Mark Napier’s “Shredder” (1998)
This other work of Mark Napier is in a way similar to FEED, that with the user’s help “slices and dices everything in its path, turning any Web page into what could be mistaken for a work of abstract digital art”. Through Shredder, you can choose any URL or pick one of the bookmarked options. Shredder was much quicker in producing its outcome, literally destructing the website into colors, text and numbers. I tried out a few other websites besides the bookmarked ones and it was interesting to see the colors and familiar aspects from the original websites that became distorted and abstract. While FEED took sometimes minutes to finish developing more colors and shapes, Shredder only took a few moments. I found the FEED website to be slightly more amusing because I would enjoy watching it evolve, it was very entertaining to watch the colors move and have more and more appear. Mark Napier’s work is not only interesting in what it produces, but it is also intriguing because of how it is interactive and involves the user to type in a URL or choose one before the “art” is made.
