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Gardening is a practice of cultivation. Removed from the earth and the hands that feed, this corporeal, laborious act becomes a trending concept.

Hypertext gardens and digital gardens are different in terms of the context they stemmed from, and for what purpose.

The hypertext garden caters to the reader/audience/user, by attempting to address issues of navigation, web design, and crafted engagements. This was in response to the novelty and relative freedom of the internet in the 90s and early 2000s, eager about the possibilities of experimental narrative/content structure and reader/user agency.

The digital garden is the attempt to regain a semblance of agency and identity in an internet dictated by "clout" and viral content. It is building a "second brain" or personalized knowledge system, individually nurtured rather than peer influenced, and focusing on depth rather than scope. This is a response to a completely different internet, ruled by social media and feedback-based algorithms.

(c) VALS, 2021 

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