Web Changes Over Time Essay Research Paper

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Web Changes Over Time Essay, Research Paper About a year ago, I started collecting Websites for references – while sorting through thousands of bookmarks and links, It became clear that some sites had a certain quality, or edge, absent in other sites. The design of these sites, mostly personal or self promotional, were perfectly executed, highly expressive, individualistic; They extended the web by disregarding existing Web and print design conventions. They often used web tools to make computer screen do more than what we’ve come to expect from yesterday’s Web. But more than the tools they use, inherent design of these sites express the unconventional, in term of color, typography, imagery or interactivity. These sites seem to me to be Web of the next generation ( a

generation that is still defining itself as technology evolves.) These sites weren’t easy to locate at first, but as months pass, these kind of sites (thankfully) become easier to find.The golden age of design is neither gone, nor has it arrived. Observing the desktop publishing disasters on one side and the incredible potential of digital tools on the other, I investigate the relations between digital media – both as creative tool and as a delivery medium – and design. By layering capabilities and extraordinary filters of digital software, we aim to understand the way design communicates in new media and how the wisdom of traditional forms can be integrated into a dynamic and `sleek’ form. “We need to break up the old structures – as gently as possible – and to

leave space for new forms to grow within both new and traditional media.” (Florian Brody , Tabula Rasa 1997).Being on the cutting edge is always somehow unstable – one longs for it, like traces of a strange and sweet scent that is also repulsive like the smell of decay (Durian). One follows the scent unconsciously, embarrassed and not even admitting the attraction to oneself. Cutting edge design is always an investigation into form, structure and function – like children cutting open their favorite teddy bear to find the underlying structure beneath a perfect surface. There is something very clean about surgery, about a perfect cut that reveals a fresh emotion. Are we advancing in design because in advances in technology? Is cutting – edge design necessarily connected to

state-of-the-art technology? If yes, what is the state-of-the-art design? It is not computer that initiates the cutting edge design but the social and cultural shifts implied by its usage. Like what my lecturers always say, “Understand the technological implications of a new medium, work within the given limitations and at the same time break the rules that have not yet fully established”. We need to go much further. SCOENGEIST, a conceptual model for design, integrates old and new elements. “The image of a man in the 21st century needs to be shown with enough clarity to allow a man to recognize and learn about himself and life in the new century.” (Wim Wenders, Tokyo-GA, A Filed Diary, 1995) SCOENGEIST is the underlying concept for a design sensibility that integrates

traditional and digital dynamic media. We are confronted with an empty design sensation, vision of something vibrating and confusing in. Looking in the designs of the nineties, it seems as if `Cutting Edge Design’ is fast becoming a particular, raw and improvised- looking style, but the true power of daring to look beyond the world established print and “new” media. Despite promises made by hardware manufacturers, design is not as easy as point-and-click, and using the common pencil, thus the many casualties at the cutting edge design. The Medium is the Memory : No longer the written word the only container of memory. “Electronic media have closed the circle back to the classical ars memorativa.” (Sara Anastasia Hahn, Web Design, 1997) Where images and spaces provide