Not so much an infrastructure as a mode of approaching operating, artistically and curatorially, in the online environment. The history of curatorial work online shows various modes of exploring the relationship between the online and offline spheres. They are distinct yet connected entities, the more web technology becomes embedded in the everyday. This mode of operation has generated displays that encompass online and offline formats of production and sites, giving life to exhibitions that function as system-like structures of display and distribution.

#1 Independent curatorial projects of the early 2000s started to display an increasingly fluid understanding of the relationship between online and offline sites and modes of production, giving life to strategies to bridge digital and physical environments.

#2 Such bridging has been defined by various curators as: “the disconnect between online space and gallery space” (Paul Flannery of Bubblebyte); “the transitioning of practices” (Rebekah Modrak of ebayaday); the “conversation between digital and physical” (Kelani Nichole of Transfer gallery); or different “sensorial experiences” for engaging with an artwork (Candice Jacobs of Accidentally on Purpose)  and “embodiments of art” (Reinhard Storz of Beam Me Up.

#3 The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed industries across spectrum to move from operating in the physical environment to inhabit the the sphere of the “phygital.” Phygital is a sales method that integrates a physical point of sale and digital tools to enhance a consumer’s physical shopping experience in a blended fashion.