Version 0.0.1
About the Tool
The NAD Tool is a browser-based application developed by Daniela Hönigsberg to support the investigation and analysis of web-based artistic practices and to assist researchers, curators, and students in identifying webpages that diverge from conventional design practices.
The current version allows users to input a URL and receive a classification of the webpage as likely conventional, possibly artistic, or likely artistic. The goal is not to label sites definitively but to surface indicators of alternative design logics that might otherwise go unnoticed in the multitude of standardized web content.
The tool works by analyzing the HTML structure of a given webpage. It looks for a set of features identified as part of conventional or artistic web design. Conventional features include elements typically found in commercial and structurally modern websites like navigation bars, structured sections, login areas, cookie banners, meta tags, or analytics scripts. These elements tend to follow contemporary best practices for usability, accessibility, and SEO, and they reflect the norms of professional web development.
By contrast, the artistic features that are identified by the tool are connected to a different set of priorities. These might include outdated or deprecated HTML tags such as <blink>, <marquee>, or <frameset>, or image based or complete absence of a navigation structure. They also include the use of animated GIFs, randomizing scripts, absolute positioning, or experimental typography. In the context of internet-based art, these practices can be deliberate aesthetic decisions, drawing attention to the materiality of the web or playfully repurposing obsolete functions. Of course, some of the pages identified in this way may not be contemporary artworks but historical ones, created with code that now is obsolete. If such pages remain accessible online, this requires conscious effort and investment in their preservation, which might be a hint that someone considers them worth preserving them as digital cultural heritage.
Rather than assuming a neutral web, this app assumes that every website makes choices about how it engages with browser conventions. By surfacing these features and drawing attention to formal decisions that break with convention, the app contributes to our larger investigation into hidden internet art. It is designed to assist working with fragile or unconventional web material, particularly in searching for signs of artistic activity in places where it is not explicitly marked as such.
The tool runs as a Python script and returns both a final classification and a breakdown of which features were detected. It is intended as a support mechanism for researchers working with experimental or archival web material, particularly where large-scale automated scanning might help locate or rediscover artistic content across the web.
In Development
The NAD Tool is under active development, and several important features are currently being prepared for future integration:
Crawling Mode
While the current version of the tool analyzes individual URLs, the long-term goal is to enable a mode that automatically crawls the web to identify potentially artistic webpages at scale. This would allow researchers to scan larger sections of the internet for unconventional or historic sites. The automated crawling feature is currently not part of the public version due to legal uncertainties. We are in the process of clarifying data protection and copyright considerations, especially regarding the use of automated data collection on publicly available websites. Until these questions are resolved, the crawling module remains available only for internal research purposes.
This tool is developed as part of an ongoing COSE research project into the structures of internet-based artworks. Feedback, suggestions, and collaborations are welcome.