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by Jason Torchinsky
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As you can hopefully tell, the Van Gogh-Goghs have finally redesigned their website. Since we first got on the Internet back in 1966 (back then, the ARPAnet) we've gone through over 20 site redesigns, sometimes to keep up with the times, but more often to avoid the lawsuits that come with the unauthorized use of certain popular cartoon characters.
When it came time to redesign our site this time, we were under a great deal of pressure to computerize the entire site. While this may be the popular idea right now, I made the decision that to go to a computerized website at this point in time is premature; we will utilize computers for certain site aspects (recipe storage, loan amortization, etc.) but the site itself will not be dependent on them.
The hybrid system we came up with is described in the diagram below. It involves the creation of each page on a large (12'x9') plywood board. The elements of the site are rendered in tempera paints, and the text is overlayed on the images via acetone sheets, making for easier editing and updating. Rollovers and button actions are accomplished via a simple rig of electric lights and switches mounted on the obverse side of the page boards.
The boards are imaged with an off-the-shelf camera, sent to our server, and then sent to you, dear browser. I want to especially thank Rob Terrell for all his incredible technical work he did in implementing the connections between the camera and computer, and in the ingenious 'voice' system he developed that alerts our team of 75 former vagrants (soon to be replaced by trained chimpanzees) which pageboard to muscle into position.
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So that's pretty much how it works. All the Van Gogh-Goghs worked hard on the site, and we really hope that you enjoy it. It should be close to bug-free at this point, and we are proud to say that there is now only a miniscule 42% chance that viewing any of our web pages will entirely reformat your hard drive. So browse on! And, if you have anything you'd like to tell us about the new site, go ahead and email us. Godspeed. |
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