The Handmade Web

The main thesis of this article is to advocate for the concept of handmade websites. This refers to webpages crafted by the individual using simple code, rather than the modern web commercialized and compacted by major corporations and businesses. They advocate for the unique DIY designs handmade websites have to offer as well as the symbiotic relationship the web developed with print in the mid-to-late 90s. Carpenter encourages active engagement with handmade websites as a form of resistance to the modern web's highly commercialized and proprietary nature. He underlines the personal empowerment in viewing and reusing a website’s source code for ourselves.

The handmade web resists the compact and controlled nature of the contemporary web. It stands opposed to the dominance of corporations and their efforts to segregate the space into neat unexaminable properties. It encourages the manual craft of experimental and independent web projects in opposition to the honed algorithms developed by corporatized digital space. The handmade web is essentially a commitment to preserving the creative and personal community the early web offered.

The first example that comes to mind is the early web games that allowed users to meet and connect in a virtual space like Club Penguin or Poptropica. They were the earliest version of modern VR spaces, allowing users to simulate real life by interacting with different elements on the page (ex. The shops and the houses). I remember these games being very popular back in the late 2000s to mid 2010 but it seems to have died out with the commercialization of the web. Chromebooks are another example I can’t help but think of with Carpenter’s comments on handheld devices. These laptops are particularly popular in the education system because of their simplified design and low financial costs. But they are also used to restrict the student’s experience, preventing them from accessing certain webpages, applications, or simple laptop functionalities. These restrictions have limited the ability to experiment, to explore the full potential of technology (and by extension the web) beyond the sanitized experience. I personally never realized it might be an issue until a younger family member of mine came to me one day with the simple request of changing her laptop background. She didn’t know how to do it herself because she had only used the school laptops which didn't allow customization. It never occurred to me beforehand how the monopolization of technology could so deeply influence our basic knowledge and experiences with it.