Evil Pupil.

September 9, 2002 3:58 AM

Evil Pupil. A game? A work of art? Something entirely different? Welcome to the weirdly beautiful world of Quebecois Interweb designer Yohan Gingras. You can click and drag various elements on nearly all of his pages (I recommend "Evil Pupil / V.2" as a starting point) to discover, well, new things to click and drag. Just don't ask him what you are supposed to do or he will call you a dumbass.
posted by Joey Michaels (14 comments total)

For the record, Su references (but doesn't link) Evil Pupil in this MeFi discussion. However, I could find no other reference to Evil Pupil at MeFi, Memepool or any of the other usual suspects. I believe Gingras' work is unique enough to merit a link and some discussion.
posted by Joey Michaels at 4:07 AM on September 9, 2002

Well, if I ever feel the need to develop a teaser site for some top-secret project, I'll know who to contact to frustrate and confuse anyone interested in it.

I'd really rather gouge my eyeballs out with a rusty fork than hire him to actually design a real website, though. Or even better, gouge *his* eyeballs out ;)
posted by Freaky at 4:17 AM on September 9, 2002

What a load of.....well, all I can say is, people used to rave about EvilPupil on Dreamless.org back in the day. Yawn.
posted by SpaceCadet at 4:40 AM on September 9, 2002

Whew. I looked at the site, was singularly unimpressed*, then became worried that I might be a "dumbass." Glad to see I'm not alone!

*I mean, it's neato and all, but "a navigational interface that [is] unconventional in the extreme?" How so, exactly? It seemed to be organized fairly conventionally, to me.
posted by hilatron at 4:55 AM on September 9, 2002

I apologize for not making this more clear. The Evil Pupil site itself is an archive site. The (in my opinion) more interesting stuff can be found in Evil Pupil / V.4 etc.

The V.2, V.3 and V.4 sites are the ones that the article is referring to as having an unconventional navigational interface.

I am excited to read that there are people who don't like his designs but am even more curious to see the design sites that you think are more interesting. Anyone have a link?
posted by Joey Michaels at 5:19 AM on September 9, 2002

I recommend people skip most of the site and go straight to ep v4 as it's the most fun, and puzzle like. Similar in concept to the Donnie Darko site by HiRes!, EP is s much darker, and was made about a year earlier. The reason people raved about it on dreamless "back in the day" (ohhh a whole year and a half ago! oldschool!) was that noone had ever really done anything like that, and it was fun, with good art, and a great atmosphere.

and Freaky, web design isnt just about delivering information. It can be artful, entertaining, and enigmatic. If you couldn't be bothered to explore, well, you missed an enjoyable experience unlocking the puzzles in there. The first time I saw evil pupil I spent a good hour or so getting through it.

The only thing I particularly dislike about evil pupil is his attitude in his writing.
posted by atom128 at 5:20 AM on September 9, 2002

Unconventional, yes. Usable, no. Mystery meat navigation is only as effective as the user's interest in the site. Unfortunately, my first few clicks into the site failed to change my initial lack of interest. I'm not saying this site is without merit though; this guy could make a living creating interesting Easter Eggs. Now if my DVD copy of Elvis Gratton has some hidden Québecois porn in it, maybe I'd be interested :).
posted by freakystyley at 6:51 AM on September 9, 2002

But the sounds, the sounds, man! Can't you hear the sounds!?!

This guy may not have the most original graphics (oooh, nice asterisk) but the sonic landscape stuff is worth something right?
posted by zpousman at 8:41 AM on September 9, 2002

From the point of view of a webdesigner, I find the majority of your comments kind of odd.

Granted, these sites are usability nightmares if you're aim is to sell goods to your average internet user. But come on, these are personal sites. And if you're a designer personal sites are all about style and originality. What else is there?

Only a very small percentage of the webdesigners out there are actually doing interesting things and pushing the medium forward. Johan's sites have always been a part of that very very small percentage. That's why people have always made a big deal over him. Along with the simple matter that his work has always been top notch quality.
posted by llama3 at 11:27 AM on September 9, 2002

freakystyley, the that link's take on mystery meat navigation matches my own view regarding the hiding of not immediately needed features. The experience is akin to driving a car and having the steering wheel disappear whenever you're on a straight stretch of road, because you only really need it for turns anyway. Not a reassuring sensation.
posted by HTuttle at 12:51 PM on September 9, 2002

If websites were always meant to be useable, humans wouldn't be allowed to make them.
posted by raaka at 2:25 PM on September 9, 2002

HTuttle, in my opinion, this is comparing driving a car on a highway with driving a bumper car in an amusement park.

While these two cars might have some things in common, they don't serve the same function at all.
posted by Joey Michaels at 2:29 PM on September 9, 2002

Tool's "(-) ions" is sampled in the "light" experiment in v.4 without credit. Don't most of the "design gurus" frown upon that kind of stuff?
posted by deftone at 4:00 PM on September 9, 2002

The whole site fails (for me) in one respect: there's the "I-don't-get-it" factor that makes many people give up quickly on it. I don't mean that the various puzzles should all be easy and the easter-eggs easier to find, but initially there should be something to draw the user in to the pandora's box. From the get-go, it seems too esoteric and only rewards the most patient of people (it's the internet for christ's sakes). There should be a *little* bit of hand-holding at the beginning, then you can be as weird as you like as you've got the user's attention.
posted by SpaceCadet at 6:37 PM on September 9, 2002