Internet Happy Places

My Internet Happy Place: The Deep Sea, a Downward-Scrolling Journey Beneath the Waves

At the end of a year in which we could not explore much IRL, team OneZero is sharing our favorite places we found online.

Remember when websites were fun? When interactive visualizations felt fresh and experimental? Self-described “creative coder” Neal Agarwal’s The Deep Sea is a throwback to a simpler internet era, before every online experience was optimized and monetized to death. Published in December 2019, the site takes you on a downward-scrolling journey beneath the waves, past a procession of pictures of marine animals, each placed at roughly the maximum depth its species is known to dive or dwell. You’ll meet a paddling polar bear at 25 meters, a macabre wolf eel at 220 meters, and a shimmering firefly squid at 375 meters… and then keep going, with surprises along the way. Like the famous Scales of the Universe exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History, the Deep Sea sparks wonder by downscaling an unfathomably vast natural realm to a navigable yet still capacious scope. Once you’ve reached the bottom, you can try one of Agarwal’s other projects at his website, Neal.fun, which promises “new posts every blue moon.”