Cyber Secrets #7: Network Awesome
The World Wide Web has become a virtual universe illuminating the reach of collective human imagination, which stretches farther every day. In our monthly series, we explore the forgotten corners and disused spaces of this universe, revealing some of the most ingenious, absurd and wonderful rest stops of the information superhighway. For our latest sojourn we asked Jason Forrest, AKA DJ Donna Summer, AKA the brains behind Network Awesome, to take us through some of his vaunted video site as well as provide a few other favourites from around the web.
Donald Duck in Mathmagic Land
The Network Awesome Tumblr is run by a genius named Isaac Hicks. Like most of our volunteers he wrote us one day and said, “Hey, I want to make animated gifs for you.” We said, “Sure, sounds great!” I believe this gif he made of Donald Duck was like the third or fourth one, and when he emailed it over, I was like, “You’re our guy!”
Gifmelter
Use this tool to turn any gif into a life-altering experience. Probably the most deeply engrossing piece of computer art I have seen lately.
All of John Cage’s Recordings on YouTube (As of September 5, 2012)
Want to hear nearly ALL of John Cage’s music? Our video curator Markus Fiedler nearly killed himself putting together a 33 HOUR LONG collection of clips of Cage’s compositions.
Max Capacity
Max Capacity is a friend of ours whose work has caused us to rethink our idea of beauty. His gifs of hacked Nintendo games, VHS tapes and pretty much anything else are all burned with an acid color scheme that goes beyond psychedelic.
Jungle: A London Somet’ing Dis 1993
My buddy Pete Cassin, AKA Dev Null, runs an old-school jungle/rave site called Blog To The Oldskool, and he passed us this amazing documentary about jungle from right when it was getting started back in ’93. At Network Awesome we also have a digital magazine and we also feature in-depth articles about one of our shows each day. One of our writers, Ian McQuaid elaborates on it here.
Everynone
Everynone is a video production team that makes epic overarching commentaries on what it’s like to be human. They have a highly refined visual sense and even though some of their messages are already sort of understood, they are extremely powerful.
Tabor Robak’s “Explosions”
For the love of god, if you don’t know Tabor Robak’s mind blowing video for Fatima Al Qadiri’s song “Vatican Vibes” then I am legitimately sorry for you. But if you do, then you may or may not know about this art video he did called “Explosions,” which is probably the most insane thing ever made. Luckily he gives you only one minute of the full 90 minutes on his website.
Awesome Tapes From Africa Weekend
Awesome Tapes From Africa is probably one of the best music blogs around. It’s exactly what it says it is: Awesome music from tapes found only in Africa. Imagine our delight when head honcho Brian Shimkovitz agreed to curate two full days for us, delivering 12 shows bursting with the same amazing music that most non-Africans would never find out about. It comes complete with an amazing collection of African TV Commercials.
