Reflection on The Art of Gathering Online & Offline...

(I'M SORRY I COMPLETELY MISSED THIS SECTION IN THE LAST EMAIL)

What was most interesting to me about this lecture was Laurel's mention of "world-building" when prefacing her work on Slipper When Wet. I had never thought of web-designing as a form of world-building until I saw what the students of the Fruitful School had done by combining live elements (dynamic, interactive) with static elements in their work. This "layering" gave the work a...how do I describe this..."human" dimension. We, as humans, can't focus on everything all at once- we have to filter out some parts of our consciousness in order to function efficiently. I thought that this concept was embodied perfectly by the balance between static and dynamic elements- namely, the video playing in the background while the user navigates to different parts of the page. It is this carefully-curated balance of elements in a gathering that I think makes it a very special space of intimate connection despite tis virtual format.