Click Here...
Click Here… is an interactive installation that showcases an archive of early web banner ads in different languages curated from the Wayback Machine.
Click Here… is composed of a period-appropriate CRT monitor, a computer mouse, and a wall projection. Visitors can click the mouse to browse through banner ad frames centered on the iconic phrase "click here" (or equivalent phrases in different languages) on the monitor. Each time a new frame is loaded, the wall projection showcases the web page where the banner ad originally appeared.
By highlighting the most archetypical phrase in these ads and showcasing the web pages where these ads originally appeared, Click Here… is both a demonstration of the commercial culture during the dot-com years and a comparative study of the distinctive characteristics and commonalities of early web design patterns between web pages in different languages. Click Here… invites visitors to reflect upon the pervasive nostalgia of the past web that is in vogue today, highlighting a tension between romanticizing the dot-com era and acknowledging its complex legacy that formed the foundation of the many privacy, security, and usability challenges we face today on the Internet.
Collaboration with Yufeng Zhao.
Project exhibited at 2024 SPAM New Media Festival in Seattle.
