for my master's thesis, we were required to choose a topic for arts-based inquiry. this is a form of research in which the artistic process plays a primary role in uncovering knowledge.

we were welcome to choose any topic for study, whether or not it was related to art or art education (I am studying to be a certified PK-12 art teacher). I entertained a few different ideas, but I kept being drawn back to memories of the internet of my adolescence ...

as a teen, I had stumbled onto a section of the web seemingly solely populated by teenage girls, filled with meticulously hand coded HTML websites, decorated with cutesy pixel art and emo song lyrics. I spent hours browsing other girls' sites and building my own.

the nature of the internet is such that some things seem to stick around forever, but most things fade away. people stop paying for web hosting, links break. few traces of the internet of the early 2000s remain; only a few pages of my many websites are archived.

in the past couple of years, I've ruminated on that time over and over, unsure why it still has such a draw on me. something about it seemed important, but I didn't know what. so I decided to find out.

my research question asked:

what motivates the desire to create and consume images and other media, as seen through the lens of the teen girl Internet of the 2000s?

ABOUT
dangerous-angels is the research journal for mary reed's MAT thesis project.
read more about the inquiry here.

read my thesis support paper here.

DOCUMENTATION
♡ t h e s i s ♡ p r o p o s a l ♡ d o t p d f
♡ p r e l i m i n a r y ♡ c o l l a g e s
♡ d o c u m e n t ♡ c o l l e c t i o n

DOMAIN INFO
dangerous-angels.net was registered at iwantmyname in january 2023. it's hand coded in visual studio code and hosted on github pages. the name pays homage to francesca lia block's weetzie bat books, and the terrifying spectre that is an anonymous teenage girl on the internet.

LINK OUT
other people's projects that speak to the historic time period of the teen girl internet of the early 2000s
♡ d o l l z t a r o t d e c k
♡ l a l a l a n d
♡ l o s t m e m o r i e s d o t n e t
♡ m e l o n l a n d f o r u m
♡ p i x e l f r i e n d s f o r t r a d e

xoxo
♡ g u e s t b o o k
♡ m a r y k e l l y r e e d [at] g m a i l