Internet Phone Book. A directory for exploring the vast poetic web.

The Internet Phone Book is a step back to the 90s, before the invention of search engines and social media feeds. Back then, people discovered the potential of the Internet through curated lists and indexes, often printed and placed next to library computers… but it is also a step into the future by birthing a new infrastructure for building relations and publishing online outside social media. It is a reminder that the Internet is ultimately something we make and that we could as easily make it differently.

»The Internet Phone Book is the only phone book I've felt compelled to read cover to cover, engaged and delighted the entire way through. Those less inclined to read it linearly will find many other ways in: jumping between the thoughtful categories; following charming illustrations and strings metadata; or reading through a selection of essays that give context to this extensive crowdsourced directory of personal and poetic websites.

All to say, there's a wonderful sense of hypertextuality in the Internet Phone Book, accentuated by perhaps my favorite feature: the 'dial-a- site' system, which cleverly tethers the printed book back to the network it documents. But Kristoffer and Elliott are less interested in linking the online and offline worlds, between which they see little distinction, as they are in surfacing connections between people — those who admire and participate in a more intimate, experimental, and expressive web. We could ask for no better guides to, and stewards of, this corner of the internet.«

Meg Miller, Are.na Editorial