ABC Browser Circus

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Reading: A Vernacular Web by Olia Lialina


Olia Lialina is an Russian artist based in Germany. She has produced early, influential works of network-based art. She writes about digital culture, net art, and web vernacular. You may remember her name from the last reading, in which her project My Boyfriend Came Back From the War (1996) was dicussed.


[definition] vernacular -- the language or dialect spoken by the ordinary people in a particular country or region.

The "language" in our context (the web) is a design language, too, expressed through word, form, color, movement, sound, and more.


A series of Lialina's essays analyses the vernacular of the web over time. It comes in three parts. Please read the first two, I believe you will enjoy them:

The third part is optional:

Please take notes as you read it and write a short response (150-250). Use your writing to share your opinion, reflection and associations. The following question may inspire your reflection, but are suggestions only:

  • Do you find ancestors of the old web vernacular (that Lialina describes) in today's web design?
  • How would you describe the research that Lialina is doing? Why does she do it? What is the purpose of it?
  • How does the vernacular Lialina describes compare with the web you grew up on / with?

1) Complete your writing in a markdown file (.md) inside your repository.

2) When done, push your work to your GitHub account and submit a link at our class Wiki.