Questions

Ever since I published “Blogs, websites, and identity”, I have been thinking about and discussing some of the questions I raised in the blog post: why do we take photos, what does it mean to write on the web. The essay feels like a starting point: a framing from which to work, a point of reference, a repository of questions.

In the essay, I wrote:

But I can’t shake my question: what does it mean to write on the web?

I am still thinking about this question. I am no closer to having a written answer but, while out on a walk earlier today, I realised that I am content sitting with the question – letting it exist in the back of my mind for a while. The question feels significant, but I don’t know where to begin.

How does writing on the web contrast with other types of writing? This may be the question I need to think about first, and I already have some openings now that I think about it: I approach writing letters and private drafts differently to pieces I write on the web, while all continue to be expressions of my voice.

The aforementioned question – “what does it mean to write on the web” – is, I think, a “big question”, an idea I learned about from Tracy’s website – a question that can guide my thinking. I have a few more “big questions” that came to mind as I started thinking about what to write today, which sum up some of the concepts that have been on my mind of late:

• What does change feel like? (My ideal framing here, however, is not necessarily a question so much as an invocation for me to think more about change, apt at present as I have recently redesigned my website home page, a reflection of change.)
• How do the visual and the textual relate?
• Why do some things stand out more than others?
• What cultural artefacts engage with or are inspired by art history (like Paris Paloma’s excellent single “Pre-Raphaelite”)?
• To what extent are my interests in writing and how my design sense manifests related?
• Why do some paintings stick in my mind more than others (i.e. Turner’s “Rain, Steam, and Speed”)?

I am not sure when I will write about these topics, but I am curious about all of them. If you have thoughts on these topics, or know of any materials that might be interesting, please feel free to send me an email.

Just before I wrote this blog post, I listened to part of Maisie Peters' "Questions" song, which, while not related to the content of this post, shares a title with this post. As soon as I wrote the title for this post, I knew I had to listen to the song. Her latest album, Florescence, is a no-skip album for me.