MFT: Abstract Browsing - making web abstracter!

"Abstract Browsing" is a thing of beauty. It is a browser plugin that brings abstraction of the browsing website to the next level. "Abstract Browsing" brings ABSTRACT to BROWSING with extreme prejudice. And, oddly enough, it is perplixingly satisfying. After applying it to the page - you start feeling a little bit better - as if you just avenged a bit of your mercilessly wasted time for something aesthetically disturbing.

The plugin was conceptualized by an artist Rafael Rozendaal and coded by a developer Reinier Feijen in 2014. "Abstract browsing" is a gimmicky conceptual web art piece disguised as a functional extension for a Chrome web browser. Its purpose is simple and honorable - to make web looks a little bit different. It turns a page into a mesh of colorful blocks in basic colors and extreme contrasts. Once in a while, the color scheme shifts so that the offensive on the eye would not mellow out. It is beautiful.

Part is its charm lies in absolute pointlessness. Theoretically, the purpose of browser plugin is to make some kind of activity a little bit easier - i.e. to take snapshots or notes or send links to reddit or add custom scripts and so on. But Abstract Browsing simply vandalizes the webpage and makes it impossible to get through mesmerizing homebrew 2001 trip sequence.

Outside context - that is just that. But if you don that in the middle of the workday - it is a serious statement.

The thing is - we live in a world oversaturated with all sorts of information coming from a multitude of channels. It is hard to comprehend how much information we consume - it is way beyond any reason. Most of it is just a filler - consumed while looking for something worthwhile. A little of this and a little bit of that plus any color you like and so on bouncing back and forth with a thousand mile infinitely zooming blank stare. It is all too much.

Yet nothing really worthy ever comes. Just mere something-something, bits and pieces here and there and yet none of it comes together. In fact, the reality of the situation is perfectly described by The Beatles in their seminal backwards psychedelic classic "It's All Too Much".

The thing goes: George Harrison starts telling some story - he sets up the characters and their motivation when the piercing clang angular chord splash tears it all down with a feedback whiplash bunch and then shellshocked stiff melody kicks in and circles around with a menacingly peaceful grimace.
 Abstract Browsing is that angular splash of a chord that resets the whole thing.