ImWeb

ImWeb is a browser-based real-time video synthesis instrument. No installation. No subscription. Open source, free for every artist on this planet, forever. 

→ Try it live at imweb.image-ine.org  

What it does 

ImWeb routes live video through a compositable signal chain — camera, movie clips, 3D scenes, GPU particle systems, SDF raymarched metaballs, slit scan buffers, noise, stills, and sequencers — all controllable in real time through an integrated controller system: MIDI, LFO, mouse, audio FFT, beat detection, random, and expression formulas. Every parameter is mappable. Every mapping is live. 

The effects chain covers displacement, warp, keying, blending, color shift, 3D LUT grading, kaleidoscope, bloom, interlace, pixel sort, film grain, and more. Output goes to fullscreen, a second monitor, or a WebM recording. The interface is also the performance — there is no edit/perform split. 

Built with Three.js, Vite, and raw WebGL shaders. No framework dependencies. Nothing between the artist and the signal.  

Where it is headed 

ImWeb is in rapid development. What exists today is a capable instrument — but it is not the destination. The roadmap points toward a far more comprehensive environment: richer projection mapping, mobile support, multi-camera workflows, a community preset library, and an architecture that grows with the artists using it. The foundation is solid. The ceiling is high. Development is accelerating.  

The lineage 

ImWeb continues the work of Image/ine — the real-time video synthesis instrument created by Tom Demeyer at STEIM Amsterdam in the 1990s, developed in close collaboration with Steina Vasulka, one of the founding figures of video art. Image/ine ran on Mac OS 9 and was partially ported to OS X (2008). The port was never completed. No equivalent free tool has existed since. 

ImWeb reclaims features that never made it from ImOs9 into ImX — and adds a 3D scene pipeline that neither version ever had. It is not a restoration. It is a continuation.  

Who built it 

ImWeb was created by Haraldur Karlsson — Icelandic multimedia artist, researcher, and STEIM resident (2002, 2005, 2009). He used both ImOs9 and ImX extensively in his own performance and installation practice. Tom Demeyer came to Iceland University of the Arts to teach his own experimental software work; Steina Vasulka joined the Image/ine workshops there to help and inspire. In March 2026, Tom offered hosting at imweb.image-ine.org. This is not a detached restoration effort — it comes from inside the lineage.  

How funds are used 

Donations cover hosting, tooling, and infrastructure. As the community grows, a transparent microgrant program — modeled on Hydra's community fund — will award small grants to artists creating original work, tutorials, or extensions with ImWeb. 

Every contributor is listed here permanently. Supporting ImWeb means keeping a professional-grade video synthesis instrument free for every artist on this planet — student, veteran, or someone who has never heard of Image/ine but will build something extraordinary with it. You become part of that lineage.