Tom Bubul .info

tombubul@gmail, @tombubul. Last updated 6/23/18: Initial post.

Design tenets of my website

I should feel relaxed, at home, and a strong sense of ownership when I'm browsing my own website.
The webpage markup shall be authored directly. My limitations in making and organizing a website shall be considered acceptable and of a type with my rendering skills in painting and ability to manage my studio.
As with items in my flatfile or on my desk, organization shall not be an abiding concern, though resulting confusion shall never be an intentional effect. Data organization shall follow the terms of "I think I know where it is" and "it's in there somewhere," as elsewhere in my life.
Thus there shall be a homepage but no menus. Directory pages are permitted. The website should be surfable.
All page content is subject to change, but no page's styles or structure need ever be updated. Old pages retaining old markup should be considered kin to old subway stations retaining old signage with old typefaces. Pages shall be permitted to deteriorate.
As an accessory to and representation of my person, the website should be continuous with my sense of "self" in a manner equivalent to e.g. my irl clothing.
The website shall not build frames for work that doesn't exist yet, or anticipate the purpose, presentation, or future of incomplete work. (Jacob's rule of zines: The zine shall not indicate that it is "issue #1"; it shall just be itself, "a zine.")
Yet the website shall freely regroup, recombine, recontextualize, or otherwise present existing stuff in whatever frames it pleases.
The website does not need to be an archive, but obscuring or disclaiming stuff shall be considered more desirable than removing it outright. It should seek to embrace the truth of mistakes and failures without necessary obligation to archive or present the material results of those processes.
When successful, the website shall transmit a feeling of "unknowable depths" to visitors.

This website is open daily from 8am-8pm in your local timezone. It is currently closed, but you can still feel free to look around. It will hopefully be "under construction" forever. :)

Shoutout to Jeff for ongoing convos through which many of these ideas were realized or inspired. :)

Home