random collections

After all these years, I’m still undecided about my definition of the Internet: it could be one of the greatest inventions ever, capable of archiving so much accessible information, or a mountain of crap, designed to waste our time. Of course, as with most definitions these days, it’s probably both, or rather a melding of the two which, like the tides of the seas changes direction with nearly every ‘open in new tab’ click I make. Below are samples and links to some random collections which have been gathering in my tabs (which I’m notorious for having many of).

Random randoms

“huh” and “hulk911” are just two of the hundred-plus images you’ll find stashed at this random folder on negative.net – I don’t even remember where I got this link from! Seriously!

Artists Shop Windows

Peter Gerwin Hoffmann, lesbar =1+2
Art in Shop-windows, Graz, 1979. 09.21.-10.05.
collection of images of shop windows as arranged and displayed by artists around the world spanning many decades. completely random images, many of which i’ve never seen before. hosted on some hungarian server

Free Science Lectures Online

Data Mining, Algorithms, A Taste of Haskell (Functional Programming Language) – it’s all right here!

Square America

Perhaps the most ‘valuable’ collection of the bunch, this archive of square-formatted images capture a type of Folk archive, of intimate American perspectives which inadvertently underpin a lot that is great and wonderful about this land and expose our – or definitely my – obsession with visual culture.

You’ll be clicking for hours: Square America

Party Pics

Less a collection of anything specific and more another one of those random tab appearances, I have no idea where this one comes from. Some place called the cobra snake with a dizzying amount of party photos, which is impressive for a place that I can’t figure out where it is or what it’s about! But obviously somebodies are having fun! (click back to the future for the top-level collection!)

Video Data Bank

And lastly, a true resource collection.

the Video Data Bank – VDB – is quite possibly one of the greatest resources for video art in the United States if not the world! That’s saying a ton, and while the size is small and the loading questionable you can watch a few thousand works of video art here – of if you get a chance to be in Chicago, visit their facility on S. Michigan Avenue, it’s an archivist shrine!