Hegirascope reminded me of a website I used to go to all the time when I was in high school: SuperBad.com (no relation to the movie). I don’t remember exactly how I came across it (it was probably featured on Bored.com or a similar website), but after the discussions we’ve had in class and the different readings we’ve done I went back to check it out with a new perceptive.
The site operates basically the same way as Hegirascope: click on links to navigate through a labyrinth of oddities and non-sequiturs.
The most obvious difference between the two is Superbad’s use of pictures and animation in addition to text. It also has a variety of “anti-games,” which are basically scroll-over-manipulatable picture patterns (I’m sure there’s a technical or at least better term). They’re not really games at all, in the sense that there is no purpose or goal, but for some reason being able to change the colors and pictures of the page brings a inexplicable sense of satisfaction to my life.
The pages on Superbad are also less uniform than Hegirascope. Instead of four different links per page, there are anywhere from one to forty-two(+) links per page. Some pages will have only one that redirects you to the same page every time and sometimes the same links will randomly redirect you to a completely different page every time. The pages don’t automatically refresh either, which gives you more time to ponder the eccentricities.
According to Wikipedia (citation needed) it was created by Ben Benjamin in 1997, and received a Webby Award in 1999 in the “weird” category. Benjamin is quoted as saying that “he didn’t really start thinking of Superbad as art until the art people started finding it.”
Here are just a few examples of the different kinds of pages:
http://superbad.com/1/trunk/trunk.html: Like Hegirascope, the index seems a good place to start until you realize that there is no way to know what you’ll actually be taken to. But I suppose you have to start somewhere…
http://superbad.com/1/heaven/heaven.html
http://superbad.com/1/fall/piano.html : Here’s an example of a page with only animation.
http://superbad.com/1/plumbing/index.html: Here’s a good example of one of the many “anti-games” on the site, accompanied by an intriguing micro scene.
I’m not sure where Superbad.com ranks in terms of textual media credibility, if there is even such a thing, but I really enjoy this site and I think it’s at least worth a look.
