Who runs the world? Girls*! Girls are our greatest cultural and aesthetic trendsetters, highly influential in spreading new trends, slang and cultural norms – which are then adopted by the wider culture. So in this age of digital cultural crisis, who better to steer the internet away from its neoliberal, commercialised path to self-destruction than girls? In this workshop we will explore how the collaborative coding of HTML+CSS web pages can help us gain independence from Big Tech and rebuild community, from URL to IRL.

*Girls: in our usage, girl refers to those who align with the spirit of radical empowerment and inclusivity. It’s the girl from “Yaas girl” and “You go girl!”, gender unbound.

In digital/hacker circles, it is now common to romanticise what the internet used to be like, before Big Boi Tech took us all hostage on their capitalist, attention-grabbing platforms. Back in the good old days of the early web, information and web-building skills were freely shared, individual sites showcased a wide variety of aesthetics and provided an exciting place to explore and find other’s silly creations. But nostalgia is not enough. By going back to source code (using only HTML & CSS – the building blocks of the web), we can reinvent the lost practice of OG “girl blogging” as popular in the Tumblr age. Girls can bring back our culture of making cute websites just for funzies.

Community girlblogging is the desire to exist on- and offline, on our terms, without capitalist incentives, spy software and mean comments. Instead we want community, chaos and lots of glitter. <3

Requirements:
No coding skills required. It is also possible to design our personal webpages on paper!

What to bring:
All optional, something to reflect your vibe:

1) laptop, tablet
2) Crafty materials
3) Old magazines and prints
4) Fuzzy fabrics and cute things like glitter

We will come prepared with crafty materials, so it’s not super necessary that people bring it. But it’s fun to have more personal things to make the webpages more uniquely you!! There are surely some crafty queens out there.