Compose styles
Rather than blending styles toward a middle, this gives them roles. The first one carries the structure, the next comes in as the accent, and anything after that shows up in a single detail. Where they fight each other, it says so before you start.
How to divide the work
- Composition
- Follow Net.art: Make navigation the composition, assuming back buttons and several windows
- Type
- Set in Net.art's manner (Use default browser fonts and leave underlined links undecorated), and let Web 1.0's lettering (System sans and monospace) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Net.art's material (HTML, GIF, error screens and slow loading treated as material); bring in exactly one thing from Web 1.0 (White background, blue links, dithered images).
- Colour
- Build on #ffffff, #0000ee, #111111 and admit one accent from #c9c9c9, #0000ee, #111111.
Where they fight
These are already listed as related entries, so the join should come easily.
Caution
- Net.art Reproducing the early web look as a flat image leaves nothing that links, transmits or invites participation, and the network that was the site of the work disappears.
- Web 1.0 Don't regress actual accessibility. Separate the look from interaction quality.
Image prompt
Produce four original images that take their structure from Net.art (style, 1990s–) and their accent from Web 1.0 (style, 1990s). ## What to make Make the kind of thing Net.art exists for: publishing work at a URL when it can only exist inside a browser, or making the mechanics of transmission and surveillance the subject itself. Choose one subject and hold it across all four. ## Structure comes from Net.art - Link structures - Browser UI - Errors - Participation and transmission Composition: Make navigation the composition, assuming back buttons and several windows. Type and lettering: Use default browser fonts and leave underlined links undecorated. ## Accent comes from Web 1.0, used sparingly - Blue links - Low-res GIFs - System fonts - Plain buttons Let one material quality come from it: White background, blue links, dithered images. ## Colour and feeling Build the ground on #ffffff, carry the structure in #0000ee and #111111, and let a single accent come from #0000ee. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette. Feeling to carry: rebellion, technique, play, nostalgia. ## What goes wrong - Net.art: Reproducing the early web look as a flat image leaves nothing that links, transmits or invites participation, and the network that was the site of the work disappears. - Web 1.0: Don't regress actual accessibility. Separate the look from interaction quality. ## Across the four Keep the roles fixed in all four. Vary the framing, the scale and the arrangement so the set shows what this pairing can do rather than four versions of one picture. ## Constraints - Do not imitate, reference or name any specific artist, studio, brand, character or copyrighted work. - Do not reproduce the composition of an existing work. - Produce original compositions in the general period languages described above.
Related entries
- Net.art 1990s– / Style / Digital Art
Treats the browser, the link, the transmission error and the network itself as both the material and the site of the work.
- Web 1.0 1990s / Style / Digital Retro
Reuses the naivety of the constrained early web as directness and charm. In the 2020s it came back as a movement to take the personal site back, gathering under names like Neocities and Yesterweb.
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