Organic Flash is a response to my perception of current design trends. In many popular sites that I come across I sense coldness; an attempt to master nature, to remove us from reality, a struggle to feel superior to our offline world and to one another. Though there is appeal in fantasizing that we are the super intellectual, super efficient space travelers of Hollywood science fiction, it is ultimately dissatisfying because the reality is that our natural environment is uncontrollable and sloppy and so are we. These design impulses result in a stylistic perfection that is dehumanizing and disembodying.

I admit it. Sometimes I fantasize that I'm made of silicon and as logical as a circuit, but eventually, one thing or another will quickly remind me that I'm not - The fact that I'm hungry, my wife wondering when I'm going to come to bed, the spit on my monitor and the pinpoint rainbow magnification that results from it.

Many flash sites seem to cater to my fantasy, but without a basis in reality these sites leave me with a sense of isolation and inferiority. Not exactly the types of feelings that make me come back to a web site for more. The Internet is a cold bodiless place. It's difficult at best to participate physically, but why emphasize the alienation of our minds from our bodies by creating an unattainable and unhealthy notion of ourselves? Maybe users want to be invited in, to feel a part of something. Maybe as digital designers and creators of virtual worlds, we serve them better if we help foster a meaningful, emotional participation. We are already shut out physically. Cold, perfect virtual worlds shut us out emotionally.

Though the desire to control and dominate our environment is an inherent part of our nature, I believe it is a more worthy cause to struggle against it and to instead recognize and pay homage to our inescapable relationship with the planet. We are of this earth and though our online world is virtual, I believe that the most fulfilling user experiences will be so because the designer/artist wisely incorporated elements from our natural environment into their presentation. They made an effort to communicate with our humanity rather squash it into cold vector perfection. In addition to speaking with the mind, they bonded with the soul. Yes, we are still left bodiless, but hopefully, when we get up from the computer and finally agree to go to bed, we take with us an enriched soul, rather than a depleted one.

Though it is only a beginning and it is incomplete, this is Organic Flash.

kurt dommermuth

a lot of these ideas are the result of thoughtful conversation with the good people of the OrganicFlash mailing list. We moved! you are welcome here organicflash.com.