Building benches for the web

Source: Building benches for the web, Spencer Chang, Instagram Reel, 0:58, posted 2026-08-18.

Spencer Chang starts with a diagnosis: “the internet has no benches.” His class at the School for Poetic Computation turned that image into fifty small social websites built with Playhtml. The sites support real-time interaction and preserve traces after a visitor leaves, so each page can feel like a place shared with other people rather than a stream of disposable posts.

The examples make the idea concrete. One site is a message board for worms whose messages compost over time. Others take the form of a data-conscious video chat, a club, a farmers’ market, a shared jukebox, and a quilt that several visitors can weave together. Each site gives one social act its own interface instead of forcing every exchange through the same profile, feed, and reaction system.

Chang presents these sites as alternatives for social media. Their small scale leaves room for peculiar subjects and local rules, while Playhtml supplies the shared presence and persistence that make a website feel inhabited. The class website publishes the projects and syllabus at https://class.playhtml.fun/ so other people can build their own versions.

Limits

The Reel presents the class and its projects in under one minute. It shows short visual fragments rather than explaining how Playhtml stores data, handles identity, moderates shared spaces, or protects visitors. Chang’s claim concerns the social possibilities of small websites; the Reel does not compare their technical limits with larger platforms.