For the third year, the Tiny Awards have released their list of finalists that represent “the best of the small, poetic, creative, handmade web.” Voting is now open and runs until the end of this month, closing on September 1.
I was on the judging committee this year, returning after a year away to focus on the final XOXO, and helped narrow down the finalists from 176 nominated websites.
I love this little low-stakes contest, and the experience of being bombarded with so many great weird experimental projects is an honor for me.
Like my roundup two years ago, here’s a little about each of this year’s 11 finalists to help inform your vote.
10,000 Drum Machines
Maxwell Neely-Cohen’s project to collect 10,000 drum machines is only 0.35% of the way to its goal, but has surprised me so many times with simple, weird, and elegant ideas for what a drum machine can be, using inspiration as diverse as earthquake data, Minesweeper, the bouncing DVD logo, and YouTube samples to turn the web into a musical instrument.
Fifty Thousand Names
Built on an open dataset of the Palestinian death toll, Fifty Thousand Names is a single page with a stark visualization of 50,000 of the first Palestinians killed in the ongoing Gaza genocide, with names, ages, and birthdays turned into a short sentence or two about each person.
i feel so much shame
Jackie Liu’s i feel so much shame is an interactive narrative made entirely from scanned Risograph prints, made during her Welcome to my Homepage digital artist residency and published in The HTML Review’s fourth issue.
consumed.today
A daily digest of the food and media that makes up Shen’s diet, the minimalist consumed.today expands into one giant list with photos, links, and chomping sound effects.
Internet Roadtrip
Every few seconds, everyone currently visiting Internet Roadtrip votes which direction they want to drive on a Google Street View map, and the most votes wins. (You can also vote to change the radio station or honk the horn, which have both developed their own customs and lore.) That simple idea from Neal.fun‘s Neal Agarwal spawned a thriving Discord with various factions metagaming the trip and documenting the highlights, touching the physical world in strange and magical ways as they’ve virtually driven from Boston to Newfoundland, with countless detours along the way.
Nest
Turn on and off music tracks and click and drag the background to create the audio soundscape of Nest, composed by algorithmic artist/musician Raphaël Bastide around a breakbeat MP3 made by the artist Bruno Gola.
elle’s homepage
You can feel the love in every corner of Elle’s homepage, from the start screen and isometric pixel art to the clothing changes and built-in source code browser. So many wonderful small touches. (Don’t miss the 404 page.)
Traffic Cam Photobooth
Morry Kolman (aka WTTDOTM) repurposed thousands of New York City’s traffic cameras into selfie cameras with Traffic Cam Photobooth, raising awareness of public surveillance while earning him huge media attention and a cease-and-desist from NYC’s Department of Transportation — which he then photographed on a traffic cam.
Cloudgazing
Cloudgazing is a site where you can draw pictures you see in clouds, share them with others, and see what other people saw in them. (One nice touch: click the play button to see an animation of the original drawing.)
Historical Tech Tree
An audacious project by Étienne Fortier-Dubois, Historical Tech Tree is an interactive visualization of the entire history of technology and invention, from prehistory to today, with a focus on the connections between technologies.
715-999-7483
The screenshot below is not what 715-999-7483.com looks like — at least, not anymore. Brian Moore made a website anyone can change with a phone call: just dial the number in the domain, wait until your turn, and say aloud what you want to see on the site. Chaos ensues.
So much good stuff!
Go check them all out and vote for your favorite by September 1. I’ll post the winner here when it’s announced.