It’s a wonderful, digital, visual world
Sarah Kristeller
Staff Writer
“A nearly life-sized Los Angeles made of cardboard.” “Trend setting movie posters of 1920’s Russia.” “Painterly visions of a lost Pulp Fiction World.” These are headlines that tantalize and titillate the artistically-leaning, culturally curious college student that longs to have his or her visual appetite satisfied by the infinite quarry of creative content available (for free!) on the internet today.
I’m not exactly the most internet-savvy of my friends. At best, I’m a novice in the field of seeking out stimulating web-based distractions, and pale in comparison to one of my roommates, whom I have recently dubbed “the meme queen.”
But that being said, I have moved past Etsy and Pinterest lately and have become a bit overzealous in my quest to seek out websites that transport me, at least temporarily, into a world in which I am clicks away from the beautiful, bizarre, amazing and awe-inspiring online world. And on my quest, I have found a few gems that I now humbly offer as my favorites from the vault. I apologize to those with blog-hopping expertise who may view these recommendations as old news. For those of you who are only now taking the plunge into the Elysian Fields of lazily accessed eye candy, please utilize these suggestions at your own risk.
The headlines mentioned above are pulled from my particular favorite, Visual News (visualnews.com), the website that tags itself as “The Cure for Eyeball Boredom.” What I like about Visual News is its accessibility to newbies like myself — there is new content up daily, presented with succinct articles related to the posts as well as links to the artists, foundations, or other collaborative forces involved. Another thing I like is what I see as the site’s ethical focus — it tends to feature work with important messages, spotlight artists with social consciences and vigorously eschews all forms of censorship. The posts are tagged with labels such as “Inforgraphics,” “Motion,” and “Faces and Places,” but, to be honest, I don’t find these categories incredibly helpful. It’s much more satisfying to simply view the posts chronologically, or hit the “Explore” button and be presented at random with visual tidbit from the archives.
Often in cahoots with Visual News is My Modern Metropolis (mymodernmet.com), an explosion of content compiled by bloggers who can create their own personal pages on the site. There is unbelievable work available on here, ranging from “Waterfall made from 300,000 plastic straws” to the bit more cute and clever, “Floating balloon bridal dresses” and cupcakes arranged to resemble Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
In a somewhat different format, there is also the new Google venture, simply called Art Project (googleartproject.com).Think of Google Earth, but inside the world’s most famous museums. The site allows you to get up close and personal with hundreds of artworks at high-zoom levels and create your own gallery of your favorite images.
Along this slightly more high-brow route is Brain Pickings (brainpickings.org), a site that seems to lean a bit more toward featuring content from the professional art world. One lazy click for a bit of research for the article, you know, just to see what they have today, led me on a plentifully procrastinating adventure through “The Curious Sofa: A ‘Pornographic Horror Story’ by Edward Gorey” (man do I love Edward Gorey.)
And this is only the beginning. For those more interested in video and film content, I recommend Laughing Squid (laughingsquid.com). For those who like their culture dosed with a bit of celebrity, or organized into pithy top-ten lists, check out Flavorwire (flavorwire.com). Anyone into typography needs to check out the mind-boggling and hilarious Type Everything (typeeverything.com). And if you’re all about creative, clever, product design, definitely don’t miss swissmiss (swiss-miss.com). Which reminds me, I need to go order that “Taxidermy Deer LEGO Kit” they just posted as a Christmas present for myself — I mean, for my nine-year old cousin.