The “internet onion” is a webzine anthology that explores the possibility of love online, first launched the summer of 2020 during a global pandemic.
It started as a simple writing prompt with my interactive design class at Yale in 2019 — we started by wondering what thoughtful or generous interfaces might feel or behave like, and if there is any way to best send and receive love online, “reaching across the chasm of seamless signal” in any meaningful way.
Like love, onions absorb and magnify the time and energy you put in. Both have incredible healing properties, which we need now more than ever amid a global pandemic. Expressing love online is no longer a mere desire but a visceral need.
This project was begun as a seed in 2018, when I read artist Fei Liu’s writing, “A drop of love in the cloud.” In 2019, her words inspired a prompt for my class at Yale, and my students’ writings evolved into a web publication that we together compiled, edited, designed, illustrated, and developed. In 2020, the project felt more and more important, so I published and announced it with the help of Are.na.
This project is the result of a true teamwork, and I’m indebted to all contributors, each of whom had a unique role in bringing the onion to life (and death). Thanks to:
Onion 1 (2020) — Herdimas Anggara, Taichi Aritomo, Milo Bonacci, Jessica Flemming, Vicky Gebert, Tommy Huang, Harin Jung, Minhwan Kim, Monica Kim, Willis Kingery, David Knowles, Sunnie Liu, Julia Ma, Adam Moftah, Meg Miller, Mengyi Qian, Anna Sagström, Vlad Vykhodets, and Betty Wang.
Onion 2 (2021) — Mengyi Qian, Megan Pai, Julia Dann, Anna Bialas, Mark Beasley, Meg Miller, Evelyn Bi, Jaakko Pallasvuo, Shiraz Abdullahi Gallab, Aidan Quinlan, June Yu, Leslie Liu, Brixton Sandhals, Julia Dann, Cammie Lee, Victor Guan, mariah barden jones, Nikita Singareddy, Winnie Lim, and Cori Olinghouse.
(Onion 1 presents writing from my Yale 2019 Spring class, and Onion 2 presents writing from VCU 2020 Fall graduate workshop and other submissions.)
