Shredder 1.0 is a famous digital art piece that provides a place for users to enter URLs of websites which it will then display through a different interpretation of the HTML code. It appears that Mark Napier wanted to show the instability of what appears to be a very stable “web” that is commonly viewed. He compares the Internet browser to an organ through which we “see” the web. Shredder 1.0 does a good job of getting across the point that information such as HTML code requires a framework of interpretation. The metaphoric viewing organ of Shredder 1.0 not only displays reinterpretations of HTML code, providing users with an array of previously unseen visual displays and causing them to reconsider the structure and framework of Internet viewing, but it also points to broader issues of epistemology.
Shredder 1.0 users are confronted with the instability of the web and their dependence on tools of interpretation when interfacing with HTML code. This logically leads to a realization that one needs proper epistemological presuppositions to rightly understand reality. In causing us to ponder on the necessity of information to be interpreted Mark Napier has done us a great service.
Shredder 1.0 is a piece that uses works done by others to create other works. It is a collage for net art. It builds on previous works, with the help of the user entering the URLS of those previous works, to produce further displays. It is a machine for instant collaboration with previous site builders.