A Journey

This is the begining of a journey that can take years. Nothing will ever be explained. This is not a game. You will never understand. It takes patience.

http://www.hell.com

Too Strange - even for the Web - welcome to HELL
Of the 350 million or so websites out there, probably less than 50 have gained fame or notoriety. Most that have got festooned with adverts or bought up by large corporations. Despite refusing advertising and the temptations of commercialism - indeed despite refusing any of it's visitors admission since it's inception, one site has gained legendary status on the net. Today, take yourself to Hell!

"HELL.COM was conceived as the antithesis of the the web" states a Hell press release, "a site with no content accessible to the pubic, never listed in any directory or search engine nor linked anywhere averages well in excess of 1 million hits per month from word of mouth and people typing the name into their browsers." It's founder - LA artist Kenneth Aronson says "Hell is devoted to establishing a new frontier in the digital world, that has no tethers to anything existing. our goal is to stretch the boundaries of new media & technology to create new dimensions in human experience."

On first glance Hell seems a most unwelcoming place. When it first grabbed the public eye, visitors to the site at http://www.hell.com were simply told to "Go Away". There was virtually no information available, but due to the intrigue and secrecy, Hell became an enigma - and one of the most visited sites on the net. More and more people wondered what the site was doing there. Was it a front for a satanic cult ? a secretive organisation ? a strange joke ?
Hell may have started as a windup, a conceptual art joke, but founder Aronson developed it into a project involving "Cutting Edge" web designers and artists. It provided an area where they could let themselves go (creatively speaking).
"HELL is a private parallel web accessible only to resident members. the project is a collective of the most talented & revolutionary developers from around the world with member teams from 19 countries." as the site says. Members invited to join the project (you can not apply for membership) contribute to a chaotic website that is unavailable to members of the public. This features the latest advances in Website design and technology incorporated into disturbing, beautiful, surreal art - ideas and styles bouncing into each other and cross referencing as only hyperlinked HTML things can.

In recent years it has opened some aspects up to the public - allowing them to preview exhibition sites by associated artists. A recent public site involving a number of Hell members was called Surface. 14,000 visitors were given a glimpse into a world similar to Hell's private parallel web - a highly saturated, rollercoaster ride through a "Bladerunner" dreamscape, with each corner turned and each hyperlink followed bringing new fear, colour, humour and confusion.
Having previewed the site myself, I can say that it definitely breaks boundaries that you haven't even thought of. The average visitor to the exhibition spends about 90 minutes and visits over 200 pages (such is the depth of the site) !