super GOOD!
For my first 'case study' (aka showcase of a net.art site...) i present to you superbad.com. This was my first exposure to a true peice of web art. I was in junior high when i first saw this, and at the time i had no idea about the concepts of net.art was, all i knew is that this new type of webpage i had sumbled upon was very unique in its experience, and that i loved it. superbad is usually one of the first sites i point people to when the topic of strange websites comes up. 
One of the most noticable aspects of the site (and one that makes it quite dynamic) is that the front page changes periodically (the front page as i saw it today when i visited the site can be seen to the right). The rest of the pages that make up the site do not change, but the order that you experience them is sort of random, based on blindly clicking on unlablel links within pages, that then direct you to new pages with more strange links.
Each page is a mini exercise in design. Which should come as no suprise, since the maker of the site, Ben Benjamin, is a graphic artist by trade.
Things that i enjoy about the site, and keep me coming back, are that it is an interesting visual adventure, it is comically absurd, and it has a very strong sense of design (however disjointed that design is...). The adventure begins with the ever changing front page, and every path through the links that you choose is different. It is like a maze in that aspect, but there really is no way out, only a way in and the means to navagate around. The sense of humor comes out in the references to pop culture, and bizzare stories, usually about very mundane or grim events but with some odd twist.
On the Whitney Museum's 'Artport' there is a collection of some net.art sites, as a sort of exhibition.. and superbad is one of them. On that site they describe Benjamin's seemingly random maze of mini sites as a reflection of the web as a whole. Whether this was intended by Benjamin to begin with or not, it is intrinsically true, probably just due to the fact that it is on the web itself. But, never the less the meaning has been placed on it, and there it will stand.
Whether you choose to look at the superbad as a reflection of the internet or not, it's still a strange and fun experience.
One of the most noticable aspects of the site (and one that makes it quite dynamic) is that the front page changes periodically (the front page as i saw it today when i visited the site can be seen to the right). The rest of the pages that make up the site do not change, but the order that you experience them is sort of random, based on blindly clicking on unlablel links within pages, that then direct you to new pages with more strange links.
Each page is a mini exercise in design. Which should come as no suprise, since the maker of the site, Ben Benjamin, is a graphic artist by trade.
Things that i enjoy about the site, and keep me coming back, are that it is an interesting visual adventure, it is comically absurd, and it has a very strong sense of design (however disjointed that design is...). The adventure begins with the ever changing front page, and every path through the links that you choose is different. It is like a maze in that aspect, but there really is no way out, only a way in and the means to navagate around. The sense of humor comes out in the references to pop culture, and bizzare stories, usually about very mundane or grim events but with some odd twist.
On the Whitney Museum's 'Artport' there is a collection of some net.art sites, as a sort of exhibition.. and superbad is one of them. On that site they describe Benjamin's seemingly random maze of mini sites as a reflection of the web as a whole. Whether this was intended by Benjamin to begin with or not, it is intrinsically true, probably just due to the fact that it is on the web itself. But, never the less the meaning has been placed on it, and there it will stand.
Whether you choose to look at the superbad as a reflection of the internet or not, it's still a strange and fun experience.
posted by eygji at 1:22 AM
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