And I Love: You Are Here; homepage
Instagram [@andiBenet | Photography]: Default social media site
Instagram [@altBenet | Painting & Illustration]
YouTube: Vlogs + Performance/Video art
The Danish History: Translation of Saxo Grammaticus’s Gesta Danorum (Books 3–4)
Hamlet in Iceland: Icelandic Ambales myth from Sir Israel Gollancz (1898)
Hamlet, First Quarto: The “bad Hamlet,” a bootleg copy with interesting differences (1603)
Histoires Tragiques: The History of Hamlet: Translation of François de Belleforest’s 1570 version (here be pirates)
Hamlet Illustrations: High-Res scans from John Austen’s 1922 illustrated Hamlet
The Spanish Tragedy: Thomas Kyd’s Elizabethan play which established the “revenge play” genre
Ancient Graffiti Project: Digital resource for ancient graffiti from the early Roman empire
Archipel: Creates documentaries on Japanese artists, creators, and popular culture; Cutscenes is a coloboration project with games newsite, Game*Spark
The Art Assignment: Art and art history made accessible
Artsteps: Free online tool to create virtual galleries
British Library’s Image Collection: Collection of public domain images from the British Library’s digital collections
Claire Hummel’s Historical Fashion References & Resources: Fashion history and culture webring
The Dúchas Project: Digitalized collection of Ireland’s National Folklore Collection. Mix of folklore, home remedies, photographs, craftmaking, etc.
Eyecandy: Collection of gif-ified cinematography techniques [warning: flashing]
Google Arts & Culture: Platform with high-res image and video of art and cultural artifacts
Idea Channel: Web series looking at pop culture, technology, and art through philosophical lens [ended 2017]
Internet Archive: Digital library & archive of Internet sites and digitized cultural items (books, films, etc.)
Internet Speculative Fiction Database: Database to catalog speculative fiction (science fiction, fantasy, horror, etc.) works
Kanopy: Streaming platform for public libraries and universities featuring films (emphasis on documentaries, independent, & foreign)
Lolita History Gallery: Scans from historical Lolita fashion magazines (Lolita is a Japanese fashion movement inspired by Victorian & Rocco periods)
The Met Collection: Database for The Met’s collection, including search options for public domain
MoMA Online Courses: Free online art courses by the Museum of Modern Art (NYC)
OoCities: Archive of GeoCities sites, giving a snapshot of ‘90s-era Internet culture
Sherwood Forest Zine Library: Library collecting zines
Smithsonian Open Access: CC0 (public domain) collection of imagery
Thomas J. Watson Digital Collections: Digitized library and research materials for The Met
Top Documentary Films: Aggregate site of documentary films available free online
VOMA: An online art museum
Vintage Everyday: Daily update of vintage photographs, including ones in the public domain.
AdorkaStock: Creative Commons licensed artists reference photos
Animation Resources: Scans of vintage books focused around animation and illustration
The Art is Creation: Lots of useful things, especially for painters (pigment database, free art books, paint-making recipes)
Character Design References: What is says on the tin
Combinaisons Ornementales: Alphonse Mucha’s art nouveau patterns book
Culture Hustle: Home to pop artist, Stuart Semple’s, ‘artyist art materials’ (paints, pigments, special effects)
FZDSchool: YouTube school focused on environmental and concept illustration (largely digital)
GES Draw Party: Japan-based YouTube videos of clothed and costumed 20-ish minute gesture drawing sessions
IAMAG: Collects a large amount of conceptual art, tutorials, and other illustration work
Line of Action: Provides timed/class-style figure drawing photographs
Open Drawing Books: Collection of public domain drawing books
Oto Kano’s Watercolor Database: Pigment, color, & paint information across multiple brands
Pigment Database: Kimberly Crick’s very detailed database of pigments for water-based paints
PureRef: Simple desktop app to organize reference images
Timed Figure Drawing (Non-Nude) & Timed Figure Drawing (Nude): Playlists of 30-ish minute gesture drawing sessions with a single model in multiple poses (stills) by New Masters Academy.
Traité des couleurs servant à la peinture à l’eau: [Color qualities of watercolor paint] a 1692 Dutch book of watercolor creations and swatches by A. Boogert
Geek Feminism Wiki: Grown out of the (now closed) Geek Feminism Blog, intro to intersectional feminism with a geeky bent
Gender Spectrum Collection: Stock image collection of trans & nonbinary models (CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0)
Feminist Frequency: Pop culture through an intersectional feminist lens
People of Color in European Art History: Focused mostly on the Middle Ages
The Green Pages: Photographer’s Greenbook’s collection of works centered on inclusion, diversity, equity, & activism within the photography community
Art Passions: Fairytale art collection
A Dictionary of Fairies: Hobgoblins, Brownies, Bogies, and Other Supernatural Creatures: Katherine Mary Briggs thorough dictionary of UK fairies (1976)
The Dúchas Project (Folktale index): Digitalized collection of Irish folktales and fairytales Ireland’s National Folklore Collection.
