It's a kitschful world

I have always been fascinated by art history. Reading it is a fascinating endavour, especially when presented in a systematic and chronological way; the taxonomy and categorization of works into styles appeals a lot to me. As well as the way the different eras are connected and reflect aspects of society. Everything seems logical and reflective of the time it happened. I really like this way of looking at creative endavours. To me it begs the question: What about websites? Comparing with painting, as something that is physically manifested in the plane, can we use some of the same tools to understand web pages? Or is it just a chaotic mess, where the importance lies in function and technical implementation?

If you were hoping for an answer to the above question here, I am sorry to disappoint you. That would be too ambitious for a cute little blog post. However, there is one trend that I would like to highlight, and draw comparisons to the world of websites.

Classyfing websites into art history movements, an academically sound effort? Doubtful. But is it fun and interesting? Absolutely!

The image above is a wallpaper design by British William Morris (Beautiful, right?). An interesting fellow indeed, he was one of the main sources of inspiration for the Arts and Crafts movement at the end of the 1800s. It was a reacton to the low effort put into mass produced objects disguising as art, and the resulting poor quality. They went back in time, being inspired by medieval and folk styles in their works.

We will return to the Arts and Crafts movement, but let us step a couple of decades back in time from there. The term kitsch originated as a pejorative term for mass produced cheap art. This type of art often tried to mimick “real” art, with strong focus on emotional extravagance, in an attempt to appeal to the masses.

To finally draw comparisons to the web, I am trying to build up to the point that the present day web is heavily dominated by what I like to call kitchy sites. Just like in the arts, an overarching theme of the web is to make it available to the masses, usually in the form of web sites. As a web developer, this is great from an economic perspective! As a highbrow art critic it is… interesting. But what is the main consquence of this? That everything ends up looking the same! The same way that mass producing art forces common characteristics to emerge, website builders and templates have done the same on the web.

The main features of kitschy sites are:

• A navigation bar on top, dividing the site into separate branches.
• A footer with information that does not fit into the navigation bar.
• Hero banner at the page root.
• Logo in top corner, serving as navigation back to the main page.
• Large and often numerous images.

Aren’t these just standard features of web sites? That is exactly what they are! And that is the point; the creation of web sites have become so streamlined and standarized, that it is hard to imagine anything else!

I am not pushing this as a bad thing. These sites are typically functional and well structured, which most people regard as the most important features of a web site. The bad stuff, I think, is the monotony it leaves. Making anything not based on this blueprint, is mostly regarded as to expensive to be worth it.

Learning from art history, there are and will be reactions to this. As hints of the Arts and Crafts movement, I see some exclusive and custom sites once in a while. This is always inspirational!

Also, kitsch has become term with many facets. Artists have been playing with the term, spawning new ideas from it. The term camp is an example, kitschy while being aware of it. Some modern painters, notably Odd Nerdrum, have labeled themselves as kitsch, re-establishing the term in a more positive light.

I would love to see some of the same movements in the world of IT. And I dare you; next time you are buying a web-site, order it in the style of the mid 1990s!

PS. Here is the website for the artist Thomas Kinkade, a display of a kitschy web site for kitsch art!