Here are the first screens from TheCooker as they appeared way back when... annotated.

TheCooker 1994 programmed using Mosaic 0.1 beta / SimpleText
Emerging from the pioneer space of dark screens and flickering green text came the first graphical interface to link the expanding interconnecting network (Inter-net) of computers. This early Mosaic "browser" gave limited control over text and its positioning on the screen. Images could not be used. However it was a universal browser that could present the viewer with the same experience worldwide !
(this is not entirely true as this Curatour points out).

TheCooker 1995 programmed using Netscape 0.9 beta / SimpleText
By late 1994 images could be incorporated into web site screens. At this time I realised what I had stumbled on. A truely new medium of mass communication that could be used for artistic ends. No-one I knew in Britain had heard of it. I have always utilised "highstreet" technologies to make art. The internet is not a "high-tech" standalone piece of hardware in a gallery, it exisits in peoples homes and is a public space in its own right. This makes it unique.

TheCooker 1995 - later programmed using Netscape 1.0N / SimpleText
The internet lets you be nostalgic about an instant that occured only a few years ago. I still remember the first time I saw a background image on a web site and a background colour other than medium grey. The hundreds of advancements that have occured since then haven't struck me so deeply, except perhaps the ability to specify specific type faces.

TheCooker 1996 programmed using Netscape 2.0 / BBEdit
The very strange "frames" facility came into being and the much more useful "tables" which allows the designer to control where images and text appear on the screen.

TheCooker 1997 programmed using Netscape 3.0 / Internet Explorer 3.0 / BBEdit
The current screen (1997) features the first Internet Explorer "only" feature which is a background looped sound. This will not be heard when using Netscape 3.0.