Found object (from the French objet trouvé), found art, or ready-made (term coined by Marcel Duchamp)
The primary principles of the Dada readymade philosophy were to 1.) choose an object, a creative act in itself; 2.) cancel that object’s familiar purpose by presenting it not in its usual functionary role but as a work of “art”; and 3.) add a title to it that potentially provoked a new thought or meaning.
Under the readymade light, an artist became a “chooser” rather than “maker.”
Artist as curator / curator as artist / artist as archivist – common trends in contemporary art.


The many artist surf clubs in the early 2000 that became hotbeds for a generation of digital artists. Are there still such places?
The semantic shift of the word curation to signify the more mundane filtering and classification of culture especially in a social and digital environment (ie content curation)
Everyone’s a Curator Now – When everything is “curated,” what does the word even mean? NYT
For this assignment let’s embrace this collapse of roles and contexts, and see how artists have reacted to the proliferation of vernacular content on the internet.
Working On My Novel by Cory Arcangel (2014)
Also see: Sorry I Haven’t Posted (2010)
EVERYTHINGIVEEVERWANTEDTOKNOW.COM by Martine Syms (2007)
I’m Google by Dina Kelberman (2011-)
Iraq War Wikihistoriography by James Bridle (2010)

How to get rid of the homeless by Matteo Bittanti (2015)
9 Eyes by Jon Rafman (2008-)
barelyLegal by CH2 (2015)
Postcards from Google Earth by Clement Valla (2011-2013)
The virtual watchers by Joana Moll and Cédric Parizot (2017)
https://thenewinquiry.com/the-virtual-watchers/ (article)
Shanzhai lyric by Ming Lin and Alexandra Tatarsky (2015-)
https://shanzhailyric.info/
Talk
Cloaque.org by Carlos Sáez and Claudia Mate (2012?-)
*it’s more of a collaborative collage / exquisite corpse than a curated collection or archive
Default filename tv by Everest Pipkin (2019)
Three approaches to meme curation and archiving:
Meme Manifesto – the Iceberg by Clusterduck (2021)
Great wall of memes by Valentina Tanni (2012)
Online culture wars by Disnovation (2018-19)
The library of missing data sets by Mimi Onuoha (2016)
Trevor Paglen – Code names
Classified military programs names from (2001-2007).
Occupied B&B by Sam Lavigne (2019)
Breaking the [glass] Screen (2021) by art MFA student Anisha Baid is “a video presentation articulating gendered frustrations with the computer interface using a collection of found clipart and stock images. The video is made using appropriated corporated aesthetic strategies usually used in presentations about workplace ethics, sexual harassment and work-life balance.” [more]
Sephora (2019) by CMU art student Connie Ye. “A popular metric for a successful waterproof product is whether or not it can withstand tears and emotional turmoil. I remembered seeing a review giving an eyeliner 5 stars for surviving through a teary breakup, and I wanted to see if there would be more. Thus, for this project, I scraped Sephora’s website for reviews, and filtered through them for reviews mentioning crying.
Internet found footage videos
Cory Arcangel – Arnold Schoenberg op 11 – I Cute Kittens (2009)
Natalie Bookchin – Mass Ornament (2009)
Chris Beckman – Oops (2011)
More about formats.
The art website
Olia Lialina, The Most Beautiful Web Page; Some Universe (2002)
Images as video
787 Cliparts by Oliver Laric (2008)
or gif
Digital-to-physical media
Penelope Umbrico Office / Still Lives (as Photocopies), 2007
Internet Cache Self Portrait – Evan Roth
Image collage
Travess Smalley, Fireworks, 2007
Satellite Collections by Jenny Odell
Dronestragram by James Bridle (2012-2015)