The Golden Asse: Translation of Apuleius’s Metamorphoses (Chapter 22 being Cupid and Psyche myth)
Internet Sacred Text Archive: Diverse collection of culturally significant religious, mythological, philosophical, etc. texts
Lārhūs Fyrnsida: Articles related to Germanic, pre-Christian theology in England
The Longship: Accessible introduction and information on contemporary Heathenry and practices
Popular Tales from the Norse: Collection of Norse myths by George Dasant (1859)
GB Studio: Drag-and-drop game development with a Game Boy æsthetic
GDevelop: Drag-and-drop 2D game engine
Godot Engine: Free and opensource game engine for 2D & 3D games for desktop, web, & mobile.
OpenFL: Open-source framework to build cross-platform applications & games
Ren’Py: Visual novel engine
Twine: Open-source tool for creating interactive/non-linear stories
Attention K-Mart Shoppers: Mark Davis’s collection of K-Mart background music from the 1980s and 1990s
Freesound: Free (under Creative Commons licenses) music & sound effects
Free to Use: Free music for user-generated content (with attribution); i.e. background music for vlogs
Hydrogen: Open-source drum machine
Soundplant: Low-latency software to cue sounds from keyboard presses
StreamBeats: Royalty-free music for streaming by Harris Heller
SuperCollider: Audio synthesis and algorithmic composition platform
Synthesizer V: Singing voice synthesizer; will need to download a voice bank (ex. Eleanor for English); more info at its fandom wiki
YouTube Audio Library: Google/YouTube’s audio library featuring free music (mix of attribution requirements) and sound effects
Alternative Photography: Tutorials on alternative processes to create photographs
Analog Forever Magazine: Biannual magazine & monthly online exhibition space for contemporary analog photography
The Dark Room: Film Index: The Dark Room’s catalog of film stocks, including reviews and images taken on them
I Still Shoot Film: Beginner-friendly Tumblr on film photography (not updated in a few years)
Lenscratch: Daily posts about contemporary photographers
Light Leaked: Online bi-monthly online photography magazine [2012–2019]
Lomography: Film, cameras, and low-fidelity/experimental photography
Orphan Cameras: Huge repository of film camera manuals
The Complete Works of Shakespeare: Plays and poetry
Folklore of Shakespeare: T.F. Thiselton Dyer’s studies of Shakespeare’s work (1883)
The Legend of Romeo and Juliet: 1950 deep-dive book into the historical origins of the Romeo and Juliet mythos by Olin H. Moore
A Shakespeare Garden: Documenting plants in Shakespeare’s works
Shakespeare’s School Days: Article on Shakespeare’s education
Art Open Calls: Instagram for free and low-cost open calls for artists and writers
Call for Entry: Host calls for art for various organizations, all paid
Chill Subs: Independent/literary magazine submission database
College Art Association’s Opportunities: Focused on student-level (including graduate students) art submissions
EntryThingy: Hosts calls for arts
Lenscratch: Call for Submissions: List of photography-centered calls for entry
Adafruit Industries: NYC-based woman-founded electronics producer and store
A-Frame: Web-based framework for building 3D/AR/VR experiences
Arduino: Open-source electronic hardware prototyping platform
Blender: Open-source 3D modeling, rendering, and animation system
Developing Apps for iOS (Stanford): Held every Spring, CS193p course (lectures + materials) is made publicly available
Electric Zine Maker: Web 1.0-styled application to make foldable zines [flashing]
Gravity Sketch: 3D modeling in virtual reality
Processing: Visual arts-centered programming language
OpenCV: Computer vision library
Raspberry Pi: Single board, low-cost computer
Spectrolite: Little program to make risographs and zines
Wiring: Open-source electronic hardware prototyping language/platform
City Map Generator: Procedurally generated American-style city maps
FlowScape: Indie meditation game and scene generation tool
Language & Linguistics Library: Library on languages and linguistics (including constructed languages) by Mack
Medieval Fantasy City Generator: Map generator based on medieval cities
Behind the Name: Name etymologies and histories
Chill Subs: Submission database; emphasis is on written work (including prose, poetry, & nonfiction) with filtering based on submission costs, payments, author demographics, etc. and they do list magazines that accept art
Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction: What it says on the tin
Online Etymology Dictionary: Word etymologies
RhymeZone: Rhyming dictionary
Scrivener: Writing software
Superpower Wiki: Documenting and identifying superpowers
TV Tropes: Tropes, clichés, and genre conventions
Writing with Color: Incorporating diverse characters instead of stereotypes
Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy (BYU, 2020): Creative writing class by Brandon Sanderson
Written Sound: Onomatopoeia Dictionary
* Growing up on the Internet in the 1990s and 2000s was vastly different than today. Because search engines were not particularly sophisticated and many websites were one-person labors of love, it was very difficult to learn more about any given subject.
To make sharing content easier, related websites would form webrings: an ad hoc network of sites. For user convenience, each site would include a link to the next site in the ring, allowing a person to page through [semi]vetted websites. Alternatively, you could look at a list of all the websites featured as a single page.
I miss webrings. It was so much easier to find good content when a person was the one recommending it.