Seminal to the rise of human cultures, the practice of collecting is an expression of individual and societal self-understanding. Through collections, cultures learn and grow. The introduction of digital technology has accelerated this process and at the same time changed how, what, and why we collect. Ever-expanding storage capacities and the accumulation of unprecedented amounts of data are part of a highly complex information economy in which collecting has become even more important for the formation of the past, present, and future. Museums, libraries, and archives have adapted to the requirements of a digital environment, as has anyone who browses the internet and stores information on hard drives or cloud servers. In turn, companies follow the digital footprint we leave behind. Today, collecting includes not only physical objects but also the binary code that allows for their virtual representation on screen. Collecting in the Twenty-First Century identifies the impact of technology, both new and old, on the cultural practice of collecting as well as the challenges and opportunities of collecting in the digital era. Scholars from German Studies, Media Studies, Museum Studies, Sound Studies, Information Technology, and Art History as well as librarians and preservationists offer insights into the most recent developments in collecting practices.

Edited by Johannes Endres and Christoph Zeller

Introduction: Collecting in the Digital Age - Christoph Zeller
1: Collecting: Defining the Subject - Johannes Endres
PART I. Spaces of Collecting
2: Collector as Curator: Collecting in the Post-Internet Age - Boris Groys
3: Should Libraries Still Be Charged with Collecting in a Digital Environment? - Michael Knoche
4: Museums and Collecting as/and Media in the Digital Age - Peter M. McIsaac
PART II. Recollection
5: Quality Storage: Collecting as a Technique of Reading - Nikolaus Wegmann
6: Phenomenology of Memory in an Age of Big Data - Clifford B. Anderson
7: Collecting the Cultural Memory of Palmyra - Erin L. Thompson
8: Conservation in the Digital Age - Jessica Walthew
PART III. Virtuality
9: Music and the Limits of Collectibility - Rolf J. Goebel
10: Cat Art and Climate Change: Collecting in the Data Anthropocene - Edward Dawson
PART IV. Economics
11: Doomed to Collect: Dataveillance as Inner Logic of the Internet - Roberto Simanowski
12: Data Collection in the Age of Surveillance Capitalism - Douglas C. Schmidt
Notes on the Contributors
Index