Many Sceneries
Interview with Ji Kim, Fall 2020 Participant
What's something you'd like visitors to your site to know?
This site is not for information. You don't have a task to do. This site is like one of many sceneries that you look out at every day. We don't need to try to understand or absorb the flowing scenes in front of us, but we may remember some of them.
Have you traveled anywhere beautiful lately?
Throughout the pandemic, I often walked in Prospect Park at night after 10pm. There was no one around most of the time, and I liked that rare moment of vast silence. I recently went to the Great Swamp Wildlife Refuge in NJ last month, which is a great wetland to visit near NYC.
What was the process of creating the site like?
Around the time I started on the site design, I read the poem The Forty Two Greens by the South Korean poet Mah Jong Ki. It became my design inspiration for the site. The poem describes various "greens" that the poet encounters on his railroad journey to the Southwest province in South Korea. I liked that the poem is written in the present tense, but it feels nostalgic. I could visualize the passing scenery outside the train window. I imagined what it would feel like to be surrounded by my scenery videos altogether — what space, scale, sequence, atmosphere, and how to move between different sceneries. Once I felt good about it, I made a quick layout sketch and began research to find the simplest way to code it. I had to get help on JavaScript to make the video and sound work the way I wanted.
What did you learn through creating the site and being in the fruitful school? What have you taken away from experience?
In particular, fruitful helped me rediscover the joy and importance of making more small personal websites. Focusing on a smaller scale opened my thoughts — like drawing a self-portrait outside of rigid rules, conventions, and high (self) expectations. Seeing other people and their personalities well reflected in their sites, not only in subject matter and aesthetics but also in site structure and interactions, was fun and inspiring.
Since some time has passed now, have you had any new reflections since making it?
When I was making the site, I was obsessed with making every corner of it complete. Now, there are still some things that could be perfected, but I'm not so sure I want to change them anymore. Instead I'm thinking of adding more categories with sceneries.
I also finally bought a domain. Before it was only on GitHub, and now it is at sceneries.site.
What type of website would you like to experience more in the future?
I feel like personal websites are like visiting a friend's room. My friend wouldn't tell me what to do or give me instructions. But I wouldn't have a problem hanging out there.
In other words, I want to see more lazy websites. I think not all websites need to be too user-friendly. People are really good at utilizing a website like a book or a poster. I am interested when websites are like paintings or sculptures. There's a lot to contemplate, so I would revisit.
🍑
Ji Kim
https://ji-kim.net
