introduction
The archive contains copies of some of the websites I run and once ran.
Although I think archive.org and its sister sites do a brilliant job of archiving the web, they can only record what they find on the web when they scan, if they scan. I can recreate my old sites from my version control system, which allows me to select what I consider to be the best version to re–present, to be precise and complete with what’s shown, and to fine tune the re–presentation to suite contemporary conditions. Even so, I take advantage of archive.org et al, to, for example, ensure certain external links point to their original destinations, as archived. Mind you, getting all that right is a slow, iterative process.
Why do I do it? Well, first of all, there’s some old poetry sites from the series I ran for a few years, both in Ireland and Paris. They include some recordings which give presence to the moment of the readings, some of which I believe might be of genuine interest to poetry people.
Secondly, I think there is some value in recording the development of a website from the perspective of that site’s owner. The automatic hoovering sites automatically hoover whatever’s there, whereas I re–present, emphasising what I consider important; I can compensate for automatic hoovering failures, such as missing images; and I can correct errors, particularly coding errors, in the old sites.
The pages you see are not precisely the originals: for that, visit archive.org. I’ve modernised them for the contemporary web by correcting code to remove errors, updating links to point to their archive.org or https equivalents, and removing some things that were then safe but are now, in my opinion, more dangerous, such as links to elderly webrings and payment sites. Beyond this, I’ve tried to keep the feel of the original pages, so they appear pretty much the same as they did in their day.
arts & ego
dylanharris.org hosts arts & ego.
dylanharris.org :: 2002 ○ 2003 ○ 2004 ○ 2005 ○ 2006 ○ 2007 ○ 2008 ○ 2009 ○ 2010 ○ 2011 ○ 2012 ○ 2013 ○ 2014 ○ 2015 ○ 2016 ○ 2017 ○ 2018 ○ 2019 ○ 2020
devon garde
I’ve written, performed and recorded music over the years. I released one album, flock state, on tunecore. To support the album, I created the occasionally resurrected devongarde.com.
devongarde.com :: 2009 ○ 2010 ○ 2019
Accompanying the website was the + devon garde + podcast.
poets live
In Paris, I resurrected the old Live Poets series as Poets Live. I ran it until early 2012, when I handed it on. The site stayed live until 2015, when new organisers built a completely new site.
poets-live.com :: 2010 ○ 2011 ○ 2012 ○ 2013 ○ 2014 ○ 2015
I produced some podcasts from recordings of poets live events.
precursors
I ran these precursor sites before I created arts & ego. I set them up because I was working as a self–employed software guy. They didn’t really work: I didn’t understand then that a website per se doesn’t attract business. Over time, they drifted from business to personal stuff, so, in 2002, I replaced them with this site.
cyberspace.co.uk ::
1998 ○
1999 ○
2000 ○
2001 ○
2002
xenakis.demon.co.uk ::
1996 ○
1997 ○
1998 ○
1999
There were earlier precursor sites, now lost, at Compuserve and Global Internet.
recent
I wouldn’t add recent sites to this archive were it not for self–serving failures by domain vendors. harris.eu.com was up for a few years, but vanished because the DNS vendor’s automated spam detector detected their own domain renewal reminders as spam, so didn’t bother to deliver them to me—thus I didn’t renew in time. I most certainly wasn’t going to pay their ridiculous fee for late renewal (a strange coincidence that, their own over–zealous spam software meant they significantly increased the fee they charged for domain renewal), so I gave up the domain. Although the vendor was local, this reminded me of blighty, where such behaviour is characteristic of the malicious incompetence that dominates UK business practice, and is one of the reasons I left the place. On principle, I refuse to pay extra costs that arise out of a seller’s ‘errors’.
I also controlled the domain bugger.be. When it was nearly due for renewal, I decided to move the domain from one vendor to another, because the first stopped supporting email (my primary use of bugger.be). The second vendor took such a long time to process the change that the renewal date passed, and they refused to address that. Thus their laziness, their malicious incomptence, lost me the domain. Since that domain never had a web presence, beyond a redirect to arts & ego, it’s not archived here.
harris.eu.com :: 2021 ○ 2022 ○ 2023
rejected experiments
Although arts & ego has always been a static site, I’ve experimented with other formats. These are the rejected experiments that have some small value, in my thoroughly biased opinion.
arts & ego interactive ::
2010 ○
2011 ○
2012
dylanharris.eu ::
2009 ○
2010
hackingtimes.com ::
2003
web.mac.com/artsandego ::
2007
wurm im apfel
Wurm im apfel was a poetry reading series that ran for a while in Dublin. It was organised by me and Kit Fryatt. I dropped out when I left to work in Paris. Kit continued it for a number of years. The archive only really covers the time when I was involved.
We ran the series (wurm im apfel), a small press (wurm press), and even a one shot poetry festival (wurmfest).
wurmfest.com ::
2009 ○
2010
wurmimapfel.com ::
2008 ○
2009 ○
2010
wurmpress.com ::
2009 ○
2010
I produced some podcasts from recordings of wurm im apfel and wurmfest events.