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<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
<meta name="author" content="Miaoye Que">
<link rel="icon" type="image/x-icon" href="./images/favicon.ico">
<link rel="stylesheet" href="style.css" type="text/css">
<title>Thesis Manifesto</title>
</head>
<body>
<div id="w">
<div id="title">
Thesis Manifesto
</div>
<div id="content">
<div id="manifesto">
<div class="section">
On Making a Thesis of My Own
</div>
<div>
<div class="m">
<p><span>“If not me, then who?”</span> Have faith in my unique perspective and channel it
into my
project: it’s the best (and sometimes,
the only) way for it to be alive and compelling. There are at least a dozen other people who
can
code an intricate program or make a generative game, but I should be the only one—with my
unique
experiences, whims, and obsessions—who can bring my thesis to life.</p>
</div>
<div class="m">
<p><span>Thesis is for better self-articulation, not employability.</span> I respect people who
know
what they want, and envision thesis as a future portfolio piece catered
to the eyes of potential employers, but that’s not me. It’s an unprecedented luxury to be
able
to dedicate a whole year to something I’m passionate about. It’s even more precious to have
absolute creative freedom, unadulterated by capitalistic demands or pressures. To me, it
seems
awfully wasteful to not use this opportunity to find clarity on what is and how I want to
sustain my creative practice. Better self-articulation will always remain my strongest
motivation behind making my thesis.</p>
</div>
<div class="m">
<p><span>Resist temptation.</span> It’s normal to feel a healthy amount of envy towards other
people’s
projects, even my own
unrealized ideas. Despite the appeal of starting from scratch or stretching myself in a
million
directions, I need to be honest with myself: I have neither the capacity nor the talent to
hesitate, meander, or begin again. Marry to an idea early, water it, watch it grow—it might
become more than what I’ve ever dreamed of.</p>
</div>
<div class="m">
<p><span>Be consistent.</span> A year is definitely a substantial amount of time for a project.
However, it’s also
easy to keep indulging in the illusion that “I still have so much time left”, until that’s
not true anymore. How many people do I know who rushed their thesis in the last three
months? Making a thesis is indeed a time-based endeavor; a journey that should be navigated
steadily. A rule of thumb: spending half an hour every day on research, tinkering, mulling
over ideas is always better than cramming a prototype in one week.</p>
</div>
<div class="m">
<p><span>Have fun!</span> Growing pains, challenging obstacles… sure. Suffering, mental agony? I
have outgrown them. Making a thesis should be a mostly fulfilling and fun experience, and if
that’s not true, I need to either lighten up or make perceptive changes.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section">
On Making a Thesis with People I Love
</div>
<div>
<div class="m">
<p><span>
Towards resource-sharing & against gatekeeping.</span> Many of us are amateurs when it
comes to building a creative practice, while even more of us carry ambitions of having our
work recognized and celebrated, ideally outside of school too. A good strategy to bridge
this gap is resource-sharing. Stumbled upon an artwork that reminded me of someone? I’ll
forward it to them. Read an essay that can help someone lay a stronger theoretical
foundation? I’ll share it with them. Encountered an opportunity that can help someone secure
more funds or resources? I’ll encourage them to apply. We form an ecosystem and start to
thrive when we care for each other and each other’s work with love and generosity—and that’s
how we create amazing thesis projects: beyond individually, as a community.</p>
</div>
<div class="m">
<p><span>Be each other’s expert and teacher.</span> We come from diverse backgrounds, often
already specialists in the fields we worked in. A sophisticated thesis project, on the other
hand, is most often expansive and relies on knowledge and proficiency beyond our own.
Trading expertise can be a sweet and generative way of growing our projects together, while
understanding each other more as individuals and artists.</p>
</div>
<div class="m">
<p><span>Celebrate milestones together.</span> The end of thesis week should not be the only
occasion for relaxation and conviviality; smaller steps—commitment to an idea, first
prototype, alumni critiques…—deserve attention and joy too. Celebrate milestones together
and often, be open enough to let these moments carry us forward.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section">
On Making a Thesis that Lasts
</div>
<div>
<div class="m">
<p><span>Strive for care and maintenance.</span> I still daydream about my Chinese blog or game
logs from the 2000s sometimes, wondering how or when they vanished into the shadows of the
Internet’s past, yearning for their nostalgic power as time capsules. Websites decay and
become abandoned; programs outgrow technology stacks they were built on; hardware breaks and
ages… It’s nearly impossible to preserve a technology-based project forever, but for as long
as maintenance is viable, I will tend to my thesis and mend the cracks: a renewal of spirit
and possibilities.</p>
</div>
<div class="m">
<p><span>Let my thesis be witnessed, remembered, shared.</span> On the Internet, in other
people’s minds, in archives… My thesis can live in many different environments, and can
certainly outlive the period designated for thesis development, or even its own lifespan. I
will document and share my work. Share on as many platforms as possible. Wait for people to
experience, feel, and find resonance. Olia Lialina’s personal website, with its glittery
ambience and handmade aesthetics reminiscent of the web 1.0 era, is still being visited and
admired by young people and seasoned surfers alike. My thesis can inspire people decades
down the road too, and that’s perhaps the most special and meaningful approach towards
longevity.</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div id="foot">
<div id="about" onclick="showContent('popup')">⁂ about ⁂</div>
</div>
</div>
<div id="popup">
<div id="popup-content">
<p>Thesis Manifesto was originally created by <a href="https://www.yourworldoftext.com/~miaoye/"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Miaoye Que</a> for Tega Brain's class: Crafting the Web.
Maintained and updated
with care.</p>
<br>
<p>Special thanks to: Jo Suk & Yi-Chun Lan for conversations about thesis, Chia Amisola for <a
href="https://chias.website/manifesto/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">MANIFESTO FOR
(WEB)SITE–SPECIFIC ART</a>, Malte Müller for <a href="http://www--arc.com/" target="_blank"
rel="noopener noreferrer">WEB DESIGN AS ARCHITECTURE</a>.
</p>
<br>
<p style="text-align: center;">(CLICK ANYWHERE IN THIS WINDOW TO CLOSE)</p>
</div>
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