green cards will be given because of Tiny Awards?
These are obviously pure speculations. For now, I would argue that the best reason to nominate a site to Tiny Awards is to have it reviewed by the outstanding selection committee and maybe to win a tiny prize. May I also remind you that we encourage people to nominate sites by others too! You can even nominate more.
Finally, I promised more information about Naive Yearly. Unfortunately, the flu had different plans for me. So you’ll have to wait until next Sunday when I tell you which Central European renaissance castle we’ll meet on the 20th of September for the second edition of Naive Yearly.
With care
Kristoffer
Wayside flowers
https://www.worldofawe.net/thejournal/navigation/search1.html
https://sharedspace.page/smile
Field notes
1.
»What if graphic designers could create work capable of garnering fan theories, multiple interpretations, and wild reimaginings?«
— A poetic essay by Tiger Dingsun on graphic design’s possibility to make myths, worlds, and spaces for being outside the power systems.
2.
The article above pairs well with Maya Man’s reflection on collage aesthetics, arguing that the collage is an approach to resisting the demand for fixed identity and clarity, which often comes with adulthood.
How lovely is Eva’s guestbook? Very! I’m sure you want to learn how it is made.
I’m enjoying this newsletter about the internet — it feels surprising and relevant and is still taking shape. To get a taste, see, for example, D is for Domain and B is for Bug, or explore the emerging archive.
5.
Call for Participation: Caitlin is looking for personal emails, Tiny Awards are open for nominations, and Small File Media Festival is calling for work.
6.
Poetic Web Calendar: it’s the week of DEMO.
Collections
I’m hosting a stage at The Conference in Malmö again this year. It is always a thoughtful program and the most inspiring gathering for designing and making an inclusive and restful experience for 1000 participants. Let me know if you’ll be going.
Last email was sent to 3180 inboxes. Logo by Dreams™. Photograph by Ana Šantl. And you can reach me at kristoffer@naiveweekly.com.