Bret Victor seems to be the sort of guy who makes things for the sheer joy of it. They may not always work brilliantly, but you have to respect the creativity and effort that went into them. When I saw his page I was surprised by how it was achieved without Flash. I think that was the point of him making it: to show that surprising things could be done.
This harks back to those showoff pages at the dawn of the Web, which showed surfers things that surprised and intrigued, and did it without adhering to common design conventions. The sort of page that you raised your eyebrows at and bookmarked right away, because that sure was some genius and artistry behind it there. It's nice to come across these things, especially today when mostly everyone uses major platforms, templates, plugins, and conventions.
This harks back to those showoff pages at the dawn of the Web, which showed surfers things that surprised and intrigued, and did it without adhering to common design conventions. The sort of page that you raised your eyebrows at and bookmarked right away, because that sure was some genius and artistry behind it there. It's nice to come across these things, especially today when mostly everyone uses major platforms, templates, plugins, and conventions.