The
idea of a "
parallel web" is interesting in
theory, and equally
disturbing and
fascinating in practice.
The idea is to have a large group of websites linked to one another, but not to the "web" as a whole. Envision what we think of as the World Wide Web, a group of web pages that we can browse our way through by clicking through the links that bind them all together. A visual representation tends to look like more than a vast sea of neurons than a spider's web, but you get the idea.
Now, imagine a second "web", coexisting with the first one, ideally equal in size, but not connected in any way to the "normal" web. Today's commercialized HTML Web is far too bloated and expansive to truly make this possible, but this is only the first part of the idea.
The specific kind of Parallel Web I'm talking about isn't merely a second, disconnected network of webpages, but rather a type of artistic endeavor that -used- to be best exemplified by Hell.com. This website was a portal to a sort of Parallel web, but with a twist.
Each page in this parallel web "makes no sense", to put it blandly. Each page attempts to operationalize the entire concept of a "user interface".
The pages contain no information.
The pages don't link anywhere useful.
The pages don't link to any files, or serve any obvious function.
Each page is a study of the GUI (Graphical User Interface) as a work of art unto itself. These are not for the meek of heart. Your "objective" is never clear, because there never is any. The cleverly crafted HTML, Flash, or Shockwave modules serve no purpose other than to provide you with an experience that will challenge the way you think about computers and how they are meant to be used. Back when Hell.com linked to CHAOS (the random module portal), I would spend hours at a time experimenting with the modules within. Sometimes the "point" was not all that obvious, and a great deal of experimentation with cursor movement and clicking was required. Fortunately, if you got frustrated or bored, you could simply close the window, and a new one would spring up in its place.
If you go to (http://chaos.no-such.com/1.html), you can see a good example of what I'm talking about. Disappointed that "access" to "CHAOS" had been "suspended", I hunted around the directory structure and found this link back to what I had remembered from my previous journeys. Many of the modules are "works in progress", and some are as old as 1993.
Hell.com's Gateway (http://hell.com/gateway) still has some amazing modules on it, but the chaos.no-such.com link is preferable, in my opinion.
Although I have explored these "parallel webs" for several years, I know nothing about the people who create them. I'm sure this is no accident, I highly suspect little to no organization exists between the authors of these web Experiences. Any further information regarding this phenomenon would be greatly appreciated.
I've often thought how ironic it would be if a server full of these "parallel webs" was the only thing salvaged after the death of our civilization by some alien race, a collection of completely useless, informationless, yet utterly fascinating GUIs.