CuratingYouTube is a set of curated exhibitions and tool for curation that allows selecting and presenting chosen videos in a grid, where they can be played together, one after another, or separately. Orchestrating individual videos in a collective fashion technically lends itself not only to presenting outstanding single videos in relation to each other, but to the exploration of the generic element in aesthetic work. (From Goriunova, O 2016, “Participatory Platforms and the Emergence of Art”. in C Paul (ed.), A Companion to Digital Art. Blackwell, 305.)
The CuratingYouTube (CYT) project explores how the mainstream video production and distribution enabled by YouTube has impacted professional and amateur artistic creation. To do so, Robert Sakrowski devised a software-based tool for curation, Gridr, which enables users to aggregate YouTube content in visual grids, giving life to what he named the “[CYT] HTML soundbank” (Sakrowski, A.2.1). The CYT soundbank functions as a matrix for assemblages of audio-visual material taken from YouTube:7 it can be experienced as an artwork and an exhibition, especially when it combines more than one video assemblage. (From R. Sakrowski, “Interview about CYT and An Acoustic Journey Through YouTube,” Interviewed by Marialaura Ghidini, transcript of Skype conversation, March 24, 2013, 9am GMT, London.)