Universal Page, February 2000

From the first moment of the new millennium all public content on the World Wide Web has come together for the first time in history to form the single largest collaboration ever known to humankind. From the start of the new millennium onward, with a public opening on the occasion of the Walker Art Center exhibition Let's Entertain and Art Entertainment Network, Universal Page will display all content on the Web, merged together as one, and will be available for viewing twenty-four hours a day. All users on the Internet are invited to join together to witness the consummation of global collectivity.

Universal Page is the objective average of all content of the Web. A special script, developed by a team of American and Russian programmers, crawls and searches the Web, analyzing and processing current data and generating an average according to precise algorithms. In order to keep up with the pace of the always changing Web, all content on Universal Page is continuously updated in real time.

A manifestation and proclamation of the utopian dream of world unity and the realization of democratic global communication, Universal Page articulates the historic and momentous effects of constant flows of creation, communication, exchange, collectivity, connectivity and interactivity where no one with a computer and a modem is excluded, no one with a web server is unheard, and no one with a software client is ignored. This ultimate commemorative living magnum opus utilizes the work, play and input of ever single participant, human and robotic, of the World Wide Web, and mandates a universal commitment to a unified peaceful new millennium, where subjects of the world will live together in shared harmony.

Universal Page is a pulsating, living monument commemorating no single individual or icon but instead, celebrating the global collective known as the World Wide Web. Universal Page offers the world a once in a lifetime opportunity to honor and observe our networked past, present and future as it boldly initiates our entry into the new millennium.

Universal Page has been funded by the Jerome Foundation and the Walker Art Center. The project was first envisioned and is now being orchestrated by Natalie Bookchin and Alexei Shulgin.