Shred the Web: An Alternative Browser Makes Chaos out of Order No, our Web server didn't go berserk (at least not this time). The image at right is the home page of our very own Publish RGB as interpreted by Shredder 1.0, an alternative browser created by digital artist Mark Napier. Visitors to Napier's online installation simply type the URL of their choice into Shredder's Location dialog box and wait while the site's PERL-scripted filter deconstructs their intended destination. Suddenly text chokes the screen; shattered JPEG images dance in a cascade of code and color; a mangled ad banner blinks from beneath the rubble; chaos becomes the definition of order -- and an unexpected aesthetic emerges. After the metamor- phosis, links remain live, allowing you to actually surf through the digital debris. As Napier notes: "Web pages are temporary graphic images created when browsing software interprets HTML instructions. Collectively these instructions make up what we call the Web. But what if these instructions are interpreted differently than intended? Perhaps radically differently?" Napier's online art is a reminder of the shifting nature of perception and information and how the two can interact in unexpected ways. "By altering the HTML code before the browser reads it," he says, "Shredder appropriates the data of the Web, transforming it into a Œparallel Web.' Content becomes abstraction. Text becomes graphics. Information becomes art." If you're eager to try shredding your own little piece of the Web, simply head over to www.potatoland.org.

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