These aggregator platforms are growing every day and present us with a non-linear and a non-chronological presentation format fuelled by users. Everything exists on the same level and is only hierarchically structured by the amount of clicks and a specific “Item-to-Item Collaborative Filtering“ algorithm.

Curatingyoutube.net (CYT) follows the Beuysian line of “everyone is an artist”. Art has become ubiquitous and routine. CYT is therefore a logical, consistent approach in revealing themes, topics, approaches, reactions, re-enactments, and incredible juxtapositions of the over-abundance of materials or “artworks” displayed on YouTube.

With “Skrillex Variationen”, CYT presents the manifold forms of appropriation developed in the digital age. CYT re-organizes YouTube-videos within thematic video-grids. These grids become an interactive orchestration of images that provide a comparative and analytical view of the new web phenomena. The musician Skrillex and his song ‪“Scary Monsters And Nice Sprites”‬‬ (2010) are the starting point of this research into contemporary web based appropriation art.

Robert Sakrowski studied Art history and works as a freelance curator and artist in Berlin. He focused on exhibitions and lectures about Net art from 1999–2003, and worked freelance at the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute Media.Art.Research from 2007–2009, within the “Netpioneers“ research project. He works under the moniker curatingyoutube.net since 2007, exploring new web phenomena and developing a special online tool that enables further research, named gridr.org.