Structural Changes

While I talk here about why I currently feel disconnected from my website, I want to present some ideas in this article regarding the structure and vision of the website.

This digital space began with a vision of a Digital Temple, a place one could visit with a cup of tea.
Stories about magic in everyday life, transformations in relationships and love poems. A little place of refuge and tranquility and this vast digital landscape that so often feels chaotic, unsettling and restless.

Over the past 2.5 years, this place has evolved with me. In July this year I moved from Wordpress to coding. Theoretically, I have full creative freedom now to structure and redesign everything from scratch without fixed routing and standard templates.

By no means do I want to turn this place into a tech project since I’d love to prioritise the content and improve my writing craft. But thanks to my tech background (engineering studies and previous work in app agency), I can no longer suppress the creative impulses that are technical in nature.
It feels like denying an essential part of me that wants to be seen.

From now on, I’d like to focus on:

Working WITH my energy and the energy of the website, instead of AGAINST it.

Which means giving space to whatever creative impulse arises. Whether it’s a story idea, a design concept, or a technical feature.
Daring to give technical thoughts a chance to be seen without being afraid that I’d get too sidetracked.

For a while I’ve been thinking about creating containers where flow is invited unrestrictedly. Where certain ideas can be poured in. A home where seedlings feel comfortable to grow. Something organic. Natural. An exhale and relaxation, instead of exhaustion and overwhelm.

I was re-reading Maggie Appleton’s essay on the Digital Garden and thinking about Mike Caufield’s quote:

The Garden is the web as topology. The web as space. It’s the integrative web, the iterative web, the web as an arrangement and rearrangement of things to one another.

Chronological, polished, completed blog post vs. non-linear, interconnected, ever-evolving creations.

Where To Start?

After some days of exploring, I decided to gradually introduce three new spaces to the website which will serve different purposes.

Concept Garden and Fleeting Streams will be a collection of pages whereas Wanderer’s Hut will be (for now) one page containing a collection of ideas.

What are Content Collections?
You can define a collection from a set of data that is structurally similar. This can be a directory of blog posts, a JSON file of product items, or any data that represents multiple items of the same shape.

— from the official Astro Docs

The reason I’m explaining the idea (to myself) like that is to understand the different technical approaches I have to take in order to implement them as well as the difference in the energy of the spaces.

Concept Garden

experimental playground

Concept Garden is a place where I plant and grow concepts. It includes (but is not restricted by) experimental ideas I have for the website, that take time to grow. Whether or not they will be realised or implemented is not the point. The point is giving them a space to breathe, and for me to iteratively work on without a finish line in mind. It focuses more on structure and exploration of ideas rather than narrative and prose.

contains a concept that

• has been occupying my mind intensely for more than just a few days
• will take at least a week to be unraveled (due to complexity of topic, technicality or other factors)
• doesn’t need a time stamp of any kind
• doesn’t need to be finished, realised or implemented

✅ required: hero image, title, content (text or image)

❌ not required: date

Fleeting Streams

open sketchbook

These will be the most formless type of sharings. Like an Instagram story or a tweet. Can be a fleeting thought. A more curated opinion or observation without insistence on a proper container (aka an individual page). Something that doesn’t want to take space (yet), but still wants to be seen at the same time.

✅ required: content (text or image), date (optional)

❌ not required: title, hero image

Wanderer’s Hut

wall of recognition

The first name I came up for this space was ‘Waiting Room’. I had a good laugh. I tend to get very attached to my ideas. Seeing the pile of unfinished work accumulated over the years while having countless potential new projects swirling in my mind makes me feel quite overwhelmed.
I really embrace Elizabeth Gilbert’s concept in her book ‘Big Magic’ where she talks about ideas as living entities that seek a human collaborator. I do feel that the ideas that visit my mind have a life on their own, so I want to acknowledge their presence and express gratitude by creating a space where I can name them. Whether or not I will finish the drafts/projects is not the point. I’d also be very happy to see them move on and find another person who is a better fit for bringing them into the world of forms.

It will be simply one page with ideas for content and tech features. Like a backlog. If an idea grows, I may move them to the Concept Garden.

What will happen with the normal blog?

What kind of creations will be published there?
What is the difference between the Concept Garden and the blog?
Why can’t Concept Garden be a category of the normal blog?
There, I have unfinished blog posts as well that I intend to change over time.

To be honest, I don’t really have any answers at this point. The blog will evolve organically, as I grow the new spaces. There’s an idea of the Wild Jungle where all seeds who have grown up lead to in the end. Maybe a concept from the Concept Garden find its way when finished/realised to the blog which will be transformed into the Wild Jungle in the future. I don’t know.

I simply need to play with different formats of ‘posts’ and pages.

Questions include:

• How does it feel to create a post/page without date or title or image?
• How will the tone and the energy change?
• Since I have a draft function: What do I want to keep for myself, what do I want to share with the public?
• Does creating feel more spacious or chaotic with different formats to choose from?
• Can I stay open to emerging changes?

Public messy sketchbook and journal vs. curated exhibition of thoughts in a frame or on canvas.

Private art studio vs. open atelier.