Instagram proves there’s still room for old-school ugliness on the internet

By Joe Blevins  |  July 25, 2016 | 5:45pm
Aux Features Comedy

There was a time when ugliness was rampant on the internet. Websites frequently featured a mishmash of fonts, eye-assaulting colors, haphazard layouts, and tacky clip art galore. Then the money men moved in, bought everything up, and gentrified the hell out of it. When they were finished, the internet was a much blander place. Now, people are still free to express extremely ugly sentiments via the web, but the platforms they use, like Twitter and YouTube, look neat and orderly, with everything doled on in nice, even little squares and rectangles. Boring. Where has all the raw, uncut ugliness gone? Mashable Australia writer Ariel Bogle thinks she’s found it on Instagram.

Yes, Instagram and its damnable filters have played a major role in the widespread sanitizing and gussying-up of the internet. But the platform is home to some great accounts that revel in pure, unadulterated hideousness. Take Shit Gardens, for example. Describing itself as “a celebration not a condemnation,” this account catalogs some of the atrocities people have placed in their front yards, like these fatigued flamingos.

Ah, that’s better. The internet is already starting to feel less gentrified already. Then there’s The Australian Ugliness, which preserves the worst of that country’s architecture through decidedly unfiltered photography. There are plenty of concrete monstrosities on display here.

Is that still not horrible enough? Very well. Let’s move on to Inner Northern Delights, curated by Liz Jones. “Melbourne’s inner north is a melting pot of retro kitsch [and] urban goodness,” Jones writes. It’s certainly a haven for a lot of crumbling fountains and shabby looking lawn ornaments. This distressed koala is a real beaut.

If even that was far too pretty and altogether too cheerful, the next logical step is Mattresses Of Melbourne, whose very title gives its subject matter away. This account contains shot after shot of discarded, filthy mattresses, many tagged with spray paint. There is no filter in the world strong enough for these pics. This is the corner of the internet where beauty goes to huff glitter paint and die.

 
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