Research based practices such as the act of collecting, curating and archivalism have a long history in the artist’s studio. From sober presentation of cultural byproducts , to the construction of imagined histories, or creative anthropology, these modes not beholden to an objective presentation of historical fact, evidence, or document offer a fertile creative platform to the artist. The works presented here represent these creative practices as they exist online – artists who are collecting and curating the cultural byproducts of digital living. These practices could be summarized as falling into two distinct categories: A) collecting artifacts and activities that are specific to the digital environment, and B) utilizing the web as a medium for collecting that which derives from

the physical world. Some of the projects take a distinctly archaeological approach to the digital, collecting and presenting the value in overlooked and forgotten bits of digitalia. Others gather and expand upon aesthetic and cultural memes occurring in web based communities. In most cases the materials gathered by the artist are the cultural chaff of the web – items that otherwise may pass unnoticed for their particular artifactual value. This collection was inspired by the research of Domenico Quaranta for the exhibition "Collect the WWWorld" (2011, Spazio Contemporanea).