Scope: Digital, Design Research
Timeline: Dec 2022 – Apr 2023
Tools: Illustrator, Photoshop, Website Builder (Cargo), Figma
My undergraduate thesis project responds to the aestheticized, decontextualized version of 90s internet that is sold to appeal to our collective nostalgia. It questions how the cyberspaces of the 90s, the “utopic”, “simplified” digital space are remembered, and how a surface level understanding of them can be commodified and weaponized by capitalism. It uses 90s amateur web aesthetics (bright, rich, personal, and under construction) to explore themes of nostalgia, archives, and the relationship between amateur web designers and “professional designers”.
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/64ef5384b5c9feef638d15be/6501088012ab1f5ec8fe67a9_figma%20walkthrough1%20(1).gif)
Opening screen of part one of the project.
Capitalism understands and exploits our collective nostalgia for economic gain. It forces the drive for innovation of art into atrophy and continues to mine for our cultural past in an increasingly invasive manner. What is left are the remnants, the digital ghosts that represent a better world that never came. It forces the drive for innovation of art into atrophy and continues to mine for our cultural past in increasingly invasive manners.
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/64ef5384b5c9feef638d15be/650108280d134d051130ba17_figma%20walkthrough2.gif)
Selected screens from part one of the project.
Part One: Researched into the 90s amateur web, its users, and the digital archival practices.
Part Two: I created a satirical movie site that has all the “mangled limbs” but none of the spirit. A hypothetical world where a media corporation launches a drag-and-drop site builder as a promotional piece for an upcoming movie about ghosts and monsters. A drag-and-drop site is rather ironic because it is so antithetical to what Web 1.0 was about.
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/64ef5384b5c9feef638d15be/6500ee8dec7b624d3b152505_welcome%20clip.gif)
Opening screen of part one of the project.
Part 3: A
directorywas made to showcase creative and interesting websites (1995 - 1999) that were archived on the Wayback Machine.
Part 4: Developed a website that hosted all the three parts above, descriptions of the projects, visual credits, and additional notes.
The
information page is the collation of the research done in Part One. It presents the thesis of the project — While the World Wide Web and its instant connections have seemingly collapsed the confines of time and space, it is increasingly difficult for us to imagine and look forward to what the future could look like. The irony of this failure is that we look back to the past to experience nostalgia for utopias that never happened, and things come back to haunt us.
The
credits page hosts all the GIFs used in Part Two of the project (satirical website). Each GIF is linked to the Geocities website it was originally hosted on, via the Wayback Machine.
The
projects page contains a recording of Part Two of the project (satirical website) run-through and its Figma link.