Tilman

The Tiny Awards celebrate “the small, poetic, creative, handmade web”: non-commercial websites by individuals or small groups, nominated and voted on by the public. For me, they have become an important signpost of the web revival. So many creative people are publishing awesome and interesting stuff on the web, far away from the algorithm-trodden (para-)social media silos.

This year’s winner is Cursor Camp by Neal Agarwal: a summer camp where you hang out with strangers as nothing but your mouse cursor. No chat, just campfire, dancing and secrets to find. It is another addition to Neal’s already impressive collection of neat web things on neal.fun. Cursor Camp is wonderful place online, fun, social and perfectly executed. Absolutely worthy of the award.

My minor gripe: Cursor Camp is not really “small” and “handmade”. The credits, hidden in the camp, list a creator, a producer, an illustrator and an animator. Everything is on a professional level. That does not make it any less wonderful. But it feels as if smaller, more amateurish projects were pushed to the side this year. Understandably, many voted for the shiny, big and impressive one. Yet it lacks that “Oh, that inspires me to do something on the web myself!” feeling.

So have a look at the other finalists. My favourite is GEOKASH, Kash’s personal archive of software, hardware and things, “meant for exploring, not merely passing through”. You leave it wanting to build your own.

An initiative by the alternative search engine Kagi, launched in September 2023. It surfaces recent posts from personal, non-commercial websites that the big search rankings tend to bury: kagi.com/smallweb^*

Also added to the Small Web garden page at tilman.me/garden/Alternative+Web+Movements/Small+Web^*

Every now and then you find someone who really owns their corner of the web. AJ Gonzalez (ajgenerated.com^*) is one: he builds his own universe on his own sites, and itch.io, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok feed into it instead of contain it.

His main project, Official Electric, is a fictional brand celebrating its "35th anniversary", complete with an invented corporate history. The homepage was recently streamlined. It's faster and more legible now, but a lot of the character went with the redesign. That is why I recommend starting at the "Brand Guide" (officialelectric.com/pages/about):^* Swiss Helvetica grids meet retro computer print material, some of it historical, beautifully composed.

His games show his signature style: glitchy and colorful low-res pixel art. The latest, RUIN, is half interactive artwork, half mysterious puzzle. There is a "definitive edition" coming in 2027, but you can already play the "chapter 0" demo on officialelectric.itch.io/ruin.^*

The merch also looks great, though the Shopify site leans a bit towards selling. Also check out nothing.gallery^*, a walkable 3D web gallery in the same style.

Added www.blogsareback.com^* to tilman.me/garden/Alternative+Web+Movements/Weblogs+and+Blogging^*

Tristan Perich's 1-Bit Symphony (2015) is a beautiful, raw piece of art. Five movements, played by a single microchip in a clear CD case — not a recording at all, but a circuit that performs the music live when you switch it on, straight out of a headphone jack in the case itself. Absolute transparency: the hardware is visible, the code is the score, and on-and-off electrical pulses written in assembly are all there is between data and sound.

The sound is harsh and technical, and it takes some getting used to. But stay with it and those square waves stack into something genuinely symphonic — complex, driving, and well worth an hour of your attention. Steve Reich became a fan after hearing it, comparing it to Stravinsky's Petrushka.

You can listen to it online, but be aware: The hardware is the point: the object computes its music in front of you, once, live, and that is what makes it singular. Put it on a streaming platform and it becomes a file like any other — accessible everywhere but stripped of exactly the thing that makes it unique. You don't have to buy the real thing to appreciate it. But what you get online is the composition, not the complete work.

tristanperich.bandcamp.com/album/1-bit-symphony^*
open.spotify.com/album/3mIM5FCmzb8Fvp1gkIQhsc^*